Details on Bracero Oral History Project
| Type | Research Opportunity |
|---|---|
| Project Name | Bracero Oral History Project |
| Posted By | Jose Alamillo (jose.alamillo@csuci.edu) |
| Additional Faculty Mentors | |
| Posted | 5/19/2011 2:31 PM |
| Project Website | http://www.csuci.edu/bracero-exhibit/ |
| Area of Research | Any/All |
| Related Majors |
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| Expected Duration | 5/2008-2/2012 |
| Number of Positions | 5 |
| Project Details |
In 2008 the California State University Channel Islands joined the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History to document and preserve the Bracero experience. The Bracero History Project has collected over 700 interviews and dozens of photographs, documents and artifacts that tell the story of the largest guest-worker program in U.S. history. The Bracero Program brought approximately 4.5 million individual Mexican male workers into the United States impacting immigration patterns, labor organizing efforts, inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic community relations, family dynamics and gender relations. Check out the website: www.braceroarchive.org As part of this national project, CSUCI offered several Service Learning courses to students in Chicano/a Studies, Spanish and Art. For the purposes of this panel presentation we would like to share our experiences in documenting the lives of ex-Braceros. Students not only conducted interviews with ex-Braceros, scanned photos and documents, but also organized town-hall meetings in Oxnard and Santa Paula to introduce the Bracero History Project to the local Latino/a community in Ventura County. Students prepared a local exhibit titled “Ventura County’s Bracero Legacy” that complemented the national traveling exhibition. We developed a relationship with local community centers, high schools, art galleries, and historical museums and Latino/a organizations. Each of these community partners helped in publicizing the town hall meetings and locating names of persons to be interviewed. One key thing that we learned from this project was the importance of incorporating the community’s needs and the current political context into the project. We want to continue in strengthening these community partnerships. |
| Eligibility Requirements | Some background on the history of the Bracero Program or Chicano/a History is highly recommended. Fluency in Spanish language is preferable but not required. |
| Deadline | 8/26/2011 |
Last modified by Jose Alamillo at 5/19/2011 2:31 PM
For more information on joining this project please contact Jose Alamillo (jose.alamillo@csuci.edu)