迪克西·里德

2021年2月19日

Senon Valadez, MA ’69 (Anthropology) knew time was running out to preserve the memories of women and men who took part in the Chicano civil rights movement while at 萨克拉门托 State in the 1960s and ’70s.

“I think we owed it to all of the people who got involved and made our journey in education and the situations in 萨克拉门托 far better than when we got here,” he said.

“The 萨克拉门托 Movimiento Chicano & Mexican American Education Project Collection” –  oral histories of 98 mostly now-elderly activists – is a new acquisition by the University 图书馆’s Gerth Special Collections and University Archives.

预计今年晚些时候可以在网上访问，它将成为学生和教师研究人员以及世界各地学者的主要资源。

20世纪60年代是民权运动席卷全国的时期。 In California, tireless effort and sacrifice by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and others in the United Farm Workers  union improved working conditions for the state’s agriculture laborers, many of whom were Mexican nationals.

“It is so important to keep alive the Chicano movement’s history through this extensive oral history project with many activists who came out of 萨克拉门托 State,” said Paul F. Chavez, son of the renowned labor leader and president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation.

“The farmworkers’ struggle during the 1960s and ’70s was especially demanding and difficult. There were many daunting obstacles,” he said. “The presence and art of these 萨克拉门托 Chicanos, including members of the Royal Chicano Air Force, always uplifted my father and the farmworkers, gave them clarity and strength, and helped them carry on.”

一个开创性的项目

The Mexican American Education Project (MAEP) at what was then known as 萨克拉门托 State College was the nation’s first master’s degree program of its kind. 1968年，该学院在五年内获得了550万美元的联邦资金，用于培训教师，帮助墨西哥裔美国儿童在学校取得成功。

Valadez作为一名MAEP学生就读于萨克州立大学，在萨利纳斯山谷的一个移民劳工营地长大。 他的父母是农场工人，和孩子们只说西班牙语。 由于语言障碍，他在学校学习很吃力。 十几岁时，每当他申请兼职工作时，都会受到歧视。 He remembers being told again and again, “Sorry, we aren’t hiring,” only to see the jobs go to white peers.

“I wanted to pay homage to 萨克拉门托 and those who helped build me as a person, politicized me, educated me. ... It’s a place folks don’t tend to think of as a hub for activism, but I was very much inspired by that generation. I knew there was a story to be told.”  - Lorena V. Márquez

But Valadez persevered, mastering English, receiving good grades, and earning his undergraduate degree  before taking a teaching position at a Union City elementary school.

In 1968, he was among the first schoolteachers recruited for MAEP, which was housed in 萨克拉门托 State’s Department of Anthropology.

Valadez earned his master’s degree in 1969 and stayed on to teach Anthropology until his retirement in 2003. 几年后，当他从癌症中恢复过来时，他有时间回想他作为一个生活在加州的棕色皮肤的人所经历的挣扎。 他考虑写自传。

然而，他搁置了这个想法，开始了一项更雄心勃勃的努力，让更多的人讲述他们的故事。

‘The history of a movement’

2013年，瓦拉迪兹和他的朋友、已故人类学和种族研究荣誉教授萨姆·里奥斯（Sam Rios）邀请了曾参与墨西哥裔美国人运动的校友在校校内聚会，他们提议用口述历史来记录他们共同而独特的经历。

And so, “The 萨克拉门托 Movimiento Chicano and Mexican American Education Project Collection” was born.

“This is an amazing first-person telling of the Chicana/o movement in 萨克拉门托,” said 图书馆 Dean Amy Kautzman. “The 图书馆 puts a heavy emphasis on capturing local history, be it social, political, the arts, etc. This collection shows the ‘power of the people’ in changing social norms and working toward a more equal union.

“It’s the history of a movement,” she said. “It is evidence of how regular people, our fellow Sacramentans, changed history and improved life for their current and future community.”

Valadez enlisted the help of Lorena V. Márquez ’99 (History, Spanish), MA ’02 (History), whom he had met when she interviewed him for her dissertation at UC San Diego.

Márquez, an assistant professor of Chicana/o Studies at UC Davis, trained undergraduate students in her Qualitative Methodology class in the art of interviewing. 他们在2014年和2015年拍摄了98名活动人士的故事，其中大多数会议是在萨克拉门托城市学院图书馆举行的。

A later group of UC Davis students transcribed the interviews, which Márquez is proofreading before they become a part of the project housed at 囊状态.

“Every story is unique,” she said. “As a historian, learning about the racism that a lot of these folks experienced – the psychological scars, the emotional trauma of being laughed at and shamed for speaking Spanish – is powerful.

“And then how this generation fought through the inferiority complex that was ingrained in them during their K-12 education and really shattering those images, those low expectations of them, and going to college.”

The movement’s lasting legacy

The stories also demonstrate the way higher education shaped young minds before these individuals returned to their communities and made significant changes, Márquez said. 上世纪60年代，萨克州立大学的学生们创办了诸如“家庭咨询中心”（Mi Familia Counseling Center）这样的社区组织，以及雄心勃勃的监狱拓展和改造项目。

During this period, as well, 萨克拉门托 State faculty members José Montoya and Esteban Villa founded the influential Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) art collective at the University. A collection of more than 170 silkscreen posters related to farmworkers’ rights, educational programs, community events, and Chicano history is housed in Special Collections and University Archives.

This generation also helped elect Joe Serna Jr. as 萨克拉门托’s first Latino mayor in 1992. 他曾长期在萨克州立大学担任政府学教授。

“That’s the kind of momentum that was really garnished in 萨克拉门托 during this time,” said Márquez, the only member of her family to attend college. 她于1994年作为一名新生来到Sac州立大学，得到了大学援助移民计划和教育机会计划的支持。

Her first book, La Gente：萨克拉门托为赋权和社区自决而斗争, recently was published by the University of Arizona Press.

“I wanted to pay homage to 萨克拉门托 and those who helped build me as a person, politicized me, educated me, and made me into a young, independent strong woman,” she said. “It’s a place folks don’t tend to think of as a hub for activism, but I was very much inspired by that generation. I knew there was a story to be told.”

For Márquez, the oral history project is a labor of love, dedicated to the people who came before her and made a difference in the lives of many. 她和所有参与创建这个项目的人都无偿地献出了时间。

“I knew if we stuck with it that it would be an impressive collection,” she said. “From my understanding, there is no other collection on the Chicano movement era like it, in terms of its size.”

 

 

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