The Sacramento Movimiento Chicano and Mexican American Education Oral History Project

The Project was successful in collecting 125 richly detailed and textured oral histories, gifted to Sacramento State University Library in December 2020 and October 2023. The interviewers were, for the most part, conducted by undergraduate students enrolled in Dr. Lorena V. Márquez’s qualitative methods courses at the University of California, Davis. Interviews were conducted in 2014, 2015, and 2023. The narratives reveal a multifaceted picture of the Chicana/o Movement in Northern California, specifically in Sacramento. These counter-stories, grounded in real life experiences, document the social and political events that influenced these activists, and offer the narrators the opportunity to reflect on how those events shaped the trajectory of their lives.

Chicano Oral History Digital Collection

The Sacramento Movimiento Chicano and Mexican American Education Oral History Project can be searched and viewed through Sacramento State University Library Digital Collections. In an effort to make this collection more widely accessible, the oral histories have been described in both English and Spanish. Please note that the collection uses keywords from established vocabularies, which may use outdated terms; terms translated to Spanish may further use keywords that are not commonly used. If you have questions about searching the collection, comments, or need to report errors, please contact the library’s Special Collections and University Archive department (contact information listed below).

NOTE: The Library is currently in the process of adding oral histories received in 2023; see full list of narrators below. 

This picture, showing Cesar Chavez (front row, third from left) and other notable activists, provided notice of a 2013 reunion of members of the Chicano movement to be held at Sac State. (Image courtesy of Lorena Márquez)