The Re/Collecting Project (Re/Co for short) is an "ethnic studies memory project of California's Central Coast." The project's aim is to digitally capture and make publicly accessible the rich history of the diverse - yet under-documented - communities of the region, which includes San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties. To collect the materials that make up these histories, the project would organize "Re/Collecting Days," and make house calls, where the project team would invite families and individuals to recollect their stories as well as to participate in collecting their story materials (images, documents, mementos) for digital preservation and access.

By the 1920s, the Central Coast, located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, emerged as a vibrant growing region after the establishment of the rail effectively brought it out of geographic and economic isolation. It became a part of the migrant labor trail, and towns like Pismo Beach, Lompoc, Guadalupe, and Santa Maria were economic—and social—hubs for agricultural workers who came from places like China, Mexico, Japan, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Even before this, the area was home to Chumash and Salinan Indians, who were displaced by Spanish conquerors. And like many places in the United States during the nineteenth century, the Central Coast saw the influx of European immigrants.

1 LF, 1 document box, 493 GB

Collection is open to researchers by appointment. For more information on visiting, access policies, and reproduction requests, please visit our Reference Services page online at http://lib.calpoly.edu/search-and-find/collections-and-archives/reference-services/.