Lecture: “From a Miscellaneous Memo to Food Justice: Alejo Hernández at the Margins of the Archive”

In 1968, Alejo Hernández, a resident of Stanislaus County, California, sued the USDA because the county failed to implement the Food Stamp Program. As a result of the lawsuit, the state government was forced to confront statewide hunger, especially in the counties that denied it. In this talk, Dr. Barragán Miranda will focus on writing from the margins of the archive. Alejo Hernández’s story began to unravel from a memo in a miscellaneous folder in the Nixon Presidential Archive. It was later elaborated with information from another archival repository and an interview with his granddaughter. This talk aims to spark discussion about how a memo can lead us on a path of discovery. In this case, it revealed a food justice activist who helped make food access more equitable.