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Abstract
My dissertation traces the civil rights history of ethnic Mexicans during the last half of the twentieth century in the Greater Sacramento Valley of California. My work seeks to uncover how the Chicano Movement developed in Sacramento, a site that is at the nexus of a predominantly rural experience (farm work, migrant material conditions and social issues, and the United Farm Workers) and an urban experience (protests, marches to the state capitol, and the local Chicano Movement). This combination plays a crucial role in understanding and unraveling the construction of geopolitical spaces in northern California. The study examines and analyzes political activism, identity, gender, and community in Sacramento and argues that the Chicano Movement was far-reaching and served as a motivator for local grassroots organizing efforts.
