Cultivating Sugar Beets. Courtesy of the MVC Research Library Collection.
“Oxnard Labor History,” a lecture by Frank P. Barajas, professor of U.S. history at CSU Channel Islands, will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 14 at the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum, 926 Railroad Ave., Santa Paula.
Barajas is the author of “Curious Unions: Mexican American Workers and Resistance in Oxnard, California, 1898-1961.” The program is part of the museum’s “From Field to Factory” exhibit appearing through Aug. 11. The exhibit will include never-before-exhibited photographs of the American Beet Sugar Factory in Oxnard, which was the world’s second largest beet sugar producer upon completion in 1898, and tales of the boom town that sprang up practically overnight around the factory, the museum reported in a media release. The photographs illustrate the rise of one of Ventura County’s most important historical crops: Sugar beets. A beet wagon, fully restored by Santa Paula resident Richard Cummings, will be on display. Artifacts from the factory, as well as tools of the beet trade, will also be on display.
Admission to Barajas’ lecture is $5 for the general public and free for museum members, and includes entrance to all museum exhibits. RSVP to 805-525-3100.