Albert M. Camarillo Compton Project Collection

Collection

Identifier: SPC-2025-014

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Albert M. Camarillo Compton Project Collection (1890, 1925-2013; undated) contains 5 boxes and 4.42 linear feet of material collected or created by Albert Camarillo, a former Stanford University history professor regarding Compton, California history. This collection contains two series. Series I: Compton Research and Publications contains proposals, emails, articles, pamphlets, memorandums, presentations, reports regarding redevelopment and housing, meeting minutes, census data, maps, photographs, police department reports, notes, studies, and other documents regarding Compton, California in relation to Compton history projects led by Albert and Jeffrey Camarillo including pilot projects and proposals for "Perspectives on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Changes in Urban America: Compton and South Central Los Angeles, 1950s-1990s" By Albert Camarillo, "What Really Happened in Compton? The Effects of Racial and Ethnic Transformation on Urban Politics, Economics, Education, Crime, and Inter-Group Relations" by Jeffrey Camarillo, and emails, contact lists, and other material related to a Compton Oral History Project led by Albert Camarillo (for more material related to the Compton Oral History Project see Series II). Also included in this series are materials related to the Compton Teen Mural Leadership Institute; material related to a Serna v. Eastin court case; copies of articles authored by Albert Camarillo such as: "Chicano Urban History: A Study of Compton's Barrio","Cities of Color: The New Racial Frontier in California's Minority- Majority Cities", "Black and Brown in Compton: Demographic Change, Suburban Decline, and Intergroup Relations in a South Central Los Angeles Community 1950-2000", "Navigating Segregated Life in America's Radical Borderhoods 1910s-1950s", and others. Series II: Compton Oral History Project contains audiocassettes, and transcripts of interviews conducted by Albert Camarillo, Jeff Camarillo, and Stanford University Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CRSE) Compton Summer Internship Program students. This series also includes project lists and prospective interviewees lists; contact forms; emails; guidelines; and reference and research material regarding conducting oral histories and Compton history. Please contact the Gerth Archives and Special Collections for access to oral history files.

Dates

1890, 1925-2013; undated
Majority of material found within 1990-2010

Creator

Camarillo, Albert (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

There are no access restrictions on this collection; except where notated at file level.

Oral History Interview- Access

Please contact the Gerth Archives and Special Collections for access to oral history interview files.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Albert Michael Camarillo is a historian and emeriti faculty at Stanford University, and is known as one of the founding scholars of Chicano Studies and Mexican American history. Camarillo was born and raised in Compton California. He attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) obtaining a BA in history in 1970; and a Ph.D. in history in 1975 where he became the first Mexican American in U.S. history to receive a Ph.D. in U.S. history with a specialization in Chicano history. Camarillo would go on to become a professor of history at Stanford University where he received many awards and fellowships including the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Service to Undergraduate Education, the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, and Miriam Roland Prize for Volunteer Service. In 1980, Camarillo became the founding director of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research. In 1985 he was named the founding executive director of the inter-university program in Latino research- a position he held until 1988. During his career at Stanford, he also was appointed as Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences, was the founding director of the Center of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) established in 1996, chair of the CSRE undergraduate degree program, and was appointed as the Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor in 2011- a position he held until his retirement in 2017.

Camarillo has also authored many books, articles, and essays about the experiences of Mexican Americans and other racial and immigrant groups such as: Compton in My Soul: A Life in Pursuit of Racial Equality (Stanford University Press, 2024), Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios (Harvard University Press, 1979, six printings; Southern Methodist University Press edition, March 2005), Chicanos in California: A History of Mexican Americans (Boyd and Fraser, 1984, four printings), and others. Camarillo also served as President of the Organization of American Historians (2012-2013), and is past president to the American Historical Association- Pacific Coast Branch.

Extent

5 boxes

4.42 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection contains material collected or created by Albert Camarillo, a former Stanford University history professor regarding Compton, California history. Included in this collection are documents, transcripts, tapes, and other material related to Compton history projects led by Camarillo, as well as articles, notes, data, reports and other research material compiled by Camarillo; and copies of essays and articles authored by Camarillo, and others. Material in this collection was used by Camarillo for his book Compton in My Soul: A Life in Pursuit of Racial Equality (2024).

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into two series:

Series I: Compton Research and Publications, 1890, 1925-2013; undated
Series II: Compton Oral History Project, 1945, 1997, 2000-2004, 2010; undated

Related Materials

Albert Camarillo papers at Stanford University; Albert Camarillo oral history interview: https://exhibits-lb.stanford.edu/shs/catalog/gd990rw2132; Albert Camarillo oral history collection at UC Santa Barbara. For material related to Compton see: Compton History Collection; South Bay History Collection; Filer Compton Colletion; Compton 125 Historical Society Collection; and others.