This is a collection of interviews and recordings Kenneth Burt conducted between 1980 and 2004 with community leaders, labor organizers, religious leaders and politicians involved in California politics and the labor movement, with a focus on the California Chicano community. Burt conducted the interviews and recordings for research purposes for his published works including journal articles, textbooks, and historical books. The collection includes 22 annotated physical transcripts. Digital transcripts for each recording will be added to the collection as they become available.

Notable interviewees include labor union leaders such as Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez; local, state, and national-level California politicians such as Alan Cranston and Edward Roybal; and East Los Angeles community leaders such as Anthony Rios from the Community Services Organization (CSO). Topics discussed in the recordings include California politics; the history of East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights; labor organizing; multiple labor unions including the AFL-CIO, the UAW, the United Steelworkers, and more; Chicano political figures; the Community Service Organization (CSO); and the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA).

The recordings are arranged alphabetically by the interviewee’s last name and then by date when there are multiple interviews with the same interviewee. Occasionally the recording takes place at an event and includes multiple interviewees or a recording of a speech, in which case it is arranged alphabetically by the event or organization name.

The collection also includes Burt’s Honors Thesis for the University of California, Berkeley.

This collection contains harmful language that was present in the materials when they were donated to Special Collections and Archives. Specifically, some of the interviewees in the recordings refer to Mexican Americans and Black community members with derogatory and harmful terminology.