Militarized Settler Colonialism and Refugee Resettlement in New Mexico
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository American Studies ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Summer 7-14-2020 Contesting Historical Enchantment: Militarized Settler Colonialism and Refugee Resettlement in New Mexico Christina Juhasz-Wood Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Juhasz-Wood, Christina. "Contesting Historical Enchantment: Militarized Settler Colonialism and Refugee Resettlement in New Mexico." (2020). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds/100 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Studies ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Christina Juhász-Wood Candidate American Studies Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Antonio Tiongson, Jr., Chairperson Alyosha Goldstein Cathy Schlund-Vials Danika Medak-Saltzman i CONTESTING HISTORICAL ENCHANTMENT: MILITARIZED SETTLER COLONIALISM AND REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT IN NEW MEXICO BY CHRISTINA JUHÁSZ-WOOD B.A., Government, Smith College, 2006 M.A., American Studies, University of New Mexico, 2011 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy American Studies The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2020 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am so grateful to the many people who have supported me over the course of completing my PhD in the American Studies Department (AMST) at the University of New Mexico (UNM). First, thank you to my committee for all of your feedback, guidance, and encouragement and especially to my advisor and Dissertation Chair Professor Antonio Tiongson, who provided extensive comments during my coursework, comprehensive examination, and dissertation. He has worked tirelessly to support me and other graduate students at UNM. Professor Alyosha Goldstein’s graduate courses influenced my teaching, research, and the direction of this project. I am grateful for his excellent feedback and advice during coursework, the Master’s degree, the comprehensive examination, and now the PhD. Professor Cathy Schlund-Vials has truly gone above and beyond as an external dissertation committee member. Her incisive and thoughtful comments on my drafts and her continuous support have made the project so much better. Professor Danika Medak-Saltzman has given me tremendous advice and direction from my prospectus through my research to the completion of the PhD. I have been fortunate to take excellent courses with UNM faculty including Professors Barbara Reyes, Irene Vasquez, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, and Rebecca Schreiber. Thank you to Professor Irene Vasquez for serving on my comprehensive examination committee. Thank you to the numerous librarians and archivists who assisted me during my research at the National Archives at Denver, the Albuquerque Public Library Special Collections, and the UNM Center for Southwest Research. I was fortunate to receive the support of several fellowships during my PhD from the UNM Center for Southwest Research, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Russell J. and Dorothy Bilinski Foundation, and the University of New Mexico Graduate Studies Erikson iii Trust. The UNM offices of Graduate Studies, Career Services, and the AMST Graduate Student Association supported my conference travel. I thank the friends who gave me their support, encouragement, kindness, and community, especially Anzia Bennett and Liza and Derek Minno Bloom. With the support of a number of writing groups I was able to stay focused and on track with completing this project. Thank you Maria Lopez, Michelle Munyikwa, Melanie Yazzie and Emma Shaw Crane for writing with me and for your feedback on my drafts. It has been such a joy to work with Evyn Espiritu-Gandhi, Huan He, and Rachel Lim this past year. Thank you for all of your close readings of my work, your feedback, and your friendship. Finally, words cannot express how thankful I am to my wonderful family. My aunt Linda Wood edited my dissertation multiple times. She has encouraged, supported, and helped me to reach the finish line. My older sisters Alexandra Juhasz, Jennifer Schwartz, and Antonia Juhasz’s commitment to education as a tool for social justice has always inspired and guided me. My sister Linda Juhasz-Wood has always been there for me when I needed her. Finally thank you to my mother, Lorraine Wood, and my father, Joseph Juhász. I am lucky to be your daughter. iv CONTESTING HISTORICAL ENCHANTMENT: MILITARIZED SETTLER COLONIALISM AND REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT IN NEW MEXICO by Christina Juhász-Wood B.A., Government, Smith College, 2006 M.A., University of New Mexico, 2011 Ph.D., University of New Mexico, 2020 ABSTRACT This dissertation provides an interdisciplinary critical study of refugee resettlement to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I argue that refugee resettlement to the United States cannot be understood separately from the ongoing structure of settler colonialism. I analyze Albuquerque’s post-WWII militarized settlement as a settler colonial process of extraction and suburbanization that depended on Native labor and resources to fuel the growing nuclear weapons programs. Albuquerque’s Kirtland Air Force Base played a role not only in displacing and thus producing refugees during the Vietnam War but also in marking Albuquerque as a distinctly militarized geography to which they were resettled. Thousands of refugees from regions of the Global South affected by U.S. militarism, imperialism, counterinsurgency, and warfare have subsequently been housed in the city’s International District, also referred to as the War Zone. Militarized settlement and suburban settler colonialism have contributed to racialized and gendered hierarchies of labor, housing, education and health and they foster uneven exposure to extractive industries, toxic contaminants, nuclear waste, and militarized police violence. Artists and activists contest these structures by working towards demilitarization and decolonization. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Theories, Methods, and Key Terms .........................................................................6 Critical Refugee Studies and Comparative Racial Critique ...................................17 Demilitarizing and Decolonizing Settler Temporality ...........................................28 Chapter Overviews.................................................................................................33 Chapter One: Back to New Mexico’s Militarized Future: Militarized Fission and Historical Enchantment in Albuquerque’s National Museum of Nuclear Science and History .........36 Militarized Fission and Historical Enchantment....................................................40 The Frontier Past ....................................................................................................43 WWII Legacies ......................................................................................................51 The Cold War Present and Speculative Futures ....................................................56 Chapter Two: Patterns and Destinies: Transpacific Entanglements in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Suburban Settler Colonialism in Albuquerque ..........................................68 The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 ...................................................73 Settler Colonialism and Transpacific Entanglements of Empire .......................... 81 Nuclear Legacies of Militarization and Environmental Injustice ..........................87 Demilitarized and Decolonial Webs ......................................................................91 Militarized Settlement and Suburban Settler Colonialism .....................................96 Chapter Three: Deterred Refuge and the Vietnam War (1975-1979) ..............................113 Relocation ............................................................................................................117 The Vietnam War and Militarized Refuge...........................................................123 vi The Militarized City .............................................................................................127 Resettlement/Unsettlement ..................................................................................130 Chapter Four: From War Zone to International District ..................................................145 What’s in a Name? ...............................................................................................149 The Real ID: Contestations of Place, Space, and Mourning ............................... 161 Conclusion: Never Again Is Now ....................................................................................180 REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................192 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Exterior of the United States National Museum of Nuclear Science and History ................................................................................................................................37