Erlinda Gonzales-Berry

The number of Latinos residing in Oregon has increased dramatically in the last decade, leading one scholar to speak of the "browning of Oregon." This, however, is not a new phenomenon, for there has been a settled-out, Mexican-origin population in Oregon since the 1930s. Erlinda Gonzales-Berry will discuss the history of migration and the complex issues concerning borders in "Sojourners, Settlers, and New Immigrants: Mexicanos in Oregon."

Benton County Historical Society is pleased to host this Oregon Chautauqua from the Oregon Council for the Humanities. This free, public program will take place on Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 12:00pm at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library (645 Monroe, Corvallis, OR 97330). Bring your brown bag lunch!. Gonzales-Berry will explore the seventy-five-year history of migration and settlement of Mexicans in Oregon, high-lighting their sustained practices of community building, struggles for integration, and contributions to the cultural and economic landscape of the state. Gonzales-Berry draws on her own extensive fieldwork, newspaper articles, archival photographs, and agency reports to provide a rich portrait of a vibrant community. She calls attention to the relation between globalization and current patterns of worldwide migration. For example, how can we address the inherent contradiction in contemporary understandings of "borderless" nations for economic enterprises, and "borders" as law-enforcement and protection barriers for national identity and sovereignty?

Selected Resources for Oregon Chautauqua
Sojourners, Settlers, and New Immigrants: Mexicanos in Oregon

Brier, Jonathan, and Alicia Niles. Immigrant Labor and Guest Workers in Oregon: Case Study and Policy Context for the H-2A Guestworker Program. Salem: Causa, 1988.

Brier, Nathan, and Ramon Ramirez with Robert Dash. The State of Immigrants' Rights in Oregon. Salem: Causa, 1998.

CAUSA. Immigrant Labor and Guest Workers in Oregon: Case Study and Policy Context for the H-2A Guestworker Program. Salem: Causa, 1998.

Current, Tom and Mark Martinez Infante. ... and Migrant Problems Demand Attention. Bureau of Labor Migrant Labor Division Final Report of the 1958-59 Salem: Bureau of Labor, 1959.

Dash, Robert C. "Latinos, Political Change, and Electoral Mobilization in Oregon." Latin(a) Research Review 2-3 (1998), pp. 16-39.

- - - . "Mexican Labor and Oregon Agriculture: The Changing Terrain of Conflict." Agriculture and Human Values 13 (1996), pp. 10-20.

Dash, Robert and Robert E. Hawkinson. "Mexicans and 'Business as Usual': Small Town Politics in Oregon." Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies 26 (2001), pp. 87-121.

Flores, Elizabeth. "Festejando Community: Celebrating Fiesta Mexicana in Woodburn, Oregon," in Chicanas and Chicanos in Contemporary Society. Ed. Roberto M. De Anda. 2nd ed. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004.

Gamboa, Erasmo and Carolyn Buan, eds. Nosotros: The Hispanic People of Oregon: Essays and Recollections. Portland: Oregon Council for the
Humanities, 1995. (see Boyd, Bob, "Vaqueros on the High Desert Rangeland.")

Gamboa, Erasmo. "Oregon's Hispanic Heritage." In  Varieties of Hope: An Anthology of Oregon Prose, ed. Gordon B. Dodds. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1993.

- - - . Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942-1947. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.

- - - . "Mexican Labor in the Pacific Northwest, 1943-1947: A Photographic Essay." Pacific Northwest Quarterly 73-75 (1982), pp. 175-81.

García, Jerry and Gilberto García, eds. Memory, Community, and Activism: Mexican Migration and Labor in the Pacific Northwest.  East Lansing, MI: Julian Samara Research Institute, 2005.

Maldonado, Carlos. Colegio Cesar Chavez, 1973-1982: A Chicano Struggle for Educational Self-determination. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2000.

McArdle, Teresa M.  An Ethnography of Mexican Migrants in Corvallis, OR.  M.A. Thesis: Oregon State University, 1992.

McGlade, Michael S. "Mexican Farm Labor Networks and Population Increase in the Pacific Northwest." APCG Yearbook 64 (2002), pp. 28-54.

Massey, Douglas S., Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002.

Peterson del Mar, David. 2003. Oregon's Promise: An Interpretive History. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2003.

Slatta, Richard W. "Chicanos in Oregon: An Historical Overview." MA Thesis, University of Oregon, 1974.

- - - .1975. "Chicanos in the Pacific Northwest: An Historical Overview of Oregon's Chicanos." Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies 6 (1975), pp. 327-336.

- - - . 1979. "Chicanos in the Pacific Northwest: A Demographic and Socioeconomic Portrait." Pacific Northwest Quarterly 69 (1979), pp. 155-162.

Slatta, Richard W. and Maxine P. Atkinson. "The 'Spanish Origin' Population of Oregon and Washington: A Demographic Profile 1980."  The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 75, pp. 108-116.

Stephen, Lynn. "Mixtec Farmworkers in Oregon: Linking Labor and Ethnicity through Farmworker Unions and Hometown Association." In Mexican Migrants in the United States, eds., Jonathan Fox and Gaspar Rivera-Salgado. La Jolla:Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California San Diego, 2004.

- - - . "Cultural Citizenship and Labor Rights for Oregon Farmworkers: The Case of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Nordoeste (PCUN)." Human Organization 62, (2003), pp. 27-38.

Stephen, Lynn and PCUN.  The Story of PCUN and the Farmworker Movement in Oregon. Eugene: University of Oregon Department of Anthropology, 2001.

Valle, Isabel. Fields of Toil: A Migrant Family's Journey. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1991.

Erlinda Gonzales-Berry: Biography

Erlinda Gonzales-Berry was born in rural Northeastern New Mexico where her ancestors homesteaded in the 1880s, having moved there from Central New Mexico, where their ancestors had settled in the 1700s. Erlinda attended elementary school at St. George Catholic School in Roy, New Mexico for a year before moving with her family to Guadalajara, Mexico where her father worked vaccinating cattle against the hoof and mouth disease. After returning from Mexico and spending two more years at St. George grade school, she attended the Rosebud Grammar School, a one-room schoolhouse at which her mother was the lone teacher. She earned her BA degree from the University of New Mexico in 1964 and her PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures, also at the University of New Mexico.

Erlinda taught public school in Santa Maria, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her first university position was at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. In 1978, she returned to New Mexico where she taught one year at New Mexico State University before moving on to the University of New Mexico where she held a position, including department chair, until 1997. In 1997, she took a position as chair of the newly established Department of Ethnic Studies at Oregon State University.

Her graduate study of Spanish and Latin American literature encouraged Gonzales-Berry to explore the culture and experiences of the Mexican origin population in the United States. She has written extensively on Hispanos in New Mexico and is currently doing research on Mexican immigration to Oregon. She has edited seven books, including Pasó Por Aquí: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition, and The Contested Homeland: A Chicano History of New Mexico.  In addition to more than fifty articles on various topics related to Latino culture published in the United States, Spain, Germany, and Mexico, Gonzales-Berry is author of Paletitas de Guayaba, a short novel.

Erlinda served on the Board of the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities and received several grants from that organization. In Oregon she has organized two community based conferences on Latinas in the Northwest, and a symposium at OSU, which brought together scholars, community activists, and student to discuss the engaging history of the Mexican-origin population in Oregon. She currently serves on the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs.

Erlinda's program is made possible by funding from the Oregon Council for the Humanities (OCH), an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities that is dedicated to the belief that knowledge and ideas are fundamental to the health of our communities. More information about OCH's programs and publications, which include Oregon Chautauqua, Humanity in Perspective, and Oregon Humanities magazine, can be found at www.oregonhum.org.