20th Century

Zoot Suit Riots

Description: The Zoot Suit Riots involved U.S. Servicemen, Los Angeles Police Department, and primarily teenage Mexican Americans occurring from June 3-8, 1943. Mexican Americans wore the Zoot Suit for a sense of identity and pride, but due to WWII rations, the Zoot Suit style became synonymous with anti-Americanism and Mexican criminality during the patriotic fervor of the World War. The Sleepy Lagoon Trial of 1942 fanned the flame of Mexican Pachuca/o criminality by the media. Dozens of men and women wearing the stylish Zoot Suits were stripped of their clothing by servicemen and then blamed and incarcerated by the cops. 

Books

    1. Crimes of Fashion: The Pachuca and Chicana Style Politics 
    2. And Ar’nt I a Man? Toward a Chicano/Latino Men’s Studies 
    3. Saying ‘Nothin”: Pachucas and the Languages of Resistance 
    4. Zoot Violence In Los Angeles. 
    5. A Genealogy of Vendidas 
    6. The Sleepy Lagoon Mystery 

The Rights of Citizenship

Descriptions: Mexican Americans have contributed to the progress in American Society through art, culture, and political activism. Some of the most prominent figures of the 20th Century include the union leader and UFW organizer Humberto ‘Bert’ Corona, the legendary Chicano Musician Lalo Guerrero, and the Oscar Award-winning actor Anthony Quinn. Cal State LA has access to Anthony Quinn’s collection of scripts.  

Books 

    • Humberto ‘Bert’ Corona- El Viejo (1918-2001)   
      1. Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona  
      2. Introduction: Redefining American History: Bert Corona and Oppositional Narrative.  
    • Lalo Guerrero (1916-2005)  
      1. Lalo: My Life and Music 
      2. Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968 
    • Anthony Quinn (1915-2001)  
      1. Brusque and Exotic: Anthony Quinn, National Identity, and Masculinity, 1951-1966. 

Special Collections & Archives 

Organizing & The American Dream

Description: Of utmost importance to Mexican American progress has been the ability to organize politically and through unionization. Mexican Americans sought presentation through local and federal governments and one of the most influential trailblazers in politics includes Edward R. Roybal (1916-2005), the first Mexican American congressman. Mexican Americans began organizing throughout the 20th Century to improve inequitable conditions and discriminatory policies in school, healthcare, policing, and labor.

Books 

    • National Labor Relations Act  
      1. The Regulation of Campaign Tactics in Representation Elections Under the National Labor Relations Act. 
    • Organizing  
      1. No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed: The Rise of The Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.
    • Unions  
      1. Mexican American Workers in Twentieth-Century America. 
          
      2. The Growth of American Unions. 
    • New Voting Bloc  
      1. La Nueva California.  
    • Edward R. Roybal (1916-2005)  
      1. Edward R. Roybal: The Mexican American Struggle for Political Empowerment 
      2. Pioneering Minority Representation: Edward Roybal and the Los Angeles City Council, 1949-1962.

National Farmworkers Association

Description: The United Farmworkers of America, led by Union Organizers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, was founded in Delano, California in 1962 to demand labor rights for exploited farm workers. The UFW became incorporated after a series of strikes in the year 1965, when the UFW joined Filipino labor organizer Larry Itliong in a historic grape strike. 

Books 

    1. In Defense of La Raza, the Los Angeles Mexican Consulate, and the Mexican community, 1929 to 1936 
    • Cesar Chavez 
      1. Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement. 
      2. The fight in The Fields: Cesar Chavez and The Farmworkers Movement. 
    • Dolores Huerta  
      1. ¡Sí, ella puede!: The Rhetorical Legacy of Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers. 
      2. Ask a Feminist: Dolores Huerta and Rachel Rosenbloom Discuss Gender and Immigrant Rights. 

Websites 

    1. The Short-handed Hoe: americanhistory.com 
    2. When Garden Tool Meets Oppression: nationalparks.org 

Bracero Program

Description: The Bracero Program was foreign policy legislation that sought to fill the labor shortages in American industries caused by vacancies exacerbated by WWII. Prior to 1965, the United States had established immigration quotas that restricted immigration from certain countries. One of the exceptions to these numerical quotas were Mexican laborers who were seen as “birds of passage” that labored during the season and left home after the harvest (Genevieve, 2018). This view of Mexican laborers pushed for coalitions in agribusiness to develop foreign policy such as the Bracero Program that was in effect from 1942 to 1964.  

Books

    • Bracero Program  
    • “Operation Wetback”  
      1. Operation Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954 

Mexican American Civil Rights

Description: Mexican Americans have suffered from significant discrimination in education, healthcare, immigration, housing, politics, the law, and much more. The discrimination of Mexican Americans begins when the hyphenated “Mexican-American” is born. The Mexican American identity is born out of the blood and war in the struggles between the United States and Mexico. Ever since self-proclaimed Chicanas/os/x have participated in numerous demonstrations to fight against discrimination and prejudice. Some of these include labor strikes, school walkouts, boycotts, community youth organizing, mega marches, and many more.  

Books 

    • EL Movimiento
      1. The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In The Trenches of Academe. 
      2. The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government's War on Dissent 
      3. Rethinking the Chicano Movement. 
      4. ¡Chicana Power! Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement. 
    • Campus Chicanismo  
      1. Youth, Identity, Power : the Chicano Movement. 

Websites 

    1. Chicano Movement: History.Com 
    2. Chicano History: ARCGIS.Com 
    3. Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement: Albany.edu 

!Mi Raza Primero! Taking it to the Streets

Description: Taking it to the Streets exemplifies the organizing that occurred during the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some texts include information on the Brown Berets, the self-defense group of Chicano/a individuals combating police brutality, Chicana/o organizing in high schools and universities; and the critical role of activists lawyering like Oscar Zeta Acosta. The CSULA Special Collections has primary sources on the brown Berets that can be found in the Carlos Montes Papers and the Gloria Arellanes Papers.  

Books 

    • Brown Berets 
      1. Sancho’s Journal : Exploring the Political Edge with the Brown Berets. 
      2. “Mi Raza Primero!” (My People First!) Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in The Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978 . 
    • Chicanismo 
      1. Grassroots Leadership Reconceptualized: Chicana Oral Histories and The 1968 East Los Angeles School Blowouts. 
      2. Thank You Maestro: The Walkouts as Praxis of. 
      3. Marching students: Chicana and Chicano Activism in Education, 1968 to The Present. 
      4. Blowout!: Sal Castro and The Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice. 
    • Oscar Zeta Acosta 
      1. The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo. 
      2. The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo 
      3. Introduction: The Return of the Brown Buffalo and the Rise of the Rascuache Lawyer. 

Special Collection & Archives 

    1. East Los Angeles Archives 
    2. La Raza Magazine

Urban Renewal: Division in the Barrios

Descriptions: Gentrification in the barrios of East LA has a long and complex history. Originally understood as “Urban Renewal” gentrification is the process by which inhabitants in poor neighborhoods are pushed out through infrastructural modernization. One of the most impactful historical examples of Urban Renewal can be understood through the story of Chavez Ravine, a Mexican community of about 300 families that was pushed out in the early 1950s through the doctrine of eminent domain for the public benefit, to then only be used as land for a private enterprise and the development of the Dodgers Stadium. CSULA Special collections have primary documents that assist research in contextualizing and understanding the events that took place.  

Books 

    • Chavez Ravine 
      1. Chávez Ravine, 1949 : a Los Angeles Story. 
      2. Shameful Victory : the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Red Scare, and the Hidden History of Chavez Ravine. 
      3. Chavez Ravine: Culture Clash and the Political Project of Rewriting History. 
      4. Community Resistance and Conditional Patriotism in Cold War Los Angeles: The Battle for Chavez Ravine. 
      5. Making a Better World Public Housing, the Red Scare, and the Direction of Modern Los Angeles. 

Special Collections & Archives 

    1. John C. Holland Papers 

Las Chicanas: Women in Action

Description: Women in the Chicano Movement faced oppression at multiple fronts. On one end, U.S. society discriminated against Chicanas because they were seen as ethnically and racially inferior, while on the other end, the nationalism and patriarchal misogyny of the Chicano Movement saw them as submissive team players rather than leaders. In essence, women experienced sexist and racist discrimination simultaneously. Despite these barriers, countless women participated as leaders in the Chicano Movement such as Gloria Arellanes, Victoria Castro, Paola Crisostomo, Maria Baeza, Dolores Huerta, Marta Palacios, Diane Holguin, Anna Nieto Gomez, and Gloria Anzaldua. The CSULA Special Collections has the Gloria Arellanes Papers that contextualize and demonstrate her involvement during El Movimiento. 

Books 

    • Chicanas in El Movimiento  
      1. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. 
      2. Borderlands/ La Frontera 
      3. Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era. 
      4. Grassroots Leadership Reconceptualized: Chicana Oral Histories and The 1968 East Los Angeles School Blowouts. 
    • La Comision Femenil Mexicana Nacional  
      1. La Hermandad and Chicanas Organizing: The Community Rhetoric of The Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional. 

Special Collection & Archives 

        1. East Los Angeles Archives