Research Trip to California, Part II

Bracero History Exhibit at the Smithsonian (2009). Courtesy of the author’s photo collection.

Another week of archival research! This week I had the opportunity to meet up my mentor Dr. Rodolfo Acuna at CSUN. I enjoyed the feedback about my research and his stories of struggles. Next stop was the CSUN’s Urban Archives Center to look at the Max Mont’s Emergency Committee to Aid Farm Workers Collection. Also, I helped my brother locate Chicano Studies material in the Rodolfo Acuna Collection. Also, I met up with Dr. Jose Alamillo at CSUCI to discuss his research on braceros in Ventura County. Jose is currently coordinating the bracero history project in the county which is part of the Smithsonian’s Bracero History Project. He shared with me his research and interviews of braceros in Ventura County.

Bracero History Exhibit at the Smithsonian (2009). Courtesy of the author’s photo collection.

Bracero History Exhibit at the Smithsonian (2009). Courtesy of the author’s photo collection.

I have another week in Chiques left, which I’m focusing on writing! Or maybe I will stop by the public library to look at newspaper microfilm.

c/s

Research Trip to California, Part I

I’m in California for the month conducting research for my dissertation, Labor, Migration, and Activism: A History of Mexican Workers on the Oxnard Plain, 1930-1980. And plus I’m visiting my family and friends! This week, I’m in the SF bay area visiting archives and presenting at a conference. I had the opportunity to see the Fred Ross Papers and Ernesto Galarza Papers at Stanford University and NAACP Papers at the Bancroft Library at UCB. Plus, I made a stop at the SF Public Library to see the American Labor Citizen newspaper, which had photos of the Ventura County Citrus Strike of 1941!

Berkeley's Ivory Tower

And finally, I presented my new paper, The Growers Strike Back: The Bracero Program in Ventura County, 1942-1964 at Southwest Labor Studies Association at UCSC.

c/s