Curious Unions: Mexican American Workers and Resistance in Oxnard, California, 1898-1961 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781496229038)

C駸ar E. Ch疱ez 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 Ch疱ez 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) that displaced resident farmworkers.

The Mexican and Mexican American populations in Oxnard were involved in cultural struggles and negotiations long before Ch疱ez 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.


Author: Frank P. Barajas
ISBN-10: 1496229037
ISBN-13: 9781496229038
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 12/01/2021
Pages: 374
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.21lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.83d