Geographer Juan Herrera’s story of activism and placemaking in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California, is an important study for public historians, both in terms of content as well as method. Cartographic Memory: Social Movement Activism and the Production of Space draws heavily on historical methodology. Through the examination of archival material and oral tradition, Herrera aims to explain how social movement activists produced the Fruitvale of today, a predominantly Latino neighborhood in a predominantly Black city. For many decades, historians have explored and argued for Oakland’s historical importance as a city for many reasons—its function as a significant port, its relationship to San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, and its renown as the epicenter of the Black Power movement, among others. These histories have always eclipsed Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, its history of Chicano activism, and its generations of Latino descendants. Furthermore, Fruitvale has yet to achieve the same...

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