José M. Alamillo, associate professor and coordinator of the Chicano/a studies program at California State University, Channel Islands.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - A professor will discuss the history of local braceros at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, at California Lutheran University.

José M. Alamillo, an associate professor and coordinator of the Chicano/a studies program at California State University, Channel Islands, will present “The Braceros of Ventura County” in the Roth Nelson Room as part of the CLU Center for Equality and Justice Lecture Series.

The U.S. and Mexican governments instituted the bracero program, which brought Mexican farm laborers to the U.S., in 1942 and officially ended it in 1964. Of the 5 million braceros imported to the U.S., at least 20 percent were contracted to work in Ventura County and about 20 bracero camps were located throughout the county.

Alamillo, who was born in Mexico and grew up in Ventura County, worked with his students to chronicle the lives of 70 county braceros for an exhibit currently on display at CSUCI. He has researched labor, immigration, race, gender and sports. Alamillo is the author of “Making Lemonade out of Lemons: Mexican American Labor and Leisure in a California Town, 1900-1960” and is currently working on a book about transnational sports between Southern California and Mexico.

The Roth Nelson Room is located on Mountclef Boulevard between Olsen Road and Memorial Parkway.

For more information, call Greg Freeland at (805) 493-3477.