The Antonio Bernal Papers include select personal correspondence, personal writings, photographs, and audiovisual materials documenting Bernal’s travels, artwork, and family history e.g. the Kaweah Colony of which his great-grandfather help found. Materials date from the mid-1880s to 2019, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1970-2000.

Series I. Artwork, details Bernal’s artwork including finished and working pieces, ranging from gouache paintings, fashion drawings, mixed media and digital works, and murals. He often draws scenes of quotidian life, intimate portraits of both strangers and close relatives and friends, and political art, commenting on war, colonialism, capitalism, and religion.

Series II. Audiovisual, details his travels, interviews with people he has met along his journeys, and some works remain unknown (formats are obsolete and/or we do not have the appropriate playback equipment to asertain subject matter, people, places, or dates).

Series III. Correspondence includes emails and letters written to friends and family.

Series IV. Oral History Project includes sound recordings and film detailing the oral history conducted by Charlene Villaseñor-Black, Gabriela Rodriguez-Gomez, and Xaviera Flores. Also included are photographs taken from several visits with Bernal and from the acquisition of the collection, as well as research and documentation of his existing works and archival materials at other institutions.

Series V. Personal Family Papers includes photographs, genealogy information, articles, and research materials Bernal collected on his own family history which dates back to the formation of the Kaweah Colony in 1886.

Series VI. Photographs and Slides detail Bernal’s travels, artwork, and some political events he attended. Materials remain mostly undated at this time.

Last, Series VII. Writings contains materials written by and about Bernal and includes materials and articles he collected from other authors and on subject matters he researched and/or in which he was interested. Most prominent are four works from Bernal: Breaking the Silence, Dialectics Bilingual, The Life of Joaquin Murrieta, and World History. The materials are a mix of drafts, revisions, corrected versions, and notes. Materials are in both English and Spanish.