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Book Cover
E-book
Author Barajas, Frank P., 1964-

Title Curious unions : Mexican American workers and resistance in Oxnard, California, 1898-1961 / Frank P. Barajas
Published Lincoln, Neb. : University of Nebraska Press, ©2012

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 355 pages) : illustrations, maps
Series Race and ethnicity in the American West
Race and ethnicity in the American West.
Contents List of illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- List of abbreviations -- Introduction -- Early curious unions -- The (re)creation of community -- Segregated integration -- Bitter repression, sweet resistance, and cross-cultural unions -- The emerging Mexican (American) -- Creating César -- Conclusion -- Notes
Summary "César E. Chávez came to Oxnard, California, in 1958, twenty years after he lived briefly in the city as a child with his migrant farmworker family during the Great Depression. This time Chávez returned as the organizer of the Community Service Organization to support the unionization campaign of the United Packinghouse Workers of America. Together the two groups challenged the agricultural industry's use of braceros (imported contract laborers) who displaced resident farmworkers. The Mexican and Mexican American populations in Oxnard were involved in cultural struggles and negotiations long before Chávez led them in marches and active protests. Curious Unions explores the ways in which the Mexican community forged intriguing partnerships with other ethnic groups within Oxnard in the first half of the twentieth century and the resulting economic exchanges, cultural practices, and labor and community activism. Frank P. Barajas examines how the Oxnard ethnic Mexican population exercised its agency in alliance with other groups and organizations to meet their needs before large-scale protests and labor unions were engaged. Curious Unions charts how the cultural negotiations that took place in the Oxnard ethnic Mexican community helped shape and empower farm labor organizing."--Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Foreign workers, Mexican -- California -- Oxnard -- History
Mexican Americans -- Civil rights -- California -- Oxnard -- History
Labor movement -- California -- Oxnard -- History
Mexican Americans -- Cultural assimilation -- California -- Oxnard -- History
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Labor.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Labor & Industrial Relations.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies -- Hispanic American Studies.
Foreign workers, Mexican
Labor movement
Mexican Americans -- Civil rights
Mexican Americans -- Cultural assimilation
California -- Oxnard
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012013286
ISBN 0803244738
9780803244733
9781496229038
1496229037