Fear and Threat in Illegal America: Latinas/Os, Immigration, and Progressive Representation in Colorblind Times by Hannah Kathr
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Fear and Threat in Illegal America: Latinas/os, Immigration, and Progressive Representation in Colorblind Times by Hannah Kathryn Noel A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (American Culture) in the University of Michigan 2014 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Evelyn A. Alsultany, Co-chair Associate Professor María E. Cotera, Co-chair Associate Professor María Elena Cepeda, Williams College Associate Professor Anthony P. Mora © Hannah Kathryn Noel DEDICATION for Mom & Dad ii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I could not have accomplished this dissertation without the guidance of my co-chairs, and graduate and undergraduate mentors: Evelyn Alsultany, María Cotera, María Elena Cepeda, Mérida Rúa, Larry La Fountain-Stokes, Carmen Whalen, Ondine Chavoya, Amy Carroll, and Anthony Mora. Evelyn, thank you for the countless phone calls, comments on every page of my dissertation (and more), advice, guidance, kind gestures, and most of all your sensibilities. You truly went above and beyond in commenting and helping me grow as a teacher, scholar, and human. María, thank you for standing by my side in both turbulent, and joyous times; your insight and flair with words (and style) are beyond parallel. Maria Elena, thank you for your constant guidance and keen constructive criticism that has forced me to grow as an intellectual and teacher. I will never forget celebrating with you when I found out I got into Michigan, I am beyond honored and feel sincere privilege that I have been able to work and grow under your mentorship. Mérida, I would have never found my way to my life’s work if I had not walked into your class. Thank you for your continued mentorship, advice, your brilliance, and kind and giving heart. Larry, Carmen, and Ondine, thank you for your comments and suggestions as I wrote chapters of this dissertation. Amy, thank you for your insightful and thorough comments. Anthony, thank you so much for helping me grow as a teacher, writer, and scholar. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii List of Figures v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: Representing Un/Documented Latinas/os Under U.S. Neoliberalism: Progressivism, Personal Responsibility and Colorblindness 1 1. Neoliberalism 16 2. Multiculturalism and Colorblindness 28 3. “Illegal Alien” 36 4. Summary of Contributions and Chapter Arguments 47 CHAPTER 2: NPR’S NATIONAL PUBLICS: Latinas/os and Neoliberal Modes of Social Regulation 51 1. NPR’s National Publics 57 2. A Community in Flux: Postville 1998-2009 64 3. Narratives of Threat and Exclusion 68 4. Rescripting the Discourse of the Nation 100 CHAPTER 3: BRANDING GUILT: American Apparel Inc. and Latina Labor in Los Angeles 105 1. Latinas in the L.A. Apparel Industry 111 2. Ethical Consumption 120 3. Selling Ethics 125 4. Conclusion 134 CHAPTER 4: CONSCRIPTING THE DREAM: Latinas/os, Militarization, and the Myth of Immigrant America 137 1. The DREAM’s Metanarrative 140 2. Outside the DREAM 146 3. Latinas/os and Non-citizens in the U.S. Military 166 4. Conclusion 171 CHAPTER 5: THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE TRANSBORDER IMMIGRANT TOOL 174 1. The Controversy 179 2. The Institutionalization of the Transborder Immigrant Tool 192 3. Conclusion 207 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 208 APPENDIX 223 BIBLIOGRAPHY 226 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Doorway entering State of Exception Exhibit 2 Figure 2: Wall of Backpacks, State of Exception Exhibit 3 Figure 3: Glass Altar, State of Exception Exhibit 4 Figure 4: Glass Altar with 6 Videos, State of Exception Exhibit 4 Figure 5: Night/Day Videos and Water Jugs, State of Exception Exhibit 6 Figure 6: Google, Ngram ViewerSearch for “Illegal Alien” in Books Published 14 Figure 7: ProQuest Search for "Illegal Alien" Used in Magazines 15 Figure 8: NPR’s Demographics 59-60 Figure 9: Sexually Provocative Ads 106 Figure 10: Sweatshops Now, Sweatshops Then 114 Figure 11: Vertical Integration 126 Figure 12: Race in American Apparel Ads 127-8 Figure 13: Legalize LA 129 Figure 14: American Apparel on Immigration 131 Figure 15: Letter from Blog 133 Figure 16: U.S. Army Recruitment Page for Hispanic Americans 169 v 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Representing Un/documented Latinas/os Under U.S. Neoliberalism: Progressivism, Personal Responsibility, and Colorblindness Anthropologist Jason De León’s Undocumented Migration Project examines the artifacts left behind by migrants while they cross an inhospitable stretch of Sonora Desert between Southern Arizona and Mexico. During the scorching summer months, De León, along with the help of his students from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and local supporters, scour the Arizona border region south of Tucson for objects left behind by border crossers. Commonly found artifacts include: backpacks, shoes, prayer cards, water jugs, along with other items that were lost or viewed as no longer useful during the act of crossing. The region’s harsh and hostile climate decays and decomposes organic matter and other artifacts with a rapid ferocity. With the help of curator Amanda Krugliak and New York based artist Richard Barnes, De León compiled 2 an exhibition, entitled “State of Exception/ Estado de Excepción,” to display a small fraction of the objects found by the Undocumented Migration Project.1 Figure 1: Richard Barnes, Jose de León, and Amanda Krugliak. States of Exception/ Estado de Excepción. January 24 – March 12, 2013, Digital photograph, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. When you open the door to the State of Exception/ Estado de Excepción exhibit, the room is heavy, dark, and smells musky. You first enter into a short narrow hallway that opens into a small square room. Inside the exhibition there are no windows and the walls are painted pure white. From the moment you enter you are enticed to imagine that you are a part of the field site where De León and his students worked during the sweltering summer of 2012. Entering into the small hallway the floor is lined with a white screen (figure 1). The looping videos of backpacks and other belongings abandoned in the Sonora desert and found by the project are 1 The exhibition was sponsored by the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and ran from January 24, 2013 till March 12, 2013. The exhibition has been invited to tour in other locations. 3 projected onto this floor/screen/field site bringing color, movement, and life to the white screen. The projected floor/screen/field site image is composed of three looping video sequences; each provides close-up of sweeping images of a precise area in a larger pile of artifacts. These three video sequences are projected side-by-side on the floor, and when viewed together, form a one by three rectangle. The interactive video shorts morph and change with your gestures and shadow, making the viewer a part of the exhibition. In this moment, the exhibition viewer becomes an active member of the field school, visually excavating traces of artifacts from the cascading images of the desert repository. Spectators are encouraged to scour the artifact pile perhaps with the intention that these material objects might give us added insights into why individuals would choose to cross the border, as well as why certain objects were deemed no longer valuable. Figure 2: Richard Barnes, Jose de León, and Amanda Krugliak. States of Exception/ Estado de Excepción. January 24 – March 12, 2013, Digital photograph, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. When you exit the hallway you see an entire white-painted wall covered with backpacks (figure 2). The backpacks spill onto an adjacent wall. Each backpack is neatly compiled into a straight line of about 10 to 12 backpacks high, and about 20 backpacks across. The backpacks each exhibit varying degrees of wear: some are sun-bleached, others are torn, some are barely 4 recognizable as backpacks, and a few appear almost new. Many are children’s backpacks adorned with the transnational branding of cartoon images like Dora the Explorer, the Chicago Bulls, the Tasmanian Devil, Mickey Mouse, and Bart Simpson. Figure 3: Richard Barnes, Jose de León, and Amanda Krugliak. States of Exception/ Estado de Excepción. January 24 – March 12, 2013, Digital photograph, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Figure 4: Richard Barnes, Jose de León, and Amanda Krugliak. States of Exception/ Estado de Excepción. January 24 – March 12, 2013, Digital photograph, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 5 At the end of the half wall of backpacks, there is a glass altar that encases a variety of relics: a cluster of fuego/fire starter cans, an empty can of beer, a child’s dress shoe, Mexican currency, tooth brushes and tooth paste, prayer cards, a partially disintegrated bible and spiral notebook, an “A. Leon” fake drivers license, crucifixes, pictures, a wallet, and a beer can, to name a few (figure 3). The glass altar begins to resemble a glass coffin as your eyes fall on a small bit of multicolored fabric that was used to cover the corpse of a 41-year old female Peruvian migrant, given the pseudonym of Marisol, that De León’s field school found in the summer of 2012 while exploring a trail. Above the altar is a vertical rectangular screen that holds the images of six field school participants, De León and five students (figure 4). These video testimonies are arranged in three rows and two columns. The six participants are recorded giving their reactions to finding Marisol. Each person gives their testimony against a white background, and we can only see each person’s head, neck, and shoulders. This altar is not just in honor of Marisol, but also of all border crossers as Marisol’s story is sadly not dissimilar to thousands of others.