California Council for the Humanities Fall 2008 network Featured in This Issue 1 2 6 New website brings California Vanessa Whang joins the Council Los Angeles project reveals the immigration history to life as program director struggles of one of California’s newest immigrant groups Four Council staff members tell Ralph Lewin interviews Stanford’s their California stories Al Camarillo about California’s immigration history WHAT’s CYOUROMING TO CALIFORNIA STORY? Photos courtesy of Holly Alonso, Robert Bengston, LGBT Historical Society, Joel Pickford, Candacy Taylor and Leslie Rios New Council website — WeAreCA.org — chronicles the history of California immigration and migration; provides a platform for all Californians to tell their stories Why did you or your family come world. Now the Council introduces growth of the state, the site will be to California? Was it for a better a new website, two years in the particularly useful to history and job, to follow a loved one, to making, that traces the history social science teachers and their escape from political oppression or of immigration and migration to students. WeAreCA.org is presented upheaval in your native country, to California, presents the stories of in both English and Spanish. make a new beginning or to follow individuals and groups who have “The issue of immigration has a dream of a better life? settled here, provides educational surfaced repeatedly throughout Since its beginnings, California has materials for K-12 teachers and the history of California and is attracted millions of people from all gives all Californians a place to tell now a heated topic of conversa- over the globe — and from other re- their own or their families’ immigra- tion again,” said Ralph Lewin, gions domestically — who together tion or migration stories. Intended the Council’s executive director. have helped make this the most for all Californians interested in the “What this website does is give Home page of WeAreCA.org. diverse state in the nation and one role that immigration and migration us a historical context for those of the biggest economies in the have played in the formation and continued on page 3 FOUR COUNCIL STAFFERS war or its aftermath, to following want all Californians to be a part of TELL THEIR COMING TO a loved one. When we considered the story of California. CALIFORNIA STORIES our various stories and those of our parents and grandparents, we continued on page 4 and Vietnam) or from other states The Council’s work on the thought it would be interesting to (Illinois, Massachusetts and New WeAreCA.org immigration share a few of them with our Net- York). An additional four staffers The California Council for the website prompted many staff work readers. Presented here are have at least one parent born in members to explore their own the stories of four of us: Deputy Humanities is a state-based affiliate another country (Japan, India and experiences of coming to Califor- Director Alden Mudge, Grants of the National Endowment for the Germany). Of our 14 staffers, only nia. Like other Californians, we are Manager Lucy Nguyen, Senior 5 are California natives. humanities. Humanities Network is a diverse lot, with just a few of us Programs Manager Amy Rouillard native born. The rest came here, Those of us who came from other and Operations Coordinator Carlos published three times a year and often by circuitous routes, from places to settle here did so for a Torres. We hope that they will mailed to anyone who requests it other countries (Canada, El Sal- variety of reasons, from the lure of inspire you to visit WeAreCA.org from the San Francisco office. vador, Guatemala, the Philippines a new job opportunity to escaping and contribute your own story. We www.californiastories.org www.californiastories.org 1 LET’s ALL WRITE ScHOLAR IntERVIEW CALIFORNIA’s STANFORD’S AL CAMARILLO To mark the launch of WeAreCa.org, CCH Executive Director Ralph Lewin talked with Stanford HISTORY University’s Al Camarillo, a longtime professor of By Ralph Lewin, Executive Director American history and the Miriam and Peter Haas Centennial Professor in Public AS WE LAUNCH our new immigration Service. Camarillo has published seven books and several dozen articles about website — WeAreCA.org — I am reminded the experiences of Mexican Americans and other racial and immigrant groups. again of how profoundly California has been His latest book — “Not White, Not Black: Mexicans and Racial/Ethnic Border- shaped by immigration. lands in American Cities” — will be published by Oxford University Press. The following is an excerpt from Lewin’s interview. Like 22 percent of Californians, I have an RL: CAN YOU taLK ABOUT THE CONNEctIONS YOU SEE AMONG CALIFORNIA’S immigrant parent. My mother came to San DIFFEREnt GROUPS? Francisco from Germany on a visit in 1962, never dreaming she would meet and marry AC: All the groups were motivated by a chance to make a new life for them- my father and raise a family in San Diego. selves. The image of California as a place to start over was passed on to When I was growing up, I watched my mother struggle to find generation after generation. There was the opportunity but also the struggle a sense of place for herself in her new country, and I became to make life livable. Black migrants from the South who came during and after aware of the many ways that even in such a diverse state as World War II faced a new Jim Crow. Mexican immigrants like my own father California, immigrants have to face preconceived notions of who experienced what I call Jaime Crow. They couldn’t go to theaters or had to sit is Californian and who is not. in the balcony. They couldn’t go to barbershops or certain restaurants. Or they couldn’t go to the public swimming pool until the day before it was cleaned. Another important person in my life when I was young was Jaime Those experiences give richness to a group’s history. And they also explain Escobedo. He and his family had moved to San Diego from Tijuana how race and ethnicity were powerful factors in determining an individual’s life a few years before he and I were elected co-captains of our high course or a group’s life course. school soccer team. Everyone respected Jaime, and he showed all RL: AS WE LOOK at THE LARGER trENDS, HOW HAS CALIFORNIA BEEN of us how immigrants revitalize and strengthen the places where SHAPED BY IMMIGratION? they live through friendship, leadership and hard work. AC: One could argue that California’s history has been more tied to a migrant The stories of my mother and Jaime — and the millions of others experience than that of any other state. Europeans and mestizo people from who have come to this state — are distinctive, but they are all other parts of the continent came to California by migrating north. To this day part of the history of California. They tell us what it means to northern migration is fundamental to understanding California society. Then be human, how people from different places wound up here there’s western migration. Americans migrated even before the Gold Rush, and through sacrifice, diligence, determination and luck made but the Gold Rush is the signal event. It created an international and national California a better place and in doing so enriched our lives. movement of hundreds of thousands of people that transformed the state. Asian migration began during the Gold Rush and continues to have a huge impact on I am excited about the new website because it is filled with the state’s cultural and social makeup. The world has been coming to California stories of people who moved here and made an impact on the for over a hundred and fifty years. state. Just as compelling about the site is that it’s a place where continued on page 7 all Californians can come and tell their own immigration stories, thereby enlarging the state’s history. TWO JOIN COUncIL StaFF Through a partnership with the California History–Social Science The Council is pleased to announce that Vanessa Whang Project, a great professional development organization for K-12 has been named the new director of programs and will teachers, we are conducting teacher workshops around the state, assume her new position on October 20. Whang comes introducing the website and providing sample lessons. Teachers to the Council with more than 20 years of experience have responded enthusiastically and have told us that they see developing and implementing arts and culture programs the website not only as a way to bring relevant content into the on both the East and West Coasts. classroom, but also as a means to engage kids in talking to their Most recently, Whang worked as a consultant in arts parents and grandparents about their coming to California stories philanthropy and cultural equity in New York City, where her clients and then posting those stories. I believe that this experience will included the Asia Society, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the help young people understand the past and also see the role they Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Among other can play in shaping the future. accomplishments, she designed and implemented a $3-million national pilot program — funded by the Ford Foundation — to support and The site doesn’t say who is right and who is wrong in the examine diverse aesthetics and organizational practices in light of the ongoing immigration debate. Rather, it provides information nation’s changing demographics; and designed and helped implement about historical trends and events that people can use to make a $35-million initiative to support contemporary music in New York state.