Illicit Inhabitants: Empire, Immigration, Race, and Sexuality on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1891-1924 (original) (raw)
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Transnational Immigration Politics in Mexico, 1850-1920
2013
This academic adventure began for me in 1996, and along this long journey I have received tremendous support from many people, who encouraged me to not give up on my goal of earning a doctorate degree in history; despite coming across faculty that tried to dissuade me from going to graduate school, remarking that it would be too expensive and not worth it. Nonetheless, putting that negativity aside, from the University of California, San Diego, I thank Eric Van Young for believing in me and encouraging me not to listen to people who doubted my potential. At San Diego State University, the many letters of recommendation given to me by Paula De Vos and Elizabeth Colwill allowed me to continue to pursue a Ph.D. At the University of Arizona, I have to begin by first thanking my doctoral committee, Kevin Gosner and Martha Few for not only having to read a 260 page first draft version of this dissertation, but my advisor William H. Beezley, for promptly giving me back valuable feedback and suggestions throughout the summer to make the manuscript even better. During my graduate school experience at Arizona, I learned to have a more open mind and to not hesitate to share my ideas. Prior to going to Tucson, I had read an article in U.S. News and World Report's annual report on the best graduate schools in America, and it cautioned incoming graduate students not to openly discuss their research ideas, as dissertation topics had been known to be "stolen." Thus, while in my first research seminar at the university, which happened to be with professor Gosner in the fall of 2006, I explained my research topic to my classmate, Stephen Neufeld, and as a result, only a couple of days later, he informed me that he had come across a U.S. Congressional hearing on a black colonization scheme in Mexico from 1895, saying
Encased encounters : remapping boundaries of U.S. and Mexican indigeneity
2011
I would like to begin my acknowledgements by thanking the faculty and staff in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UCSD for all their love and support during my time as a graduate student. I am especially indebted to my committee: Professors Natalia Molina, Roberto Alvarez, Eric Van Young, and Ricardo Dominguez. Their patience, guidance, and faith in my work and in me, have meant the world. I would particularly like to thank my chair, Professor Ross Frank. Ross is a great listener skilled in the art of hearing what is important and pushing you to do the same. He has seen my vision through its many stages and has always had my back. I would like to thank Yen Le Espiritu for her warmth, humor, and her unyielding commitment to the Ethnic Studies project and department. I would like to thank my cohort members: Ashley, Thuy, Faye, Theo, and Monika. Though we began as classmates, Monika Gosin ended up one of my best friends. She is a spiritual stronghold.
Militarizing the Mexican Border: A Study of U.S. Army Forts as Contact Zones
University of Michigan - Deep Blue, 2020
two monographs that spiked my interest in comparative ethnic studies and nineteenth-century borderlands history. He also introduced me to María Eugenia Cotera at a UTEP La Raza Unida function in 2012. It was serendipitous that when applying to PhD programs a year later, the University of Michigan's Department of American Culture housed all three scholars. Thanks to Ernie's guidance, my journey took me from UTEP to Ann Arbor, and these wonderful people-Anthony, Tiya, Ernie, María, and Alexandra Minna Stern-became my dissertation committee. Thank you to Alex Stern for exposing me to health humanities and the history of gender and health at the border and to María Cotera for grounding me in queer/women of color critique while contributing the dissertation's largest framework: Pratt's contact zone. Thank you to Tiya Miles for pushing me to think beyond a historical narrative and into the connections and the imagined borders between history and fiction. Finally, I would like to thank my chair, Anthony Pietro Mora, for reading drafts of my dissertation chapters, providing comments on my sources, and directing me on how to scrutinize the nuanced interpretations of nineteenth-century documents (and Star Wars). Michigan's American Culture Department welcomed me with open arms. During my time there, I felt deeply included. I must thank the extraordinary staff: Marlene Moore, Judith Gray, and Katia Kitchen are wonderful people who are extremely compassionate. I found myself in Marlene's office at the end of the day unpacking and chatting about life. It was an honor to have known Tammy Zill, with whom I had the opportunity to work for as a department assistant. We all miss, love, and think so much about you dear Tammy. There are so many faculty in American Culture and the Department of History who assisted in my intellectual growth. Thank you to Amy Sara Carroll, Colin Gunckel for your constant encouragement, Larry La Fountain,
Culture of Empire: American Writers, Mexico, and Mexican Immigrants, 1880–1930
Hispanic American Historical Review, 2007
My major objection to this book is Levinson's tendency to make sweeping and hence misleading generalizations, of which I will mention but one. In chapter 1, he relies on the requirements issued by the Mexican government early in 1846 to determine who could vote and run in national legislative elections, arguing that "most of the predominantly criollo minority that took control of Mexico after independence favored a political structure that excluded the majority of Mexicans from meaningful participation in the life of the nation" (p. 12). He fails, though, to put the 1846 regulations in their proper historical context (they were specifically issued to help ensure the success of the monarchist plot organized by the Spanish minister in Mexico) and does not acknowledge the widespread popular political participation that occurred during the federal republic (1824-35), partly because the country's constitution granted broad suffrage rights to adult males. Despite this flaw, Levinson has produced a valuable work that complements Luis Fernando Granados's Sueñan las piedras: Alzamiento ocurrido en la ciudad de México, 14, 15, y 16 de septiembre de 1847 (Ediciones Era, 2003). Granados's book illustrates the activities of Mexico City's anonymous urban poor during the three-day mid-September 1847 riot against General Winfield Scott and the U.S. expeditionary army, while Levinson brings to life the heretofore-shadowy guerrillas who roamed the countryside and resisted both the foreign invaders and the Mexican state. Wars within War, which will appeal to specialists in nineteenth-century Mexican and U.S. history, the U.S.-Mexican War, and military history, could be used in undergraduate classes thanks to, among other things, its brevity, clarity, and lack of jargon. Given that the book's price will likely keep instructors from assigning it, though, the publisher should consider issuing a paperback edition.
Booi< Reviews / intemationai and Comparative rjy lens to better understand how Mexican immigration policies affected women, their families, and their relationships with their husbands and larger Mexican families. The stories revealed in the diplomatic correspondence of the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, combined with women's letters about their hardships in Asia, provide a much-needed dimension to discussions of deportation policies. Moreover, the stories recollected by these deported families' children illustrate the tragic predicament of stateless people, topics that unfortunately resonate in current US politics.
2010
This dissertation would not have been possible without the support given to me by my family, my professors and colleagues. This collective effort began with the inspiration given to me by my grandparents, Charles Patiño, Julia Patiño, and Reynalda Martínez who gave me my first history lessons through telling the stories of their lives as Chicanas/os and Mexicanas/os in Jim Crow Texas. I thank my mother, Linda Patiño, for convincing me that I was to do nothing less than go to college. I thank my sister, Linda Patiño Amador, and her family for reminding me how good I had it on my most trying days writing this dissertation as she beat cancer. I thank my brother Charles for showing me that you gotta take it day by day. I thank my new grandparents, Lito and Lita, Natividad and Juana Hernandez, for supporting me and inspiring me. I never forgot when Lita told me "You will do good mijo" when I first moved to San Diego. I thank my new parents, Jim and Martha Sheldon for always being just a phone call away when things got rough. I thank the Loeras, cousin Paul, Rick, Ramona and Little (now not so little) Ricky, Jack (Tio Joaquin) and Rosemary, Tía Mary, Troy, Stacy, Kimbie and Alfonso for coming to rejuvenate us during their visits. I especially thank Uncle Oscar and Aunt Lupe along with Sally and Jean Taramura, Annie Almazan, and Mary Hughes for opening their homes to us and making us feel close to family. I also thank the Patiño's in Montebello, especially Robert and Linda, Suzie, Charlie and Kathy, and Jeanette for welcoming us to their homes and making us feel at home in Southern California. In San Diego, I thank Liz Rodríguez, Michael Bernal and family for coming into our lives and forming the basis of our San Diego family. I thank the Baca family for viii welcoming me into their homes. Thanks to all the West Mesa families that we shared our lives with and watched our kids grow up. There is not enough room on the page to fully thank all our family and friends for the all the little things, from a few bucks for groceries to watching our kids, that made this possible. My experience at UCSD was an amazing and unforgettable experience, largely due to the prolific mentors that surrounded me. To Luis Alvarez, who I met in my hometown in Houston and journeyed with to his hometown of San Diego, your mentorship encouraged me to think courageously and independently, challenging my ideas when I most needed it while respecting my own perspective. The single-most important mentor relationship that I formed when coming to UCSD was with David G. Gutíerrez. Dave taught me to see the migrant experience beyond simply an addition to Chicana/o history, but as a fundamental shift in our understanding of democracy, citizenship and struggle. Furthermore, he challenged me to dig through my work to find what my own politics were and as such, define myself in the academic world in the face of forces that seek to confine us. In relation to developing my own political identity, Danny Widener always encouraged me to maintain and further develop the relationship between activism and scholarship. Lisa Lowe was a gracious and engaged mentor. Working with Professor Lowe reminded me of the passion and joy that the world of ideas and its connections to struggle was. Similarly Nayan Shah was an example of scholarly excellence who challenged me to flesh out the gendered constructions of race and class as a way to maintain a critical approach to all social categories as mechanisms of power. I also thank UCSD professors Roberto Alvarez, Natalia Molina, Nancy Kwak, and Rachel ix Klein for engaging my work. I feel especially grateful for being surrounded by such prolific scholars. I also want to thank my colleagues for building an intellectual community of support and solidarity. In particular I thank my cohort, Gloria Kim and Alicia Ratteree for the support that got us through those first years; Jesus Perez,