On March 16 in Oakland, OUSD Urban Dreams participants attended a workshop/presentation led by Ethnic Studies Professor Alex Saragoza. This was the fourth and final meeting in a series that began last October, and explored topics related to the assimilation and acculturation process facing Latino immigrants to the United States in the middle decades of the 20th Century.

For the duration of this series, Saragoza and staff from OUSD and the IU have conducted the sessions for a group of about 15 teachers and curriculum specialists, presenting materials and leading discussions focused on political, historical and economic developments taking place in the United States.

With the goal of understanding American cultural shifts and the challenges these presented to immigrants, the series offered teachers varied resources that can be incorporated into high school lessons.

The March 16 session focused on how individuals were able to assess and evaluate the emerging cultural and political definitions of what it meant to be American, as well as what it meant to be other-than-American, during the pivotal period of the 1940s and 1950s. Topics and ideas in the March session stemmed from the earlier presentations in the academic year, and continued to focus on Latino experiences in California.

. . . Continue on to the IU News April 2004 page to read more about the IU's current and future work.