Susan Zamudio-Gurrola will speak about the twentieth century history of Ventura County farmworker housing at the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum, on Thursday, October 10, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. The speaker, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Architectural History at UCSB and a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation at USC, has studied Ventura County farmworker housing since graduate school and made it the subject of her Master’s degree thesis. She contributed a chapter called "Preserving Minorities' History: The Labor Camps of Mexican Braceros" for the book Que Fronteras? Mexican Braceros and a Re-Examination of the Legacy of Migration, published in 2010 by Dr. Paul Lopez. Zamudio-Gurrola has worked for the California Oil Museum, the Museum of Ventura County Agriculture Museum, and for historic preservation consultants.

Zamudio-Gurrola has documented Ventura County farmworker housing through a combination of research and personal interviews. She investigated ownership and occupancy history, as well as the development history of properties through building permits, city directories, county files, aerial photographs, property maps and historic photographs. Numerous interviews with ex-braceros, labor camp owners and labor camp managers provided details not found in written documents.

Awarded a U.S. Congressional Citation of Merit, “The Migrant Project: Contemporary California Farm Workers - Photographs and Text by Rick Nahmias” is making its final public appearance in Santa Paula, through October 20, 2013. It has toured dozens of venues across North America since its premiere in 2003, and finishes its run just a few miles away from where the first photographs for the project were taken. Nahmias crisscrossed the state, from Calexico to Sacramento, documenting stories of some of the hundreds of thousands of migrant farm workers who harvest the crops that end up on American dinner tables. His photographs of work and personal life aim to foster a greater understanding of, and sense of empathy towards, farm workers. “The Migrant Project” is co-sponsored by California Rural Legal Assistance Inc., Center for Latino Policy Research, and The Kurtz Family Foundation.
Zamudio-Gurrola will illustrate her thirty-minute Gallery Talk with both historic and personal photographs, and time for questions and answers will follow. Admission to the Gallery Talk is free for MVC Agriculture Museum members, is included with regular admission for the general public, and includes entrance to the current temporary exhibition, “The Migrant Project: Contemporary California Farm Workers - Photographs and Text by Rick Nahmias.” A Gallery Talk on another topic will take place at the Santa Paula Art Museum immediately afterward, at 3:00 p.m. Free parking is available at both Museums.

The Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum is located in historic downtown Santa Paula at 926 Railroad Avenue, Santa Paula, California. Hours are 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. General admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1 children ages 6-17. Free for Museum of Ventura County members and children ages 5 and younger. Paid events include free admission to the galleries, and the first Sunday of every month is free general admission to the public. For more information, go to www.venturamuseum.org or call (805) 525-3100.