Reading, Research, and Friends

In about four weeks, I will return to Michigan and the Irony Tower. Before returning, I still have to finish my field research notes and my paper on braceros in Ventura County for Dr. Dennis Valdes. I have been reading a lot about Chavez, CSO, UFW and the Bracero Program. Also, my brother Jose gave me a lead to an article on Antonio Del Buono. He was a founding member and the first president of the CSO Ventura County. Jack D. Forbes, the author of Aztecas Del Norte: The Chicanos of Aztlan, wrote this article on him. [see photograph]

Also, I found an article in the Ventura Star-Free Press linking the Ventura County Citrus Strike of 1941 to the Cesar Chavez and UFW [see photograph]

Also, about the couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet up with my friends, Jessica and Brenda from Camp Smith. I enjoyed the time and laughs!

c/s

Summer Times In Chiques…

It has been a busy summer; I have been to archives and libraries in East Lansing, MI, Detroit, MI, Chicago, IL, Northridge, CA, Ventura, CA, and Oxnard, CA.

And I have collected new sources for my dissertation project, “Labor, Migration, and Activism: A History of Mexican Workers on the Oxnard Plain, 1930-1980.” Right now, I’m working on a paper titled, “Growers Strike Back: The Bracero Program In Ventura County, 1942-1964.” I have spent many hours looking at microfilm collections of the Oxnard Press-Courier, Ventura Star-Free Press, La Opinion, and Ventura County Union Labor News. I love microfilm!!!

The above two photos are of the present site of the Triple S Labor Camp, which was next to the Buena Vista Labor Camp the largest bracero labor camps in the nation.

c/s