Spaniards were the first Europeans to explore the Pacific Northwest coastline, but the only evidence of these early visits is a sprinkling of Spanish place names commemorating the intrepid voyagers. The more than four centuries of recorded history since that time are nearly devoid, of references to Spanish-speaking people, especially Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent (Chicanos). Even the heavy influx of Chicano migrant farm workers in the 1950’s and 1960's failed to attract the attention of historians or social science researchers. By 1970, the Spanish-language population had become Oregon's largest ethnic minority and was exerting influence in most areas of state life. This study documents the depth and diversity of Oregon’s Chicano community and provides an historical context for the movement of Spanish-speaking people into the state. Even in the strongly Anglo-American milieu of the Northwest, Chicanos have retained their unique blend of Mexican and American cultural and linguistic characteristics. Through social clubs, cultural centers, economic and political organizations and an independent college, Chicanos in Oregon are preserving and proclaiming their heritage. Hopefully, this study will aid Anglo Americans in understanding and accepting cultural differences without prejudice or animosity, and help Chicanos to better appreciate their position in the state. The dominantly oral tradition of the Chicano coupled with the dearth of standard documentation, primary and secondary, required reliance upon interviews and conversations and generalization upon limited data. Research revealed that the migrant farm worker image of the Chicano has become obsolete as the Oregon population has become settled and primarily urban. If this study provides a frame of reference for and generates interest in further investigation of the migration of Chicanos into Oregon, it will have served its purpose.

During first year field placement, we worked with a number of rural families, most of them Mexican-American. It seemed to us that rural families in general and Mexican-Americans in particular were not being very well served by social service agencies. We questioned whether this might be due to a lack of Mexican-American perspective in traditional services or perhaps a lack of Mexican-American manpower or at least Spanish-speaking manpower. This study, then, developed out of a general area of interest that can be stated as three questions: (1) Do rural people (especially Mexican-Americans) feel there is a need for various social services and what do they identify as needs? (2) Do they know about social service agencies that exist and what their services are? (3) How available are those services? i.e., an existing agency may be "unavailable" because people don't know about it, because of lack of transportation, because of language/cultural barriers, because of an inappropriateness of services offered, etc.

Hispanic Migrant Labor in Oregon, 1940-1990, describes the history and conditions of Hispanic farmworkers migrating from the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Latin America after the 1940s. This paper uncovers the history and contribution of a people easily forgotten, but essential to the well-being of the economy and the cultural diversity o f Oregon. Though much has been lost in the comings and the goings o f these people, bits and pieces have been recovered from old newspaper clippings, occasional documents recording the concerns and responses of the federal and state governments, rare articles tucked away in little known periodicals, and interviews.