CV-RISER 2022, Talk 1 of Session 1: Mapping Central Valley Student Narratives: Access, Identity, and Validation

"Popular perceptions of rural California as “conservative, old-fashioned, and overwhelmingly white” excludes diverse populations and systemic couplings of power embedded in the state, especially the California Central Valley. Between the prison system on the CA-99 feeding into dual ends of gentrification from the Bay Area and I-5 as a center of supply chain logistics and an economic takeover of minority small towns, the economic landscape of the Central Valley is changing. Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color in the Central Valley are facing a proximity problem: college is far away and money is necessary, the prison system alongside corporations like Amazon is closer and pays off faster than college campuses. While the influx of industry creates an illusion of choice, it is limiting the perceived landscapes of hope for young people. In my research, I am utilizing geo-computation to explore relationships within the spatial imaginaries of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the Central Valley of California as it relates to spatial constrictions illuminating geographic barriers to college access and in turn, upward mobility. I also turn to literary theory for an understanding of feelings of loss and disconnection from land caused by the influx of techno-capitalism.

My research involves mapping peripheral distance to centers of hope, maps of exits and movements from the Bay Area, understanding the Central North Valley as the Bay’s newest edge-city, and the effect of the lack of higher education institutions on the formation of identity will piece together the landscape of hope (or lack thereof) within the heartland of the state. Finally, I am interested in understanding the landscape of hope through a lens of empowering rural people of color and infusing hope and positive opportunity into communities of color."

- Alexis Atsilvsgi Zaragoza, UC Berkeley