The Department of History at CSUN invites you to attend a Valley Pioneer Lecture on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. by Professor Rodolfo F. Acuna on "All Corridors Lead Through Los Angeles: the 1933 San Joaquin Cotton Strike and the Mexican Odyssey."

Professor Rodolfo F. Acuna is a Professor of Chicano Studies at CSUN. Professor Acuna received a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from USC in 1968 and became the founding chair of the new Chicano Studies Department at CSUN in 1969. He has received a number of fellowships, research grants, and awards for his contributions to Chicano Studies including a Ford Foundation Grant establishing Operation Chicano Teacher, an Outstanding Scholar of U.S.-Mexico Studies award, a Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Chicano Studies, and a National Hispanic Hero Award from the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute.

Professor Acuna has made a pioneering contribution to scholarship on the Chicanos experience in the U.S. with over a dozen books including a forthcoming three volume study with Guadalupe Compean on Voices of the U.S. Latino Experience which examines the history and experiences of the diverse groups labeled Latinos from the early 19th century to a discussion of Latinos and the Iraq war. In 1972 during the emergence of the Chicano movement, Acuna published Occupied America: The Chicano Struggle Toward Liberation, which provided one of the first and most influential interpretive accounts of the Chicano experience. This book, with a revised subtitle-A History of Chicanos-is now in its 6th edition and continues to influence new generations of students and scholars. Professor Acuna has also been a most prolific contributor of book chapters, journal articles, book reviews, and opinion pieces in La Opinion and the Los Angeles Times. In Corridors of Migration, Acuna documents the history of Mexican workers and their families from seventeenth-century Chihuahua to twentieth-century California, following their patters of migration and describing the establishment of communities in mining and agricultural regions. He shows the combined influences of racism, transborder dynamics, and events such as the industrialization of the Southwest, the Mexican Revolution, and World War I in shaping the collective experience of these people as they helped to form the economic, political, and social landscapes of the American Southwest in their interactions with agribusiness and absentee copper barons.

Professor Acuna's lecture will explore the 1933 San Joaquin cotton strike during the depths of the great depression and in the context of the activism of Mexican workers gained through their common experience of migrating to the U.S. Professor Acuna will be pleased to sign copies of his book which will be available for purchase.

The lecture will be held in the Whitsett Room (Sierra Hall 451). A reception will be held after the lecture. Since seating is limited, pelase RSVP to the Department of History at (818) 677-3566 and to obtain parking information.