UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles “And They All Came From New Orleans”: Louisiana Migrants in Los Angeles—Interpretations of Race, Place, and Identity A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Faustina Marie DuCros 2013 © Copyright by Faustina Marie DuCros 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “And They All Came From New Orleans”: Louisiana Migrants in Los Angeles—Interpretations of Race, Place, and Identity by Faustina Marie DuCros Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Rebecca J. Emigh, Co-chair Professor Vilma Ortiz, Co-chair Migrations from one location to another can create the need to explain identities that originated in one region and do not quite translate to the new place’s racial structure. Empirically, we know little about racial and ethnic identity construction processes for American-born persons with Black ancestry who were part of the Great Migration in this country. My dissertation analyzes the construction of racial, ethnic, and place identities among first- and second-generation Louisiana migrants who came to Los Angeles during the 1940s to the 1970s. Using data from 47 in-depth life history interviews, I argue that racial and ethnic identity in this case is a product of the interplay between local and national racial structures and meanings, collective memory and nostalgia, and place-based interaction. I find that migrants established an enclave that supported collective memory and collective nostalgia for Louisiana through Louisiana-centered interaction. ii This contributed to attachments and identifications associated with place that were used to modify the Black and Creole racial and ethnic identities of migrants in Los Angeles. Most of the migrants in this study constructed Black identities modified with Creole and Louisiana-based identities. A smaller proportion of migrants had Creole-only, or Black-only identities, but Louisiana-based identities were important for these migrants as well. In addition to the factors associated with racialization, identities were constructed using a combination of ancestry, visible ethnic and racial markers (such as surnames, phenotype, and culture), and place-based factors. The study makes several contributions to the literatures on race, ethnicity, place, Black identities, the Great Migration, and Louisiana Creoles. iii The dissertation of Faustina Marie DuCros is approved. Walter R. Allen Kathleen A. Lytle Hernandez Rebecca J. Emigh, Committee Co-chair Vilma Ortiz, Committee Co-chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv For my Gram, with love. And in memory of Pops and Big Gram. v Table of Contents Abstract ii List of Figures vii List of Tables viii Acknowledgements ix Vita xiii Chapter 1 1 Introduction Chapter 2 35 The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity, and the Role of Place: A Review of the Literature Chapter 3 99 “That Was Our Cluster”: The Residential, Catholic Parish, and Business Concentration among Louisiana Migrants in Los Angeles Chapter 4 153 “You’re This Combination of Cultures and Races”: The Meaning of Creole and Interstate Identities Chapter 5 222 “What It Means To Miss New Orleans”: The Meaning of Home and the Mechanisms of Place Attachment Chapter 6 268 Conclusion References 284 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Map of Los Angeles Neighborhoods and Catholic Parishes 14 vii List of Tables Table 1. Study Participants by Racial/Ethnic Identity Category and Generation 31 viii Acknowledgements This dissertation has been the result of many hard years of work aided by the support from many sources. I would first like to thank the Louisiana migrants who shared their life histories with me. Without them there would be no story to tell. I also thank those individuals in this community who lent their insight and assistance to this project, even if they did not end up formally contributing their life histories. I would also like to thank my grandmother, Lorraine DuCros, for inspiring me to pursue this project. Listening to her stories throughout my lifetime kindled an interest in this experience. I especially appreciate her generosity in the early stages of planning this project, sitting down with me to tell her stories so that I could figure out the path to executing this research endeavor. I will always treasure that time together. I also thank my other Louisiana migrant relatives who shared stories over the years. This project has been supported financially by several sources at UCLA. The Bunche Center for African American Studies, the UCLA Institute of American Cultures, and the Gold Shield Alumnae Oral History Graduate Research Grant provided generous financial support of this project. During the early years of my graduate education I also benefited from the support of the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship. Many people at UCLA have supported me, and this project, throughout the years. I would first like to thank my dissertation committee. Vilma Ortiz has been an important advisor since my first visit to UCLA. She has provided continuing support of my academic endeavors from choosing courses in those early years, to feedback on numerous drafts of this dissertation. I would also like to thank Rebecca Emigh for her tireless support and feedback since the proposal phase of this project. Her rigorous standards have been important in my growth as a scholar. Her ix weekly working group has provided the arena to improve my own work and to learn how to give meaningful feedback to others. I am thankful for the time that both Vilma and Rebecca gave to allow all of us to meet on countless occasions to discuss the project and strategize. I am also grateful for Walter Allen, another one of my earliest advisors at UCLA who continued to work with me through the dissertation phase. Walter has been a beacon of positivity in my career at UCLA. His generous spirit has contributed to the careers of many aspiring and accomplished academics, and I am glad to be counted among them. I am also grateful to him for the opportunity to gain research experience through the many phases of a large project, from data analysis, to conference presentations, to publication. Access to office space and a community of scholars were also fringe benefits that I greatly appreciated. And thanks to Kelly Lytle Hernandez for her encouragement while developing and completing this project, and for her astute historical eye. Many other faculty members, academics, and UCLA staff have supported this project in various ways. I am grateful for my conversations with Eddie Telles and Cesar Ayala, during which they offered their insights and encouragement to pursue this project. Bill Roy’s generous provision of office space was much appreciated. Arthé Anthony’s faith that this project was an important contribution was upbuilding. The confidence in my potential expressed by my early mentors, Jeff Davis, Tracy Tolbert, and Melissa Rifino-Juarez has stuck with me over the years—thank you for encouraging me to pursue this road. Graduate Advisors Marlies Dietrich and Wendy Fujinami provided guidance and assistance navigating the UCLA graduate student experience. Thank you to Megan Sweeney for her help getting through a major bureaucratic hurdle in the final year. Many fellow graduate students have also been the source of an immense amount of x support throughout the years. Noriko Milman, Nancy Wang Yuen, Christina Sue, and Christina Chin have provided longstanding friendship and intellectual community from some of the earliest days in the program. Their presence in my corner has fortified me through the ups and downs of graduate school and life. Special thanks to Chris for sharing her resourcefulness and providing many instances of practical support throughout the years. I would also like to thank Leisy Abrego, Roberto Montenegro, and Gloria Gonzalez for being such giving mentors and friends. They were always ready to pass on their knowledge of getting through graduate school and provided countless resources to help get through the various hurdles of grad school. Katy Pinto has also been generous with her smiles and knowledge about how to navigate through the obstacles of academic life. Jenny Lee, thank you for kindness and your technical savvy! And thank you to all of the various members of Rebecca’s Thursday working group, who helped strengthen my work through critical feedback in its various stages. Many of these same people have doubled as members of my virtual writing community during the last stretch of the dissertation. Thank you to Arpi Miller, Nancy, Leisy, Chris, Nori, and Christi for often sharing in, witnessing, and cheering me on as I faced the daily triumphs and struggles of writing and raising a family. It has been invaluable to know that I have not been alone down in the Valley. Many family members have been paramount to helping me get through this program. First and foremost, thank you to my daughter, Willa, for sharing her mommy with this dissertation. Willa, you are my love and have consistently motivated me to wake up earlier than I ever would have otherwise! Thank you to my husband, Richard Rodriguez, for his sacrifices during the many years of this journey, being such an involved dad, resident chef, and copy editor. Thank you to my parents-in-law, Yvonne and Ron Atilano, for their continuous and xi endless support of our family and their help taking care of Willa. Yvonne, especially, deserves acknowledgement for committing to being such a consistent presence for Willa when I was writing. Thank you also to my parents, Camille and Vincent DuCros, for their help with Willa and the support they have provided. Thanks to all of my other family members and friends who remained interested in my education and cheered me on over the years, especially: James and Gaby Atilano; Vinnie and Becky DuCros; the rest of the DuCros family, especially my aunts and uncles—Paul, Charlotte, Otis, and Vanessa; the Garcia family—especially my late Grandpa Tony Garcia; and Reuben and Mechelle Alvarez.