For immediate release:

Cal State L.A. Professor Available to Speak
to Media About Senate Bills 37 and 427

According to Contra Costa Times, two bills related to the 1930s deportation of 2 million Mexican-Americans are currently awaiting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature. It notes that Senate Bill 37 would “open a two-year window during which surviving victims of repatriation campaign could file claims for damages from responsible parties within California.” If Senate Bill 427 is signed, it would “launch a state investigation into the deportations” that is said to “lay the groundwork for a formal reparations process similar to the one set up on the 1980s to make amends for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.”

Cal State L.A.’s Professor of Chicano Studies/History Francisco E. Balderrama, who earned his M.A. in 1972 and Ph.D. in 1978 from UCLA, is available to speak about Senate Bills 37 and 427.

Balderrama began teaching at Cal State L.A. in 1984 and was chair of the Chicano Studies Department from 1984 to 1993. A Chicano historian with special interest in the American West, California and Los Angeles, his research focuses on the Mexican-American community during the early 20th century, with particular attention to relations with Mexico. Balderrama has received several research grants and professional awards, including the Senior Fulbright Lectureship in American Immigration at the University of Rome.

Balderrama has also consulted for the Ford Foundation, Western Association of Colleges and Universities, Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, and the Educational Testing Service. He was previously managing editor of Ethnohistory, the journal of the Ethnohistory Association. Leading journals also have published Balderrama’s professional reviews.

In 1996, Balderrama was selected for an award by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America for coauthoring a book with Raymond Rodríguez on the subject of human rights in North America, Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930’s. California Senator Joseph Dunn and his staff have spent several years building on the research presented in this book in order to author SB 37 and SB 427.

If you need a quick directory of experts for other breaking news items, go directly to Guide to the Experts at Cal State L.A., www.calstatela.edu/univ/ppa/media/jourpage.htm. The online media guide includes 350 experts from Cal State L.A. who are available and willing to speak to the media. For assistance, contact the Cal State L.A. Office of Public Affairs at (323) 343-3050.

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