Chicano San Diego: Cultural Space and the Struggle for Justice » (1st Edition)

Richard Griswold del Castillo is Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies and chair of the department at San Diego State University. He is the co-author of Competing Visions: A History of California.

The Mexican and Chicana/o residents of San Diego have a long, complicated, and rich history that has been largely ignored. This collection of essays shows how the Spanish-speaking people of this border city have created their own cultural spaces. Sensitive to issues of gender-and paying special attention to political, economic, and cultural figures and events-the contributors explore what is unique about San Diego's Mexican American history.

In chronologically ordered chapters, scholars discuss how Mexican and Chicana/o people have resisted and accommodated the increasingly Anglo-oriented culture of the region. The book's early chapters recount the historical origins of San Diego and its development through the mid-nineteenth century, describe the "American colonization" that followed, and include examples of Latino resistance that span the twentieth century-from early workers' strikes to the United Farm Workers movement of the 1960s. Later chapters trace the Chicana/o Movement in the community and in the arts; the struggle against the gentrification of the barrio; and the growth of community organizing (especially around immigrants' rights) from the perspective of a community organizer.

To tell this sweeping story, the contributors use a variety of approaches. Testimonios retell individual lives, ethnographies relate the stories of communities, and historical narratives uncover what has previously been ignored or discounted. The result is a unique portrait of a marginalized population that has played an important but neglected role in the development of a major American border city.

List of Illustrations     ix
Introduction: A Border Region and People   Richard Griswold del Castillo     1
Natives and Settlers: The Mestizo Heritage   Richard Griswold del Castillo     12
The American Colonization of San Diego   Richard Griswold del Castillo     40
From Revolution to Economic Depression   Richard Griswold del Castillo     68
World War II and the Emerging Civil Rights Struggle   Jose Rodolfo Jacobo   Richard Griswold del Castillo     97
El Campo: Memories of a Citrus Labor Camp   Maria de la Luz Ibarra     115
"Si, Se Puede!": Chicana/o Activism in San Diego at Century's End   Isidro D. Ortiz     129
Chicanas in the Arts, 1970-1995: With Personal Reflections   Rita Sanchez     158
The Struggle against Gentrification in Barrio Logan   Emmanuelle Le Texier     202
The Border and Human Rights: A Testimony   Roberto L. Martinez     222
Learning from the Past: Some Concluding Comments     246
Notes     255
Bibliography     277
Index     291