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CMAS Publications WORKING PAPERS “Contemporary Deportation Raids and Historical Memory Mexican Expulsions in the Nineteenth Century” By Jose Angel Hernandez Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of History Working Paper No. 1 October 2017 produced by The Center for Mexican American Studies University of Houston Abstract: The contemporary situation in the provides expressly that ‘no one shall be subjected is before 1930.” In a recent study of the 1930s depor- grant-receiving locales like the U.S. Southwest, local United States with respect to Mexican migrants has to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile’; the new law tation drives, historians Francisco E. Balderrama and governments have called for the forced removal of reached a level of intensity that harkens back to the creating the international criminal court declares Raymond Rodríguez (2006, 120) estimate that a ma- Mexican populations now considered “illegal” and mass expulsions of the 1930s and the 1950s, when that it is a ‘crime against humanity’ to engage in the jority of those repatriated were in fact citizens of the therefore deportable. The correlation between the millions were forcefully removed south across the ‘deportation or forcible transfer of population’ from United States: “approximately 60 percent of the per- rising numbers of Mexican migrants and rising an- border. Recent deportation raids have targeted food a country.” Potential legal violations, however, are sons of Mexican ancestry removed to Mexico in the ti-immigrant sentiment recalls a period in U.S. history processing plants and other large businesses hiring only part of a wider set of arguments against such 1930s were U.S. citizens, many of them children who when even slight increases in immigrant populations migrant workers from Mexico and Central America. deportations. The raids affect not only the migrants were effectively deported to Mexico when immigrant met with a nativist response (Spickard 2007). Archi- By portraying the current raids as something new, the being deported but also their families and loved ones parents were sent there.” The mass deportations of val documents located in Mexico provide the key to U.S. media decontexualizes them and strips them of left behind and the communities where they lived the 1950s have been well documented. According to linking the expulsions of the past with the deporta- historical memory. In fact, the current raids can be and worked (Mendelson, Strom, and Wishnie 2009). the statistics of the Immigration and Naturalization tions of the present, thus illustrating the possibility reconstructed and historicized to the moment when These contemporary expulsions discourage the con- Service (INS), these totaled around 1.3 million (García of employing Mexican archives to write Chicana/o Euro-American settlers first encountered Mexicans in tributions of migrants to U.S. society and separate 1980). While such massive deportations certainly history. To help outline this history as it proceeds to the early 1800s. Evidence taken primarily from Mexi- individuals from their families, and they ultimately merit the attention they have received, the period the close of the nineteenth century, I will first intro- can archives reveals that expulsions first occurred in contradict the time-honored idea that the United from the 1830s to the turn of the twentieth century duce and elaborate on my concept of expulsion. the mid-1830s and continued throughout the nine- States is a “nation of immigrants.” represents a significant unwritten chapter. This essay teenth century, especially in areas where local popula- attempts to help fill this historiographical oversight, Theorizing Expulsion tions were demographically overwhelmed. This period By portraying the current raids targeting mostly theorizing on the various social, political, and eco- has traditionally been overlooked by U.S., Chicana/o, Mexican migrants and their families as unprecedent- nomic structures that provided the possibility for Expulsion is a form of physical and symbolic vio- and Mexican historiographers alike. The contemporary ed, the U.S. media decontexualizes these actions and these early expulsions to occur. lence that serves to cleanse the body politic of “un- expulsions serve to discourage the contribution of strips them of historical memory. These purportedly desirables” (Johnson 2005, 106–9). Indeed, Andrew migrants and separate individuals from their families, “new” raids can be reconstructed and historicized Studies on the deportation of Mexicans have Bell-Fialkoff (1993) suggests that ethnic cleansing is and they ultimately contradict the time-honored idea to the moment when Euro- American settlers first become more numerous over the past few years, “virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration that the United States is a “nation of immigrants.” encountered Mexicans in the early 1800s. In fact, ev- spurred by the social and political controversy over and population exchange while at the other end it idence taken primarily from Mexican archives reveals increased migration since the 1990s (Abel 2003; merges with deportation and genocide.” Further- The contemporary situation in the United States that expulsions first occurred in the mid-1830s and Kuehnert 2002; Molina 2006; Zúñiga and Hernán- more, he gives the expelling of populations a particu- with respect to Mexican migrants has reached a level continued throughout the nineteenth century, espe- dez-León 2006). In states outside traditional immi- lar interpretation that I would associate with my own of intensity that harkens back to the mass expulsions cially in areas where local populations were demo- grant-receiving locales like the U.S. Southwest, local use of the term expulsion. He argues that “ethnic of the 1930s and the 1950s, when millions of people graphically overwhelmed. This period has traditional- governments have called for the forced removal of cleansing can be understood as the expulsion of an were force¬fully removed south across the border. ly been overlooked by U.S., Chicana/o, and Mexican Mexican populations now considered “illegal” and undesirable population from a given territory due to The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2008, 1) historiographers alike. therefore deportable. The correlation between the religious or ethnic discrimination, political, strategic reports that it apprehended nearly 961,000 foreign rising numbers of Mexican migrants and rising an- or ideological considerations, or a combination of nationals in 2007, 89 percent of whom were “natives Historiography ti-immigrant sentiment recalls a period in U.S. history these” (110–11). The process of expelling is “funda- of Mexico.” Many of them were apprehended at their when even slight increases in immigrant populations mentally linked to the political ideal of the homoge- place of employment, and 2007 set a record for The apprehension and subsequent deportation of met with a nativist response (Spickard 2007). Archi- neous nation-state,” and thus “the practice of ethnic workplace raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Mexicans and Mexican Americans has a long history val documents located in Mexico provide the key to cleansing becomes an instrument of nation-state Enforcement (ICE) (Chertoff 2008). Deportation and an equally compelling historiography. A gaping linking the expulsions of the past with the deporta- creation” (Jackson Preece 1998). Expulsion, therefore, raids have taken place at food processing plants, narrative hole exists for the period encompassing tions of the present, thus illustrating the possibility has the dialectical function of uprooting past histo- leather manufacturers, and other large businesses in the mid- to late nineteenth century, despite a rich of employing Mexican archives to write Chicana/o ries of dominated populations, which presupposes a states as diverse as Massachusetts, Iowa, Colorado, set of materials from which to draw (Alanis Encino history. To help outline this history as it proceeds to sense of rootedness for the expelled. and Hawaii (Cruz 2007; Flaccus 2007; Knight 2008; 2000; Balderrama 1982; Balderrama and Rodríguez the close of the nineteenth century, I will first intro- Kobayashi 2008; Malone 2007; Pilsner 2008; Powell 2006; Carreras de Velasco 1974; Garcia 1980; Guer- duce and elaborate on my concept of expulsion. The expelled are relocated to another place, to a 2008; Shulman 2007; Valdes 2008; Ziner 2008). in-Gonzales 1994; Hoffman1974; Reynolds McKay territory outside of the nation-state and therefore 1982; Sánchez 1995). Indeed, much of the literature Studies on the deportation of Mexicans have outside of the status and benefits of official belong- Mass deportation violates legal logic and the very leapfrogs this period to focus instead on the mass become more numerous over the past few years, ing. Once relocated, the expelled are relegated to a spirit of this nation. Legal scholar Kevin Johnson deportations spurred by the Great Depression of spurred by the social and political controversy over dehistoricized category of criminality so that their (2005, 6) has noted that “international law con- the 1930s and Operation Wetback in 1954. Historian increased migration since the 1990s (Abel 2003; efforts to remigrate to the nation that expelled demns the forced deportation, or exile, of a nation’s Robert McKay (2007) notes that the “most neglected Kuehnert 2002; Molina 2006; Zúñiga and Hernán- them are surveilled, documented, and prosecuted citizens. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights era of Mexican