Local

CAMARILLO — The Ventura County Community Foundation and the Ventura County Housing Trust Fund have teamed up to create the first permanent revolving fund in Ventura County dedicated to building farmworker housing, the organizations reported in a media release. The $100,000 in the fund will be made available as loans to developers who build units for agricultural laborers and their families. As developers repay their loans to the Housing Trust Fund, the money will be cycled back into the pool to fund future projects.

“Agriculture is the second largest workforce sector in Ventura County, providing 31,000 jobs with an estimated 20,000 of those workers employed on local farms. Quality shelter for the people who tend and harvest the crops ties directly to the success of our economy,” Hugh Ralston, VCCF president and CEO, stated in the release. “This has been a priority for VCCF and our donors for the past decade, and we are pleased to have this opportunity.” The Ventura County Fund for Farmworker Housing at VCCF has granted more than $465,000 for this priority since it was founded in 2003. The fund has supported the building of the 14th Street Development farmworker units in Santa Paula, Citrus Place in Piru and Villa Cesar Chavez in Oxnard. It also has provided pre-development funds for the proposed Hansen Trust Farmworker Apartments in Ventura.

Visit vccf.org and vchousingtrustfund.org for more information.

 

VENTURA — Bennie’s Market, Gonzalez La Mexicana Market, La Victoria Market, Rivas Family Market — these are just a few of the family-owned grocery stores started by immigrants in the early 1900s in search of livelihoods and a home. The Museum of Ventura County will tell their stories through their eyes in the exhibit “Who’s Minding the Store: The Small Grocery Business in Ventura County,” from Friday, June 13 through Sunday, Aug. 31 at 100 E. Main St., Ventura.

The exhibition explores issues of independence, survival, assimilation and family values, museum officials reported in a media release.

As immigrants moved from larger urban centers to smaller cities and towns, the desire for a better life for their families motivated them to move from the lowest paying jobs to becoming entrepreneurs. As a result, neighborhood grocery stores sprung up throughout America, especially within its immigrant enclaves.  Nearly every block had a “mom-and-pop” store.

They required very little by way of start-up capital, much of which was obtained either from one’s slightly more affluent relatives or through the good graces of mutual aid societies.  Everyone in the family would pitch in, tending to the customers, stocking the shelves, wrapping orders in brown paper and delivering orders on foot or by bicycle.

A partial list of businesses includes:

• Asahi Market – Takasugi Family
• Bennie’s Market – Benny Enriquez
• Garden Market – Yamamoto family
• Gonzalez La Mexicana Market – Jesus Gonzalez/Richard Gonzalez
• Inadomi Market – John Inadomi
• Jue’s Market – Jue family
• La Victoria Market – Cipriano Garcia
• Peirano’s Market – Nick Peirano
• Rivas Family Market – Crispin Rivas
• Sanchez Grocery – Arnulfo Sanchez
• Simon Cohn’s Market – Simon Cohn
• Villegas Market – Luis Villegas

Some of these stores still exist today; some became casualties of the Great Depression or, more recently, the freeway coming through Ventura.

This exhibit will feature rarely-seen artifacts and photos sourced by the families, as well as an interactive grocery-store environment for children.

Visit http://venturamuseum.org/upcoming-exhibitions/mvc-upcoming-exhibitions/ for more information.

 

VENTURA — The Museum of Ventura County will present the exhibit “Mexican-American Baseball in Ventura County” from Sept. 19 through Nov. 30 at 100 E. Main St., Ventura.

The exhibit focuses on the American sport that saturated communities across the nation including the Mexican barrios of Ventura County. Baseball was a way to build unity, strengthen friendships, hone skills, and to forget, for nine innings, that they were different. It became a source of pride for the players as well as the residents of the barrios and ultimately was the great equalizer.

The exhibit will feature artifacts, photographs and stories from our local communities.

Visit http://venturamuseum.org/upcoming-exhibitions/mvc-upcoming-exhibitions/ for more information.

 

SANTA MARIA — Jesus Sanchez received the prestigious Marian Hancock Scholarship during the Allan Hancock College Foundation’s 45th annual awards banquet on May 22, college officials reported in a media release.

“It was the best moment of my life,” Sanchez stated in the release. “When I was receiving a standing ovation, I felt like I was in a movie. I was so proud because I felt like everyone in the room and at the college believed in me.”

The $10,000 gift is named in honor of the late Marian Hancock, the wife of Captain G. Allan Hancock, for whom the college is named. Mrs. Hancock wanted the gift bestowed on a student who demonstrated a commitment to continuing his or her education, and who had shown great promise and dedication. Despite beginning to learn to read and write English six years ago, Sanchez has a 4.0 gradepoint average in 133.5 credit units.  Sanchez graduated with high honors and received an associate of arts degree in liberal arts-transfer: arts and humanities. He will attend UC Berkeley in the fall.

A total of 413 scholarships, worth nearly $480,000, were awarded to 266 students during the banquet.

 

OXNARD — Sherry Leal of Oxnard has been awarded a full-tuition scholarship from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the University of Phoenix, the organizations reported in a media release. She is one of 30 recipients nationwide to receive the scholarship to complete an undergraduate or master’s degree. Leal attended California Lutheran University and earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish. She was then hired by the club in Oxnard.

“I am grateful for the scholarship opportunity to further my education provided by the University of Phoenix and their partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs of America,” Leal stated in the release.

 

CAMARILLO — Amanda Quintero, director of Hispanic Serving Institution Initiatives at CSU Channel Islands, has been elected vice president of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators (AHSIE), university officials reported in a media release. The alliance supports the work of the nation’s more than 300 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) as they seek to provide educational opportunities to the growing numbers of Hispanic and underserved students.

A first-generation college graduate, Quintero is an advocate and promoter of opportunities for underrepresented student populations in higher education. During her 10-year career at CSUCI, she has been the recipient of the El Concilio Latino Leadership Award (2013), CI Multicultural

Programs Women’s Leadership Award (2012) and the Pacific Coast Business Times 40 under 40 Award (2005) and has served as the interim associate vice president for Research & Sponsored Programs, interim director of the Office of Service Learning, Title V project director and director for Research & Sponsored Programs.

“I am passionate about overcoming barriers to higher education for underrepresented students and shifting institutional culture, policies and practices to support their success,” Quintero stated in a media release. “As a daughter of immigrant parents and a former low-income, first-generation college student, I understand the obstacles that these students face to obtaining a college degree and the value that they can return to their communities as educated leaders. It’s my passion and privilege to help students find a supportive and encouraging environment for fulfilling their dreams at CI.”

 

SANTA MARIA — Allan Hancock College English professor Marc García-Martínez, Ph.D., will soon join world-renowned researchers Jane Goodall and Noam Chomsky as authors whose works have been published by the San Diego State University Press (SDSU Press), college officials reported in a media release.

The oldest university press in the California State University system will publish García-Martínez’s book, “The Flesh and Blood Aesthetics of Alejandro Morales – Disease, Sex, and Figuration,” in June.

García-Martínez has taught composition, literary and media studies at Allan Hancock Colleger for 14 years.

“It is exciting to have my book published, particularly by such an eclectic and venerable academic publisher,” García-Martínez stated in a media release. He dedicated the book in memory of his late father, who recently passed away. “It is somewhat bittersweet because my father is not here to hold it and read it. He was a tremendous force in my intellectual, philosophical and artistic development as a child.”

The book analyzes the work of Alejandro Morales, considered by many scholars and critics as one of the nation’s foremost Chicano writers.

Morales, an award-winning author, has written seven novels and three novellas, including “The Brick People” and “The Rag Doll Plagues.”

García-Martínez says his book is the only full-length study written in English by a single author about Morales.

He explores several of Morales’ novels and analyzes the author’s metaphors, symbols, imagery and obsession with the human body. He argues that understanding Morales’ aesthetics, or his sense of craft underlying his work, is key to deciphering his philosophies and concerns.

“The book emphasizes that before the political, racial, cultural and ideological, are the art and figurative expressions of one man’s view of humanity.”