Valley Migrant League photographs

Alicia Martinez serves rice at party Boy Scout Mario Rios and Scoutmaster John Smith stand in front of airplane Group celebrates after boxing match at open house in Eola Village, Oregon Sevastion Gostevskyh and daughter Maria Frime Gonzales wears a paper hat at daycare center in Hillsboro, Oregon Sarah Goodwin explains bilingual notes on chalkboard after planning for adult education classes Evlampi Zharkoff Guzman family at Wilson Camp in Willamette Valley, Oregon Dr. Wilson Record Valley Migrant League staff discuss mobile library servicing migrant labor camp Quentin Rowland and Sam Hernandez stand outside of the Salem Opportunity Center in Salem, Oregon Ivan Putnam shows children how to use a saw in his woodshop Salem, Oregon Two children use a saw in Ivan Putnam's woodshop in Salem, Oregon Luis Valdez speaks at a press conference at the Portland Labor Temple in Portland, Oregon Valley Migrant League staff load books into mobile library servicing migrant labor camps in the W... Nurse gives penicillin injection to baby at medical clinic in Eola Village, Oregon Farm workers move hops crops onto conveyor belt in Willamette Valley, Oregon Elva Cortez spreads out her arms and smiles at the camera Tom Perry sits in office Priscilla Carrasco sits at typewriter Priscilla Carrasco holds a camera Priscilla Carrasco looks at contact sheet Enid Breeding pulls a file out of a file drawer at the West Stayton Opportunity Center in West St... Cesar Chavez listens at meeting with farm workers in Portland, Oregon Cesar Chavez speaks at a meeting with farm workers in Portland, Oregon Cesar Chavez speaks in Delano, California Tom McCall meets with Valley Migrant League adult education class Tom McCall meets with Valley Migrant League adult education class
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Identity elements

Reference code

Org. Lot 74

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Collection

Title

Valley Migrant League photographs

Date(s)

  • 1965 - 1968 (Creation)

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Scope and content

Collection consists of photographs used by the Valley Migrant League (VML) for its program newspaper, "Opportunity News." Most of the photographs were taken by VML staff. Many of the individuals and places depicted in the prints and negatives in this collection were identified by Oregon Historical Society archivists from the corresponding articles in "Opportunity News."
Subjects depicted in the photographs include VML-sponsored adult education and vocational training programs, including photographs of classrooms, workshops, and businesses hosting work-training programs as well as portraits of program graduates and teachers. Also depicted are VML’s children’s daycare programs including photographs of children in the daycare centers and on educational field trips as well as community events, sports, and cultural celebrations including the Woodburn Fiesta Mexicana, May Day, and Christmas. Photographs in this collection also document living and working conditions for Migrant laborers including depictions of laborers in fields, operating agricultural equipment, and in labor camps, as well as rural healthcare and mobile medical clinics. Also represented in the collections is VML involvement in labor and community organizing, including meeting with political leaders and local picket lines in support of the Delano Grape Strike. The photographs in the collection also include portraits of many individuals associated with VML and the agricultural labor movement of the 1960s.

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Related archival materials

Digitized copies of the Valley Migrant League newsletter "Opportunity News" are available on the University of Oregon's Historic Oregon Newspapers site: https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2023240193/

Related descriptions

Notes element

General note

The Valley Migrant League (VML) was a private, nonprofit organization that advocated for migrant farm laborers in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The VML was founded in 1964 and received its first major funding in May 1965 through the Office of Economic Opportunity as part of Great Society anti-poverty programs and the federal War on Poverty. VML established its administrative headquarters in Woodburn, Oregon, with Area Opportunity Centers in Aumsville, Dayton, Hillsboro, Independence, Salem, Sandy, and Woodburn. VML programs included adult education and vocational training; advocacy for safer working and housing conditions for migrant laborers; child care centers; and labor organizing activities. VML also published the newspapers "Opportunity News" (1965-1968) and “Relampago” (1970-1973). VML services were available to the families of anyone who worked in seasonal agriculture. Most of the organization’s outreach focused on Mexican and other Latino laborers in the Willamette Valley, but the program also aided Black workers and members of the Russian Old Believers community and other white laborers. VML reorganized in 1974 under a new name, Oregon Rural Opportunities (ORO), and expanded its scope to become a state-wide program. ORO operated until federal funding cuts closed the program in 1979.

General note

Online collection contains a selection of items from the full collection. More information about the full collection can be found here: https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv23951

Specialized notes

  • Citation: Valley Migrant League photographs, Org. Lot 74, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

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