Untold Legacies: Re-Envisioning Ventura County Through an Ethnic Studies Lens

CSU Channel Islands professor José M. Alamillo, PhD, will present hidden legacies of racialized communities in Ventura County through a lens that challenges Eurocentric romantic narratives of the past centered on Spanish missions and white pioneers. He will show how Mexican American female activists launched a legal fight to desegregate movie theaters in Ventura County, and highlight the multiethnic working-class neighborhood of Tortilla Flats that existed in downtown Ventura until the late 1950s, when the state of California condemned homes and businesses to build Highway 101.