Great Cities Speaker Series / Dr. Glenna Matthews

August 18, 2008
The New Majority-Minority City
Dr. Glenna Mathews, Historian
Venue: San Jose Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo De San Antonio

In this talk, Dr. Matthews, an historian who has been studying San Jose for some 35 years, will explore how the city’s past can help us understand the exciting possibilities presented by its future.  She has learned that while the treatment of people of color in the 19th century was often shocking, it was not invariably so.  And European Catholic immigrants were often able to find opportunities denied to them elsewhere.  Thus the city’s first rise to regional prominence as a fruit-industry capital was built on the contributions of many immigrants--as is the high-tech industry of today.  Dr. Matthews will  argue that this history--as well as some of the public policy decisions of the postwar period--has positioned San Jose to model the physical embodiment of what a truly multi-cultural city will look like.  She will focus particular attention on the rebirth of downtown San Jose and the new vitality in East San Jose. A graduate of San Jose State, Mathews holds a doctorate in American History from Stanford University. Dr. Mathews is the author of "Silicon Valley Women and the California Dream" and several other books and articles, many about our region.