Albert Camarillo : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Albert Camarillo is a professor of history emeritus at Stanford University. In this oral history, he covers his family’s immigration from Mexico; growing up in Compton, California, in the 1950s and 1960s at a time of demographic change; his undergraduate and graduate studies at UCLA as Chicano history was just beginning to develop as a field; his career at Stanford; and his experiences mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. Topics of special importance to Stanford history include his account of the 1994 hunger strike by Chicano students; the origin and evolution of the Center for Chicano Research and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE); and the activities of the University Committee on Minority Issues.
- Summary
- Childhood in Compton, California • Parents’ immigration from Michoacán, Mexico • Post-World War II era Compton • Discrimination and segregation in Compton; Jim Crow vs. Jaime Crow • Family life in the barrios • Older sisters as surrogate parents • The Catholic Church in Compton • Deportations of Mexican-Americans in the 1930s • Americanization and acculturation of first-generation immigrants • Home ownership • Moving to the Richland Farms area of West Compton • Racial identity in a multicultural context • African-Americans in West Compton • Attending Dominguez High School in the 1960s • Participation in student government and a council to mediate race relations • Desegregation and racism in high school • Civil rights movement in Los Angeles • Impact of race riots in Watts on Compton • College decisions of Camarillo and his brothers, different expectations for his sisters • Attending University of California, Los Angeles • Freshman basketball team • Lack of diversity at UCLA • Meeting wife, Susan, at UCLA • Vietnam War and the Naval ROTC • Academic struggles and the impact of a Chicano history class • Graduate studies with Juan Gómez-Quiñones at UCLA • California History and Norris Hundley • UCLA basketball team and teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) • John Wooden and the importance of practice • Diversity of the student body at UCLA • Participation in the anti-Vietnam War movement and protests • Mexican-American student association (MEChA) and Chicano graduate student associations • Graduate studies in Chicano history at UCLA • First teaching job at UC Santa Barbara • Aztlán Publications and the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA • Lack of Chicano archival materials • Graduate school dissertation process • Coming to Stanford as a professor in 1975 • Affirmative action and faculty of color at Stanford • Chicano-related courses for undergraduates • Generational differences in History Department faculty • Publishing first book on Chicano history, Chicanos in a Changing Society • Idea for the Stanford Center for Chicano Research • Having confidence to be first • Challenges of academia • Scholar activism • Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) • Job interview at Stanford, including a memorable meeting with Bart Bernstein • Changing terminology for ethnic identity • Students of color at Stanford vs. UCLA • Chicano Fellows Program • Founding of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research • Support from the Ford Foundation for the Inter-University Program for Latino Research • Development of Chicano primary sources in Stanford Libraries Special Collections • Hiring Roberto Trujillo to build the Chicano collections • Camarillo’s graduate students • University Committee on Minority Issues • Racism on university campuses • Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity • Firing of Cecilia Burciaga, a senior Chicana administrator • 1994 student hunger strike and demands for Chicano studies program • Genesis of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity • CSRE undergraduate major • Mentoring undergraduate and graduate students • Success of graduate students • Chicano consciousness • Retirement and legacy at Stanford • Recruiting minority students and coaches to the Stanford Athletics Department • Service as faculty athletic representative • Athletics Department • Importance of humanities
Description
Type of resource | moving image, sound recording-nonmusical, text |
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Extent | 4 video files; 4 audio files; 1 text file; 1 photograph |
Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Date created | May 15, 2018 - 2018-05-16 |
Language | English |
Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
Interviewee | Camarillo, Albert | |
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Creator | Camarillo, Albert | |
Interviewer | Ornelas Rodriguez, Ignacio | |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
Subject | Camarillo, Albert |
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Subject | Latino/Chicano history and society |
Subject | Stanford University. Department of History |
Subject | Stanford Center for Chicano Research |
Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
Biographical Profile |
A member of the Stanford University History Department since 1975, Camarillo is widely regarded as one of the founding scholars of the field of Mexican American history and Chicano Studies. He was born and raised in the South Central Los Angeles community of Compton where he attended the Compton public schools before entering the University of California at Los Angeles as a freshman in 1966. He continued his education at UCLA in the PhD program in U.S. History where he received his doctorate in 1975 and where his dissertation was nominated that year as one of the best PhD theses in the nation in American history. Camarillo has published seven books and dozens of articles and essays dealing with the experiences of Mexican Americans and other racial and immigrant groups in American cities.
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Transcript |
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Finding Aid | |
Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/pc519mc7683 |
Location | SC0932 |
Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- Digital recordings from this collection may be accessed freely. These files may not be reproduced or used for any purpose without permission. For permission requests, please contact Stanford University Department of Special Collections & University Archives (speccoll@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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