Marcela Mendoza and Erlinda V. Gonzales-Berry, Mexicanos in Oregon (2010)
Content warning:
Discrimination & bigotry, domestic violence, hate speech
Synopsis
Mexicanos in Oregon is a collection of essays edited by Marcela Mendoza and Erlinda V. Gonzales-Berry that seeks to examine the history, culture, and experiences of Mexican and Mexican American communities in Oregon. By bringing together the testimonios of many Mexican migrants and their children, the collection explores topics including migration, labor, education, community formation, language, identity, and political activism. Spanning from the nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century, the essays challenge stereotypes and misconceptions about Oregon’s demographic and cultural history by demonstrating the long-standing presence and influence of Mexican communities across the state. Dispersed between individual testimonios, Mendoza and Gonzales-Berry also include chapters like “Sojourners and Settlers: Tejanos and Mexicanos in Oregon in the Mid-Twentieth Century” and “New Migrations: Mexican Workers and Their Families Since the 1990s” which guide the reader through the upcoming testimonios with historical scholarly research. The combination of personal narratives and historical context offers a unique and in-depth perspective of the history of Mexican American experience in Oregon throughout time.
Essay
Mexicanos in Oregon expands the limits of what counts as Oregon literature by documenting histories and communities that have often been overlooked in traditional narratives of the state. Oregon is frequently imagined through stories of white settlement, pioneer heritage, lumber, and environmentalism. This essay broadens that scope to include the narratives of Mexican and Mexican American communities that have been so integral to Oregon’s social, economic, and cultural growth for generations. The book engages with multiple regions of Oregon, rather than focusing on a single location, to examine the wide breadth of influence these communities have. Namely, agricultural areas of the Willamette Valley, Eastern Oregon, and the Gorge region are the places where these essays highlight the history and present day stories of Oregonian Mexican and Mexican American lives. By tracing migration patterns and community formation across the state, the collection displays Oregon as a diverse and interconnected landscape shaped by movement, labor, and cultural exchange. A significant aspect of this collection is how it confronts the idea of Mexican and Mexican Americans residents being recent arrivals to the state. Instead, the essays outline the often forgotten stories of Mexican and Mexican American communities from well over a century ago. Oregon’s literature is not just about particular places often heralded as “Classic Oregon,” but also about the communities who uplifted and populated those areas, like Mexican and Mexican American groups. Many essays explore how Mexican Oregonians navigated and still navigate cultural traditions while responding to pressures of assimilation, discrimination, and economic inequality. I chose this text because it demonstrates the ways in which Oregon identity is not a fixed value, but instead something constantly evolving and expanding through the experiences of a diverse population. These conversations feel especially relevant as Oregon grapples with issues of social inclusion and immigration policies that threaten different communities across the whole state. By placing Mexican Oregonians at the center of Oregon’s development and story, the essays uplift the activism, labor, and communities that have shaped the state; hopefully including them back into a state historical and present-day narrative they are often excluded from.
Author Bio
Marcela Mendoza is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research focuses on Latino migration, transnational communities, and the experiences of Latino individuals and communities in the Pacific Northwest.
Erlinda V. Gonzales-Berry is a scholar of literature and culture whose work has focused on Chicano studies in Oregon. From 1997-2007, she was a chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at Oregon State University, as well as serving on other boards related to Hispanic and Latino communities in Oregon and beyond. After retirement from Oregon State University, she founded a non-profit that serves Latino communities in both Benton and Linn counties in Oregon.
Further Reading
Erlinda V. Gonzales-Berry, Paletitas de Guayaba (1991)
- A fictional autobiography that traces a young Mexican woman’s journey discovering her identity and her family history.
Daniel Chacón, Chicano Chicanery (2000)
- A short story collection that features different individuals that confront switched identities and being Chicano in white urban/rural communities.
Gabriella Ricciardi, “Telling Stories and Building Altars: Mexican American Women’s Altars in Oregon” in Oregon Historical Quarterly (Winter 2006)
- This article examines the cultural and religious altars that Mexican American women enact