Asst. Prof Gabriela Martinez Helps Acquire Latino Labor Organization's Archives
University of Oregon Knight Library Special Collections is the recent recipient of the historical collection of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN, in English, the Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United, pronounced “pe-cune”), the 25-year-old Woodburn-based labor union. The collection consists of historic papers, including the organization's founding documents, leaflets, photographs and video.
Founded in 1985, PCUN is Oregon's largest Latino organization, and 98 percent of its 5,000 members are Mexican and Central American immigrants. “The people of PCUN have noticed that we are serious about diversity and working with the Latino community, that we are committed to that community. I think that it showed trust that they could entrust their archives with our university,” said SOJC Assistant Professor Gabriela Martinez, who worked closely with the organization to bring the collection to the UO.
Her interest began as she was as she was conducting interviews as part of a class called Latino Roots, which she co-taught with Anthropology Professor Lynn Stephen during the winter and spring 2011 terms.
Stephen has been working collaboratively with PCUN for several years, and in 2001, her book, The Story of PCUN and the Farmworker Movement in Oregon, was published by the University of Oregon Department of Anthropology. Martinez has worked with students who were interested in studying PCUN because of its historic and social impact on the State of Oregon and its Latino population, as well as its groundbreaking 100-watt FM radio station in Woodburn, Radio Movimiento, which features broadcasts in Spanish as well as in indigenous languages spoken in Latin America.
Martinez explains: “I visited them to do an interview with (PCUN leader) Larry Kleinman for the Latino Roots project. And on visiting them, I saw their archive. My interest was especially in the photography and video archive. I realized that several of the videos that are really valuable because of their content was not well-preserved and in a room that's not weather controlled.”
Martinez began discussing PCUN's archives with Stephen and James Fox, Head of Special Collections and University Archives, in 2010, and soon Fox was meeting with PCUN leaders, who were eager to work with UO in preserving the organization's documents.
“I think PCUN leadership was deeply interested in increasing the depth of the relationship between PCUN and the University of Oregon,” said Fox of his visit to PCUN in 2010. “And it seemed like a really great catalyst and way to do that, bringing the papers here so people could work on them.”
“Latinos are a very important part of our state and have been for a long time,” said Fox. “So obviously it is important to help preserve their history, so that this generation and the future generations of scholars can work on it.”
Latinos are the fastest growing population in the State of Oregon – jumping from 8 percent of the state's population in 2000 to nearly 12 percent in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Between 2000 and 2010, Oregon gained nearly 450,000 people of Hispanic or Latino origin. But Latinos are not newcomers to the state – people of Latino and Hispanic origin have been in Oregon since as early as the 1850s. Several other collections related to ethnic and racial minorities have also found homes in UO's Special Collections, including collections related to Colegio Cesar Chavez, African American cultural history in Eugene and the Klamath Tribal Council.
“For the university to pay attention to (the history of Latinos in Oregon) and for the SOJC to pay attention to that, it's important,” said Martinez. “Besides that, I think it signals that we are not the ivory tower. It signals that we want to work with the community and with community organizations like PCUN.”
On June 6, PCUN's president, Ramon Ramirez, and UO President Richard Lariviere participated in a special event that included a signing of the deed of gift for the PCUN papers. At this time, only a fraction of the collection is currently on display at the Knight Library Special Collections; the remainder of the collection will be sorted and transferred from PCUN's headquarters in Woodburn this summer. Also currently on display in Special Collections are video documentaries made by Latino Roots students, which are also available on the class's website, http://latinoroots.uoregon.edu.
“Professors Stephen and Martinez worked together to develop the course to trace the history of Latinos in Oregon,” said third-year Communication and Society PhD student Sonia De La Cruz, who was a student and GTF for the Latino Roots classes and is conducting research on Latino community radio, including Radio Movimiento.
“The first part of the course, taught in the winter, was theoretically grounded in providing knowledge about the history of Latino migrants in the State of Oregon. And the second part of the class was essentially working with Latino community members and making testimony-oriented documentaries that told stories of people and how they came to the State of Oregon. All of the students in the class made a documentary.”
De La Cruz and Martinez each say they have a personal stake in PCUN's recognition by the UO. “For me, coming from California into Oregon, it's so very different,” said De La Cruz. “In California, the Latino presence is so dominant. So when I came to Oregon to see that there wasn't the same sort of presence of Latinos in that strong way, it sort of impacted me. It's really important to document and build this archive that really recognizes the Latino community within the State of Oregon.”
“I'm also a Latino,” said Martinez. “So for me it's more of a personal commitment to my own community, to my university and to what I would like to see reflected in this school.”
“One of the great things about a culture is the plurality of voices,” said Fox. “And historically in our museums and libraries, not all of those voices have been included, so we've had a very selective history. And the danger there is in 100 or 150 years, those voices that weren't included in museums and libraries can be effectively erased from the historical record. So this is an important undertaking to make sure that a wide variety of voices are included.”