PROPOSAL TYPE
Open to Feedback
SEEKING
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
- Archives
- Memory
- Museums/Exhibits
ABSTRACT
We’d like to present on our work on the history of the Asociación de Charros Los Costeños de Brentwood and their cultural home at Contra Loma Regional Park in Antioch, CA. Drawing on archival photographs, oral histories, and preserved artifacts, the session highlights how charrería—the national rodeo tradition of Mexico—flourished in the East Bay during the 1970s through early 2000s. It also examines how community memory and park archives preserve this story today, offering insights into the role of regional parks as keepers of cultural heritage.
DESCRIPTION
This is the area that we are not sure what we’d like to do – and would like to find out what we can do. We would be able to share a presentation of our process and also show highlights of the online exhibit we put together.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly:
Brenda Montano, East Bay Regional Park District, [email protected]
All feedback and offers of assistance should be sent by November 15, 2025. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
This sounds like a wonderful project well worth highlighting. I would encourage you to seek out other participants, perhaps around a shared identity (Mexican, Latin/x, Californian, other park archives, etc.) to round out your panel. When submitting your topic, I would also make sure to tie it into to the conference theme of “revolution.” Were there “revolutionary” ideas, community building, or social change that came out of the shared community of charrería? How does maintaining Mexican and/or Mexican-American traditions influence “American” culture and societal change? How does maintaining the history and public telling of charrería intersect/disrupt/ with the ongoing assault on (im)migrant populations?