Audience(s): Free for Members, Family-Friendly, Researchers, Teachers
Description: Located in Mt. Angel, Oregon, and in operation from 1973 to 1983, Colegio César Chávez was the first independent, four-year accredited Chicano/a college in the United States. Rooted in the Chicano/a notion of “familia,” the college offered a unique and innovative educational philosophy that incorporated a holistic, integrated, community-based approach for students whose needs were not being met by traditional educational institutions. This bilingual exhibition highlights Colegio César Chávez’s significance and legacy by exploring the national and local context for its establishment, its educational philosophy and structure, as well as and the challenges it faced and how it overcame them.
Credits and Online Access:Colegio César Chávez: The Legacy Lives On / El legado sigue vivo was curated by Natalia Fernández, Associate Professor and Curator of the Oregon Multicultural Archives and OSU Queer Archives within the Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center. Digital copies of the exhibition panels are available via Oregon State University’s digital asset management system Oregon Digital.
OPB has some additional plans in the works for 2025 including an English and a Spanish episode of a podcast about the history and making of the documentary, as well as screenings of the documentary, especially for K-12 students. One such screening is already planned for January 22nd in Portland, OR!
“The Living Legacy of Colegio César Chávez” Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion
Wednesday, January 22, 2025 6PM – 8PM
Oregon Historical Society (1200 SW Park Ave Portland, Oregon 97205)
Join us for a screening of OPB’s new Oregon Experience documentary The Living Legacy of Colegio César Chávez. The event will include a panel discussion led by documentary producer Alicia Avila, Colegio César Chávez co-founders Sonny Montes and José Romero, and Colegio César Chávez: The Legacy Lives On / El legado sigue vivo exhibition curator Natalia Fernández, which will be on view at the Oregon Historical Society in 2025. They will share a behind-the-scenes discussion about the film, the significance of Colegio’s legacy today, and open the conversation to the audience for questions.
Our Town, Mt. Angel Publishing, a 3-part series
A local reporter in Mt. Angel, Melissa Wagoner, published a 3-part print series about Colegio!
BONUS! A few behind-the-scenes photos filming the documentary in the SCARC reading room in summer of 2024. Alicia Avila and her team interviewed Sonny Montes, José Romero, and Anthony Veliz.
SCARC’s 2024-2025 exhibit “Anti-Racist Description Activities in OSU’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center” is now on view! The exhibit showcases the context, behind-the-scenes processes, and various projects reflecting SCARC’s anti-racist description activities over the past several years.
When: The 2024-2025 academic year (Fall 2024 – Summer 2025)
The mission of the committee is to “encourage an inclusive environment that promotes freedom of speech in conjunction with strong policies that protect patrons and library staff of all gender, national origin, ethnicity, religion, race, sexual orientation, disability, income level, age and all other personal, social, cultural and economic perspectives.” The host the podcast Overdue: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries featuring EDIA work in libraries from across Oregon.
The Colegio César Chávez exhibit and a panel presentation about the university’s history and legacy were featured at the September 13th, 2024 Higher Education Summit at the Salem Convention Center.
Colegio Documentary (forthcoming!)
In the morning, Oregon Public Broadcasting Documentary Producer Alicia Avila spoke about her forthcoming short documentary about the legacy of the Colegio César Chávez. The documentary is planned to be available online in mid-October.
Alicia Avila speaking about her OPB Colegio documentary
Panel Presentation
As part of the summit, the afternoon panel provided the historical significance of the Colegio César Chávez from 1970 to 1983, focusing on issues and personal successes during Colegio’s most difficult period. Discussion around Colegio’s historical impact and catalyst for equal educational opportunities for Chicano and other minority students also took place. In addition, the panelists shared some personal stories about César E. Chávez and the lessons they learned from their involvement with the Colegio.
The Colegio panel was a part of the Higher Education Track for the Summit:
Moderator: Natalia Fernández, Curator of the OSU’s Oregon Multicultural Archives & OSU Queer Archives.
Panelists: José Romero, Co-founder of the Colegio César Chávez and Colegio’s Director of Academic Affairs & Sonny Montes, Co-founder of the Colegio César Chávez and Colegio’s Director of Administrative Affairs. José is a retired educator, administrator, and community activist for social justice and equality, and he is a life-long advocate for the well-being of the Chicano/Latino community. José taught Chicano Studies at Lane Community College and at Colegio Cesar Chavez. Along with José, Sonny co-founded the Cesar E. Chavez Student Leadership Conference in 1990. Sonny was also a member of the Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard Committee in Portland, Oregon that was successful in renaming 39th Avenue in honor of Cesar Chavez. In 2010, he received the Distinguished Latino Educator Award from the Oregon Association of Latino Administrators.
The Exhibit
Colegio on Tour
The exhibit is on view to the public from mid-September to mid-October at the Newberg Public Library (503 E Hancock St, Newberg, OR 97132). If you are in the area, be sure to visit!
Bonus
A muralist spoke about his art and included a photo of a mural he worked on for OSU!
The Necessary Friction zine, produced by the Corvallis Lesbian Avengers, features art and writing in a variety of formats that relate to the experiences of queer people, and especially lesbian women, as well as the activities of the Lesbian Avengers. This material was written by members of the Lesbian Avengers, as well as solicited from the broader Corvallis community.
Wired was published by the OSU Hattie Redmond Women & Gender Center. The Center’s mission is informed by feminist theories and lessons, we are committed to creating spaces of community, supporting advocacy, and developing student leaders who actively contribute to building feminist futures.
Issues of Wired are available online via ScholarsArchive@OSU: Wired Issues
The Benton County Quaranzine was compiled by the staff of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library and consists of submissions from area residents collected from June 1 to November 2, 2020, focusing on life during the pandemic and the era’s political unrest. The resulting print publication includes drawings, cartoons, collages, photographs and other artistic renderings, as well as essays and poems.
Contributors to the project were: Quinn Andreas, Ellen Beier, Jack Compere, Molly Curry, Tru Denton, Sarah Finkle, David Grube, Mari Beth Hackett, Forrest Johnson, Charlie Kelso, Colleen Kitchen, Erin MacAdams, Nancy Chestnut Matsumoto, Orion Olson, John Otto, Vic Russell, Linda Varsell Smith, Karen Stephenson, Kim Thackray, Marvel Vigil and Marion J. Whitney.
On May 23rd SCARC was delighted to host the archivists of the Albina Community Archive for an amazing musical experience! Earlier this year Dr. Kelly Bosworth, Horning Assistant Professor, Public History & Ethnomusicology, proposed the idea and SCARC worked with her to organize the event — we set up a record player in the reading room, projectors in the exhibit space, and a welcome + merchandise table in the lobby area.
About the Albina Music Trust:
“Albina Music Trust is the only full-service community archive in the United States, dedicated to the restoration of a Black community’s historic musical culture. Our programs amplify the legacy of Albina’s musician community through archival media preservation, events and exhibitions, a record label, a radio program, oral history publications, and a sound walk. In collaboration with community members, we are the stewards of a digital repository documenting Albina’s arts and culture legacy, the Albina Community Archive.”
About the Event:
We hosted a pre-public event for Dr. Bosworth’s music history students to engage in a conversation with the Albina Community Archive archivists and then hosted an open house for the public to join in the fun! Participants selected records to play on the record player, explored the online archive via large projectors, and as a connection to SCARC materials, attendees also had the opportunity to view content from the Urban League of Portland Records, specifically the Albina neighborhood materials, as well as materials from the Obo Addy Legacy Project.
Event Photos:
Albina Music Trust Welcome TableAlbina Music Trust MaterialsA Conversation with the Albina Music Trust Archivists The SCARC Reading Room ~ it was filled with records and the music sounded great!The SCARC Exhibit Gallery ~ there were two projectors for attendees to browse the online archiveAttendees Checking Out the SCARC MaterialsDr. Kelly Bosworth Swapping Records ~ The record player and records were donated to the OSU LBH Black Cultural Center
The Erlinda Gonzales-Berry Papers document the research and publishing of Gonzales-Berry in the fields of Latino literature and culture and immigration from Mexico to the United States. Her research files include, but are not limited to, a plethora of notes, articles, presentations, book chapters, newspaper clippings, and reports. In the container list for the collection guide, the majority of the folder titles describe the material types but not necessarily the subjects or topics covered within the materials themselves. This was an opportunity for enhanced description, which is related to and supports “reparative description”, which is a “remediation of practices or data that exclude, silence, harm, or mischaracterize marginalized people in the data created or used by archivists to identify or characterize archival resources.” (SAA Dictionary)
In 2023, OSU Masters graduate student Sharon Salgado, shared the need for enhanced description to highlight Indigenous Mexican, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Triqui communities, mostly from the state of Oaxaca, who migrated to Oregon, documented within the collection. She was using the papers for her research project and noted that it would have been helpful to her as a researcher if the representation of these communities within the materials was more explicitly included as part of the collection guide. She shared her research notes, specifically noting the materials she referenced.
The collection guide was updated to include a “Statement on Description” that included the keywords – so the collection would show as a result when searched – with a link to this blog post. We also added four Library of Congress Subject Headings: Zapotec Indians, Mixtec Indians, Triqui Indians, and Oaxaca (Mexico: State).
This blog post includes a statement from Salgado as well as her research notes which include the folders within the collection she referenced, along with the specific materials she used in her research.
Below is a statement from Salgado:
“Dr. Erlinda Gonzalez-Berry carefully selects the materials in this collection and includes the works of other important scholars, like Stephen Lynn, who dedicated their lives to telling the stories of Indigenous Mexicans, mostly from the state of Oaxaca, migrating to Oregon. The main ethnicities in the records are Mixtec, Zapotec, and Triqui. However, other Indigenous identities reside in the Beaver State, like Purépechas from Michoacán, Mexico. Even though the materials about the lives and experiences of Indigenous Mexicans in Oregon and in the US are scarce, their importance to the US economy is fundamental. Their work in the fields, service industries, nurseries, and other businesses is essential for developing the state and the Pacific Northwest farming and agricultural sector.
The materials are collections of newspaper cuts and individual research conducted by scholars, which focus on the struggles of Indigenous Mexican farmworkers to obtain fair wages and stop exploitation in the fields, as well as the struggle to find translators since most of the Oaxacans speak their Indigenous languages and not Spanish or English.”
Sharon Salgado, OSU Masters Student, 2023 Graduate
Below is the list of folders within the collection referenced, along with the specific materials she used in her research. Note: for ease of access, the materials listed have been moved to the beginning of the folder.
Box-Folder 1.7 Immigration in Oregon, 1995-2009
“The New Pluralism in Woodburn, Oregon – A Community Study Conducted in 2003-2004” Summary Report written by Ed Kissam and Lynn Stephen, September 2006. Note: The Mixtec community is represented in the report, and there is a reference to El Oaxaqueno, a newspaper published in California on page 23.
“Cultural Citizenship and Labor Rights for Oregon Farmworkers: The Case of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Nordoeste (PCUN)” by Lynn Stephen. Human Organization Vol. 62, No. 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 27-38 (12 pages); Published By: Society for Applied Anthropology. Note: Leonides Ávila, a Mixtec organizer and farmworker who worked for PCUN.
Box-Folder 1.13 Journal Articles, 1995-1996
Chapter from the 1995 book Marginal Spaces edited by Michael Peter Smith, Chapter 5 “Mixtecs and Mestizos in California Agriculture: Ethnic Displacement and Hierarchy among Mexican Farm Workers, Contributors” by Carol Zabin
Box-Folder 1.16: Mexicans in Oregon, 1974-2006
Stephen, Lynn (2004). “The Gaze of Surveillance in the Lives of Mexican Immigrant Workers” Development 47 (1), 97-102. Note: Stephen’s article mentions Indigenous Mexicans; she specifically describes the story of Marina Bautista, a 27-year-old undocumented immigrant from the Mixtec region of Oaxaca.
Sarathy, Brinda (2006). “The Latinization of Forest Management Work in Southern Oregon: A Case from Rogue Valley” Journal of Forestry, October/November 2006.
Slatta, Richard Wayne (1974). “ Valley Migrant League.” In Chicanos in Oregon: An Historical Overview (Masters Thesis, Portland State University). [full text available online]
McGlade, Michael S. (2002). “Mexican Farm Labor Networks and Population Increase in the Pacific Northwest” APCG Yearbook, Volume 62. Note: The connection between rural and urban, page 51.
Executive Order 13166: Limited English Proficiency Resource Document: Tips and Tools from the Field, September 2004. Note: Page 67 “…trainings focused on teaching interpretation skills to speakers of indigenous languages including Mixteco, Triqui, Zapoteco, Nahuatl, Tarasco, Akateco, Kanjobal, and others.”
Stephen, Lynn (2004). “Mixtec Farmworkers in Oregon: Linking Labor and Ethnicity through Farmworker Unions and Hometown Associations.” In Indigenous Mexican Migrants in the United States, edited by Jonathan Fox, Gaspar Rivera-Salgado.
Fairchild, Stephen T. and Nicole B. Simpson (2004). “Mexican migration to the United States Pacific Northwest.” Population Research and Policy Review, 23 (3).
Dash, Robert C. (2002-2003). “Latinos, Political Change, and Electoral Mobilization in Oregon,” Latino(a) Research Review 5, no. 2-3.
Oregon Center for Public Policy (2007). “Undocumented Workers are Taxpayers, Too.” Issue Brief, Revised April 10, 2007.
O’Connor, Pat (2006). “Occupations by Race in Oregon,” Oregon Employment Department, OLMIS.
Box-Folder 1.21 Newspaper Articles, 1943-2007
“Idiomas poco hablados causan problemas en tribunal” El Hispanic News, January 20, 2005. Note: Key words: Texmelucan, Zapoteco, Oaxaca, Mixteco. Información en el artículo: sólo alrededor de 4,100 personas en el mundo [hablan el idioma Texmelucan Zapoteco]
“Not Quite Home” by Ernestine Bousquet, The Bulletin, December 26, 2004. Note: Not Quite Home: After settling in Central Oregon, an immigrant family holds tight to its Mexican culture and traditions.
“La Oaxaqueña proves small businesses have a place in the market” by Richard Jones, El Hispanic News, September 29, 2004. Note: Article about La Oaxaqueña Frutería in Portland, Oregon; Lázaro García, owner.
“Immigrants from Mexico’s indigenous groups work to preserve traditional medicine,” Juliana Barbassa, El Hispanic News, January 5, 2006.
Box-Folder 1.25: Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) and Freedom Ride, 2001-2003
PCUN Fighting for Farmworker Rights (compilation of news clippings – blue title page). Note: See the article, “Native Americans join farmworkers in protest against Bracero Bill”
Box-Folder 2.8: Transnationalism, 1998-2005
Presentation Slides “Mexican Transnationalism from Above and Below” Note: Slide 6 “Transnationalism from Below: At Community Level” mention of Mixteco Farmworkers in Salem, OR.
Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, and Michael Peter Smith. “The Locations of Transnationalism.” Transnationalism from Below: Comparative urban and community research(1998): 3–34. 2 copies.
Goldring, Luin. “The Power of Status in Transnational Social Fields.” Transnationalism from Below: Comparative urban and community research(1998): 165–195.
On December 12, 2023, PODER: Oregon’s Latino Leadership Network hosted an event to commemorate the official 50th Anniversary of the Colegio César Chávez. It was on this date in 1973 when Colegio community members decided on the name in honor of the activist. The event began with a presentation by Colegio co-founders Sonny Montes and José Romero followed by a community conversation, which was recorded and is available online. The evening continued with an introduction from PODER Board Chair Anthony Veliz; a welcome by Chemeketa Community College Woodburn campus Dean Elias Villegas; a reading of the Governor’s Colegio César Chávez Proclamation by Javier Cervantes, Office of the Governor – Racial Justice Advisor; and concluding remarks from Montes and Romero. And, the Colegio exhibit was featured as part of the event!
A presentation by Colegio co-founders Sonny Montes and José RomeroThe Governor’s Colegio César Chávez Proclamation presented to Anthony Veliz by Javier Cervantes Closing remarks by Colegio co-founders Sonny Montes and José RomeroColegio 50th Photo CollageColegio 50th Photo Collage
Jennifer Cox, Dean of Library and Learning Resources, Chemeketa Community College, cutting the ribbon at the November 20, 2023, Salem Campus exhibit opening
Colegio César Chávez Exhibit ~ Chemeketa Community College Tour Dates and Locations:
November 20th-December 28th ~ Salem Campus
January 3rd-February 9th ~ Woodburn Center
February 12th-March 22nd ~ Yamhill Valley Campus
March 22nd-April 1st ~ Salem Campus – César Chávez Day Celebration
April 2nd-May 17th ~ Polk Center
May 17th-June 30th ~ CCRLS (Chemeketa Community Regional Library Service) Partner Library-Newberg Public Library
Additionally, there has been interest from Blue Mountain Community College in displaying the exhibit in the summer or fall of next year.
On Monday, November 20th, the Salem Campus held an informal exhibit opening; about a dozen people attended and received a tour and Q&A of the exhibit. The exhibit begins in the library (building 9) of the Chemeketa Community College ~ Salem Campus with the history exhibit panels located throughout the second floor’s skybridge. The calendar and timeline panels are grouped on the main floor by the stairs leading up to the library.
Salem Campus Exhibit Photos
The calendar and timeline panels are grouped on the main floor by the stairs leading up to the library (building 9)
About a dozen people attended the opening and received a tour and Q&A of the exhibit
Urban League of Portland EOD Dinner, Oregon Convention Center, September 28, 2023
The OMA attended the 2023 Urban League of Portland Equal Opportunity Day dinner and celebration! This was the first in-person dinner since 2019; this year, as we have done in past years, we brought a display to showcase the history of the Urban League of Portland and share information about the archival collection. In the pre-dinner cocktail hour, we spoke with about two dozen people to share that the collection is open and accessible to the public.
At the dinner, the Urban League of Portland’s President, Nkenge Harmon Johnson, engaged in a conversation with Rukaiyah Adams, CEO of the 1803 Fund, which seeks to grow shared prosperity, through investments in community-based organizations and through smart financial investments. They spoke about the importance of Black wealth, which includes financial wealth, and importantly, cultural and community wealth. Harmon Johnson and Adams grew up together and both benefitted from the work of the Urban League in their youth; Adams shared that if anyone wants to see the fruition of the investment of the Urban League of Portland in Black youth, to look at her.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson and Rukaiyah Adams
Urban League of Portland EOD Dinner Program
Urban League of Portland EOD Dinner Program
More photos of the display are below!
Urban League of Portland EOD Dinner Display
Urban League of Portland EOD Dinner DisplayUrban League of Portland EOD Dinner DisplayUrban League of Portland EOD Dinner Display
We look forward to the 2024 Equal Opportunity Day!
