{"id":681,"date":"2013-01-04T21:10:49","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T04:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/luishmoreno.com\/?p=681"},"modified":"2019-06-10T09:57:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T16:57:54","slug":"a-sense-of-place-la-colonia-bonita-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/luishmoreno.com\/?p=681","title":{"rendered":"A Sense of Place: La Colonia & Bonita Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Untitled\"<\/a>

Our family house in La Colonia (2012). Courtesy of the author\u2019s photo collection.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cPublic histories provide meaning to places.\u201d<\/em>
\nDavid Glassberg, Sense of History<\/em>, 18<\/p>\n

Being an academic migrant, I always find myself searching for a sense of place, the feeling of home. Home is the location of your childhood or family memories. For me, this place is La Colonia<\/em><\/strong>, especially Bonita Avenue<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The following is an excerpt\u00a0from my manuscript (rough draft),\u00a0Searching for Memories in\u00a0La Colonia: Migration, Labor, and Activism In Oxnard, California, 1930-1980<\/em>, focusing on my mother’s life in La Colonia<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout the years, I have had many conversations with my mother, Gloria about her life growing up in La Colonia. She has shared stories of migration, culture and community. Her understanding of these experiences shaped her identity as a Mexican. In this post, I share my mother\u2019s reflection on growing up in La Colonia through her interaction with her family and community.<\/p>\n

My mother, Gloria was born in 1952 in a one-story house in the Colonia Village\u2019s housing project on Bernarda Court in La Colonia. Her father Carlos was a packinghouse worker and her mother Margarita was a housewife. She was the second child of Margarita and Carlos, whose family included two more children from a previous marriage. In 1956, she moved from the housing project to her grandfather\u2019s house on Bonita Avenue.<\/p>\n

My mother attended grammar school in La Colonia; Ramona School is only four houses down from her home. Juanita School is only two blocks away. It was not until the mid-1960s, that she attended a school outside her neighborhood. In 1970, she graduated from high school and one-year later she married my father, Louie.<\/p>\n

Her understanding of culture, migration, and community has shaped her identity. Historian Juan G\u00f3mez-Qui\u00f1ones states \u201cculture is learned rather than \u2018instinctive,\u2019 or biological.\u201d My mother learned to identify as Mexican from her parents and community. Throughout her life, her Mexican identity has been questioned by American society because she does not \u201clook Mexican\u201d due to her light skin, freckles and reddish hair.<\/p>\n

During one conversation with my mother, I asked her the following question: have you been treated differently due to the color of your skin? She responded with the following story; as a child, she recalled going to events in downtown Oxnard with her grandfather, Jose. Individuals at those events would ask her grandfather if he was baby-sitting her. Their remarks frustrated her grandfather for they did not just come from Whites, but also from Mexicans. Listening to those comments introduced my mother to how people in the United States use skin color to define race, ethnicity, and nationality.<\/p>\n

Eventually, my mother came to an understanding that many people do not see her as being Mexican. But she explained that the color of her skin did not make her Mexican, instead her history and her community did, and for most of her life, she has lived in La Colonia. Her neighborhood has influenced her culture and her history, shaped by many generations of migration.<\/p>\n

This discussion of a family history and of migration does not have an ending. Growing up in La Colonia has affected the way my mother sees herself and the way she has raised her sons. In her heart and mind, the little house on Bonita Avenue has always been home and community to her, no matter if she did not live there. Those experiences have defined my mother\u2019s life. She sees the world differently now. She sees the need to be a defender of her community, an activist who informs her community about their human and civil rights. My mother continues to play a role in supporting and participating in the struggle to end the brutalization, marginalization, and segregation of the Mexican community in Oxnard, California.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is essential to mention, it was a sad day for my mother on September 2012, as she turned off the lights and closed the door knowing she would never return to her grandfather’s house again. But it was time to move on after years of personal struggles with numerous family members over the direction of the property.<\/p>\n

In the end, my mother took with her the memories of struggles, happiness, and love. And no one can take those memories anyway!<\/p>\n

c\/s<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPublic histories provide meaning to places.\u201d David Glassberg, Sense of History, 18 Being an academic migrant, I always find myself searching for a sense of place, the feeling of home. Home is the location of your childhood or family memories. For me, this place is La Colonia, especially Bonita Avenue. The following is an excerpt\u00a0from […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ibJA-aZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1399,"url":"http:\/\/luishmoreno.com\/?p=1399","url_meta":{"origin":681,"position":0},"title":"The Farmers\u2019 Narrative = The Agricultural Industrial Complex!","date":"May 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m spending the whole summer in Chiques (Oxnard) with my family. Every morning or evening, I walk around downtown, and I reflect on the importance of the geography (space) of La Colonia. This community was constructed by city policies of segregating the Mexican population from other ethnic groups, but especially\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academic"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/luishmoreno.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/FullSizeRender-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1983,"url":"http:\/\/luishmoreno.com\/?p=1983","url_meta":{"origin":681,"position":1},"title":"Goodbye Chiques!","date":"August 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"My summer in my hometown is coming to an end. I\u2019m returning to my second home in the Midwest!! Now, the real question did I get anything done here. In my previous blog entry, I stated I was working on many different projects. 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In 1952, my grandparents, Carlos\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Oxnard"","img":{"alt_text":"Untitled","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c1.staticflickr.com\/1\/544\/19210167479_456321bab2_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"http:\/\/luishmoreno.com\/?p=541","url_meta":{"origin":681,"position":4},"title":"Violence on the Oxnard Plain: The Oxnard Police Department and the Mexican Community","date":"December 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cWho writes for his people ought to use the past with the intention of opening the future, as an invitation to action and a basis for hope.\u201d Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 232 It is essential to mention, as I focus my research and writing on the history\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Oxnard"","img":{"alt_text":"Untitled","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8208\/8275591475_65e77e190e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1970,"url":"http:\/\/luishmoreno.com\/?p=1970","url_meta":{"origin":681,"position":5},"title":"Summer is here!","date":"June 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Like always, every summer, I return to blogging. 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