Digital Delano: Preserving an International Community's History

FAIN: PY-253069-17

Kern Community College District (Bakersfield, CA 93301-4014)
Oliver Arthur Rosales (Project Director: May 2016 to April 2022)

The planning and implementation of four public events to include digitization of community collections and outreach programs to raise awareness of the history of agriculture in Delano County, California. The Kern Community College’s Bakersfield College Delano Campus Library would collaborate with local cultural heritage organizations, including the Filipino American National Historical Society, the Friends of Allensworth Committee, and the Delano Historical Society. Each event would help preserve and facilitate a deeper understanding of the community’s Filipino, African American, Mexican, and European immigrant past, while raising awareness of the community’s rich history of labor organizing and agricultural development.

"Digital Delano: Preserving An International Community's History," enacts a series of digital archival recruitment events led by the Bakersfield College Delano Campus Library (BCDCL).  A new addition to the BC satellite campus, the BCDLC will work with local organizations to expand the digitization of cultural heritage materials related to Delano's diverse international migration history.  Our partner organizations represent connections to important local and diverse community constituents for recruitment of historical artifacts and ephemera.  These organizations include the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS); Friends of Allensworth Committee; and Delano Historical Society.  Each organization will assist facilitating digitization campaigns to preserve the community's Filipino, African American, Mexican, and European immigrant past, in turn, advancing understanding of this California agricultural community's common heritage regarding its international migration past.

Media Coverage

Bakersfield College harvesting oral histories of Delano area farmworkers thanks to grant (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Olivia Garcia
Publication: Bakersfield Californian
Date: 10/17/2017
Abstract: Overview of Digital Delano grant and community event with author Gabriel Thompson
URL: https://www.bakersfield.com/entertainment/bakersfield-college-harvesting-oral-histories-of-delano-area-farmworkers-thanks/article_295a6794-b078-11e7-8d99-6bc0abed41cd.html

Filipina American historian to visit Delano, discuss importance of preserving family histories (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Olivia Garcia
Publication: Bakersfield Californian
Date: 4/29/2018
Abstract: Summary of Digital Delano culminating event and grant year.
URL: https://www.bakersfield.com/filipina-american-historian-to-visit-delano-discuss-importance-of-preserving/article_75fd126a-4a59-11e8-996a-e73166c598b3.html

Professor Rosales is building Digital Delano to capture the history of rural Kern (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Oliver Rosales, Olivia Garcia
Date: 4/9/2018
Abstract: Interview with "In the 661" local media program.
URL: https://www.facebook.com/inthe661/videos/2066561050297921/?fb_dtsg_ag=AdzmJ0iv3zCj70NIpMv8QfiE6_d26sWAbZxQ15_LCtkPWA%3AAdyNrOhOLj6l4UHfZT0J3sLJXAb2yGURTLhM4_kei4B1IA

Community Voices: Celebrating the Hands that Feed Us (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Oliver Rosales, Gabriel Thompson, Olivia Garcia
Publication: Bakersfield Californian
Date: 10/18/2017
Abstract: Summary of Chasing the Harvest and Digital Delano oral history collection efforts.
URL: https://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/community-voices/community-voices-celebrating-the-hands-that-feed-us/article_6f6af294-b37a-11e7-9537-fbd6b304ab9b.html

Project Seeks To Preserve Delano's History (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Oliver Rosales, Gabriel Thompson, Olivia Garcia
Publication: Valley Edition
Date: 4/23/2018
Abstract: Interview with Oliver Rosales by KVPR Valley Edition host Joe Moore.
URL: http://www.kvpr.org/post/project-seeks-preserve-delanos-history

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