A social geography of La Colonia: a Mexican-American settlement in the city of Oxnard, California

Includes bibliographical references (pages 188-204)As the habitat of a sizable Mexican-American population, the Colonia of Oxnard is viewed from the vantage point of the social or cultural geographer interested in the symbols and patterns of culture as they account for\ud areal differentiation. Necessarily, the tangible expressions of culture, together with immaterial expressions, such as behavior or human interactions, must receive attention. \ud Springing from the economic needs of commercial agriculture, the Colonia is seen to develop as a dormitory for Mexican laborers. This growth occurred as a consequence of a shortage of cheap labor and simultaneous economic, social and political upheaval in Mexico. The Colonia was founded by and continues to develop in response to Mexican immigration. Mexican-American\ud culture is expressed in a settlement bounded\ud by barriers imposed by man-made structures and human attitudes. Within the confines of this delimited\ud area is a community whose existence and character is indicated demographically and economically, in land use and housing, and in the multitude of ethnic artifacts, habits, and patterns of relations. The identification and analysis:\ud of these traits comprises a major problem area.\ud The intent of examining culture traits including immigration, education, political and religious institutions, language, diet, and family organization is to support the thesis' function of explaining a dissimilar development in similar natural environment. The means by which the foregoing objectives were accomplished entailed participant and non-participant observation, written interviews, and\ud library research, all of which proved to be invaluable resource materials