Mexican Americans with Moxie: A Transgenerational History of El Movimiento Chicano in Ventura County, California, 1945–1975

Abstract

In Mexican Americans with Moxie, Frank P. Barajas eloquently makes a case that Ventura County was very much a part of the Chicana/o movement and by doing so forces a reckoning with Chicana/o movement historiography that largely omits mixed rural/urban settings. Ventura County is situated only four hours from the US–Mexico border and sixty miles northwest of Los Angeles, making it a top destination for Mexican migrants, who, he claims “also became Chicana-Chicano as they witnessed, participated in, and adapted to the cultural crosscurrents of the time” (p. 5, p.13).Barajas not only expands the regional parameters of the Chicana/o movement, he also argues that the Chicana/o movement was transgenerational and not solely made up of youth activists. He contends “that a collection of people from the Mexican American and Chicana-Chicano generations defined El Movimiento (the Chicano movement) in Ventura County” (p. 3). This transgenerational approach is what makes Mexican Americans with Moxie innovative. For Barajas, the Chicana/o movement was one that included two generations: “one born before World War II that came of age prior to the 1960s, and the other subsequently” (p. 2). He argues, and I agree, that Chicana/o movement historiography needs to move away from categorizing this politicized cohort as solely a youth movement.The book is divided into eight chapters, not including an introduction and conclusion. The first chapter sets up the political landscape of Ventura starting with the arrival of Cesar Chavez in 1958 and the establishment of the Community Service Organization (CSO) a year later (p. 14). Chapter 2 details efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and CSO to end segregation in local schools as well as police brutality. This cross-racial coalition pre-dates the Chicana/o movement and sets the foundation for future efforts in the region to address racial imbalance in Ventura County. The third chapter turns to the formation of the Brown Berets of Oxnard and continues with a discussion of the CSO, Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA). Chapters 4 and 5 situate the legal struggles with the Oxnard Elementary School District to desegregate its schools and expose many of the school board members as successful in institutionalizing racism. These chapters also reveal what scholars of race and ethnicity have already confirmed—that housing segregation mirrors school segregation. For example, “Within schools, district officials created staggered attendance and playground schedules” (p. 115). Chapters 6 and 7 look at farmworker organizing efforts through the help of Chavez's UFW, highlighting the strike of Egg City, one of the nation's largest egg producers, on July 13, 1967, as well as other farm labor rights efforts. When UFWOC “led the men and women on a march through the city's streets,” students at Oxnard High School marched alongside them—demonstrating the cross-generational alliances during El Movimiento (p. 145). The final chapter, Chapter 8, follows the push by college students to bring Chicana/o studies programs to their campuses, especially at Moorpark College, and their efforts to hire Chicana/o faculty. This chapter also highlights how Chicana/o student activists worked with the Black Student Union at Ventura College to secure the Minority Student Center (pp. 176–77).For Barajas, it didn't matter much if one self-identified as Chicana/o, as was the case with César Chávez. What mattered most was the political engagement and consciousness against racist structures. Here, Barajas also emphasizes another important misjudgment of the Chicana/o community in the 1960s. The majority of Chicanas/os resided in mostly urban settings and consequently many had little to no experience working in California's agricultural industry. Yet they espoused, “WE ARE MEXICAN-AMERICANS, non-farmworkers who support Cesar Chavez . . . ” (p. 1). Chávez and the United Farm Workers union resonated with Chicana/o movement activists’ pleas for economic justice. The book demonstrates that indeed the Chicana/o movement was by all accounts and purposes a social movement that transcended generational lines (p.160).Although the book is rich in archival and oral histories, a discussion on the political significance of MAPA, Brown Berets, CSO, and others would have been helpful—mostly to hone in on how Ventura County differs or is similar to organizational chapters elsewhere. The discussion on desegregation could have also used further national context, especially because efforts to desegregate met similar resistance in other regions of the United States, more specifically, the East Coast. This conversation could have strengthened his argument and added to larger historiographical interventions.Mexican Americans with Moxie will undoubtedly be of use in Chicana/o studies, ethnic studies, social movement, history, twentieth-century race and ethnicity, and political science courses. Graduate and undergraduate students will find it an easy and enjoyable read. Barajas's book also serves as a reminder to today's young activists that they are part of a long trajectory of political activism.