Can you help us?

OCMAHS is looking for photos and other memorabilia which document the experience of Mexican Americans in Orange County, CA. We need your help.

OCMAHS is a small group of dedicated community volunteers with full-time jobs and families. You can help save the historical legacy of Mexican Americans and become an OCMAHS volunteer by looking in those boxes out in the garage, at the top of the closet or over at abuela's house for historical items of interest.

Without the community's assistance there are barrios, colonias and campos that will be forgotten. If you don't want to donate your photographs or family heirlooms we would still love to have scanned images of your treasures.

Images of photos and collectables can be scanned as TIF files at 300 dpi and copied to a CD. We would be happy to do the scanning for you or pick up CDs of scanned images. Contact us.

WE ARE ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN:

• Emilio Martinez albums, album covers or performance photographs
  • Emilio Martinez (1905-1991) was a local musician, poet and social activist starting in the 1920s. He recorded at least two Spanish language albums during his career. The Martinez family has donated copies of his original songs, corridos, poems and family photos. We are looking for copies of albums recorded by Los Hermanos Martinez and Trio Tapatio in the 1940s so that we can add them to a display we are creating to honor his legacy.
  • To learn more about Emilio Martinez read "Naranjero Blues," authored by, OCMAHS member, Gustavo Arellano, in the OC Weekly , 1-31-2008.
• Photos of the deportations also known as the "repatriation" of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to Mexico during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
• Photos of the 1938 great flood
• Photos of the 1936 citrus strike
• 19th and 20th century images and memorabilia of Orange County barrios, colonias and campos

Help document Mexican American history in Orange County. Together we can do it!
Contact us.