“From Wall to Wall:” a Comparative Analysis of Hostility Toward Italian
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“From Wall to Wall:” A Comparative Analysis of Hostility Toward Italian and Mexican Immigrants and the Defensive Reactions of the Immigrant Groups Brooke Cara Cohen Defended on May 8, 2020 Undergraduate Honors Thesis Submitted to the Department of American Studies Muhlenberg College Committee: Thesis Advisor: Dr. Christopher Borick, the Department of American Studies Dr. Giacomo Gambino, the Department of Political Science Dr. Daniel Leisawitz, the Department of Italian Studies Professor Daniela Viale, the Department of Italian Studies Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………......... 2 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 “The Americanese Wall,” Figure A…………………..………………………………… 5 The Process…………………………………………………………………………………… 6 Why Studying This Topic is Critical in the Present Day………………………………….. 9 Setting the Scene…………………...……………………………………………………….…10 “Lynchers Storm New Orleans Jail,” Italian Tribune…………………………………...15 “The Unrestricted Dumping Ground,” Figure B………………………………………...16 “The High Tide Of Immigration-A National Menice,” Figure C………....…………….. 18 “Table of Removals Per President,” Figure D…………………………………………... 20 “US News & World Report Cover (March 7th, 1983),” Figure E...................................... 25 Banding Together for Protection……………………….…………………………………… 29 Fighting Back………………………………………………………………………………..... 35 “Proposition 187, Protestors at Los Angeles City Hall”.................................................... 41 “Americanizing”……………………………………………………………………………… 43 “Still Frame from Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing”.......................................................... 47 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….......... 51 “1942 Alien Enemy Notice On Terminal Island, California”........................................... 54 “Donald J. Trump Tweet from April 20th, 2020”............................................................. 58 APPENDIX A………………………………………………………………………………… 62 APPENDIX B……………………………………………………………………………….... 64 References…………………………………………………………………………………….. 67 1 Abstract At the heart of American society is a contradiction that has persisted for decades: the United States is a xenophobic nation comprised of immigrants. What are the implications of this for immigrants as they have sought to enter through the “Golden Door” and achieve the American dream? In this paper, I will discuss the hostility that Italian and Mexican immigrants were met with in the United States during their respective periods of peak immigration; for Italian immigrants, this period was 1880-1924, and for Mexican immigrants, it has been 1980-2020. One of the key parallels of immigration history that I examine in this paper is the Immigration Act of 1924 and President Trump’s “Border Wall,” as they have both been designed to restrict the influx of “undesirable immigrants.” Furthermore, I have performed a comparative analysis of the defense mechanisms employed by the two groups to survive in a country that has sought to erect walls, metaphorical or otherwise, to keep them out. I have concluded that both of the immigrant groups have banded together for protection, fought back, and Americanized in response to the persecution they faced in America. This paper seeks to use the nation’s xenophobic past as a framework to expose similar issues occurring in the present day and challenges its readers to seek to uncover the roots of the perpetual “immigration problem” in the United States. Introduction There is perhaps no phenomenon that has affected the United States of America as profoundly as immigration. Historically, immigration to the United States has been categorized as “good” or “bad.” The outdated concept of “good immigration” has been typified by black and white images of crowded boat decks of European immigrants at Ellis Island. While in the present 2 day, immigration is predominantly from Latin American countries that fall under the “bad immigration category.” Immigration is still a phenomenon greatly impacting the nation, however, and is as central to the political conversation as it ever was. A 2015 Pew Research Center poll found that 13.9% of the population today is foreign-born. This statistic is only slightly lower than the 14.8% result during the late 1800s and early 1900s when the mass wave of European immigration occurred.1 Immigration is undoubtedly a cornerstone of this country, and the consequent effects of this phenomenon have been both a positive and negative force on the ethnic groups that arrived in America. While immigration certainly has molded the nation, it also shaped the identities and experiences of individuals and ethnic groups that entered the country. The impact it had on the immigrants themselves is what I will focus on in this paper, particularly those from Italy and Mexico. The immigration experiences for Italians and Mexicans are diverse, each with unique components and challenges. Still, one overarching commonality between the two experiences is the hostility and anti-immigrant sentiment both groups encountered in the United States. I am asserting that the immigrant groups employed defense mechanisms to survive in the United States and respond to the hostility. For each immigrant group in their respective periods, there were challenges that they faced from a variety of sources. These include restrictive legislation and discriminatory policies, adversarial rhetoric and behavior of presidential administrations, violence, and explicit racism. The immigrant groups utilized several strategies to defend themselves in the anti-immigrant 1Anna Brown, “Key Takeaways on U.S. Immigration: Past, Present and Future,” Pew Research Center (Pew Research Center, September 28, 2015). 3 environments, and I will be focusing on three of these strategies: banding together, fighting back, and “Americanizing” themselves. I will be focusing on approximately forty-year periods of immigration for both groups: Italian immigration from 1880-1924 and Mexican immigration from 1980-2020. I have chosen to study these symmetrical periods, with one hundred years between them, because of the rise in immigration statistics and the key pieces of legislation passed during these respective periods. For Italians, 1880-1924 was the period of mass migration from Italy to the United States, which ended with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924. Mexican immigration is not so linear, as it began around 1848 and is still occurring today, but immigration significantly heightened in the late twentieth century. Furthermore, this period ends in the year 2020 (modern-day), during the Trump presidency, which is a politically, historically, and socially dynamic time. Italians faced severe persecution upon entering the United States that culminated in the Immigration Act of 1924 (see footnote for a brief explanation of the legislation).2 Mexicans have also faced similar antagonism in the United States, which is best exemplified by the “Trump Wall.” While President Trump’s plan to build a wall to keep Mexicans out of the United States is troubling to many people, it is certainly not the first wall, metaphorical or otherwise, that the United States has sought to erect to restrict the influx of immigrants deemed less desirable by public officials. In this paper, I am juxtaposing the Immigration Act of 1924 with “Trump’s Wall,” along with other restrictive legislation from both periods. 2The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census (Office of the Historian). 4 A wall is a structure that encloses, divides, protects, and ultimately serves as a restrictive barrier.3 By this definition, both the Immigration Act of 1924 and Trump’s Border Wall can rightfully be called “walls.” They are designed to limit entry to the United States, thus isolating the country as a protective measure. Ultimately, they restrict undesirable people from entering the country, as they cannot bypass the “walls.” I would like to explicitly reference a political cartoon from 1916 entitled “The Americanese Wall” (see Figure A) by Raymond O. Evans. This cartoon depicts Uncle Sam behind a high wall marked "Literacy Test" spiked with pen points and topped with large books. He says to the immigrant family below, "You're welcome in- if you can climb it.”4 This cartoon represents criticism of the restrictive tests given to the immigrants, which were intended to keep them out, as many of these European immigrants could not read or write. Uncle Sam’s “welcome” is hardly welcoming at all, as he stares down the family, challenging them to overcome nearly impossible circumstances in order to gain entrance into the United States. A crucial point I would like to highlight is that mass Italian immigration is a “closed chapter” of history. In contrast, Mexican immigration is a phenomenon that is still occurring today; therefore, it is a chapter of history that is still being written. Thus, we can analyze the events of Italian immigration from start to finish and can take away essential lessons and apply them to the 3“Wall,” Lexico.com (Lexico.com). 4“The Americanese Wall - as Congressman [John Lawson] Burnett Would Build It,” (Library of Congress, 1916). 5 present day. However, there is no similar endpoint for the modern Mexican immigrants of today, as their struggle is still ongoing.