Ah Louis and his Family’s Legacy at Cal Poly and the Area of San Luis Obispo (original) (raw)
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The Forgotten Chinatown in Merced, California: Acceptable Otherness, 1890-1970
The Undergraduate Historical Journal at UC Merced, 2021
From the early 1860s, Chinese railroad builders helped establish the town of Merced California, thus becoming some of the first residents along the Central Pacific Railroad. In Merced, Chinese individuals made up much of the workforce within sectors of city development, domestic work, and as business owners, all while experiencing anti-Chinese sentiment due to the political climate of the time. This racism resulted in violence against the Chinese population all across California. Anti-Chinese sentiment had a negative effect on archival preservation, noting their impact on Merced's social and political sphere, due to the lack of resources and individuals not wanting to take on these tasks or only acknowledging the community negatively. This research will present the diverse profiles of individuals whose complex lives helped portray the inner workings of the Chinese community. Shining a light on the overlooked communal struggles of the Merced Chinatown from 1870's-1970's with the use of newspaper articles, death records and other official Merced County City records. Analyzing the marginalization experienced by individuals in the subcategories of business, laborers, laundry workers, wives, and sexworkers, in order to try and give back power into their existence and representation. Like many other immigrant groups, Chinese immigrants were met with different stereotypes that continued to justify oppression created by the White society. During the 19th century caricatures and literature only portrayed this population in cunning ways due to the "Yellow Peril." The 'yellow peril' historically represents a western fear that Asian immigrants were evil and would take over the country with their 'savage ways.' White society saw them as a
2012
This dissertation explores the development of the multi-racial community in Fresno, California. Particularly, this study focuses on the process of racialization, which coincided with the development of Fresno as a key agricultural site in California from its inception in the 1870s until the end of the 1940s when the racial climate shifted as a result of World War II. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Fresno emerged as a leader in agriculture within the state and the nation, due to the sophisticated irrigation systems and ideal climate. I argue that the growth in the region initiated two racial projects for Fresno: the creation of a multi-racial/multiethnic segregated enclave and the commodification of workers of color in the agricultural industry. Both of these processes worked together to mold Fresno into an important hub city within the Central Valley of California while also priming the condition for the economic success of Fresno locally, regionally, and nationally. My project maps this process from the beginning of Fresno as a small town founded primarily by white migrants who brought their own racial assumptions about their position of power to the historical moment of World War II, which serves as a key example of how Fresno's everyday racial dynamics and social interplay both eliminated and created opportunities for non-whites in West Fresno. The events of World War II, particularly the removal of Japanese peoples from the West Coast, highlights the various ways in which whites "raced" people of color and also how non-whites understood and defined their own racial position within Fresno. I use this particular historical moment as an example that reflects the conditions of the Nation vi in wartime, where shifts occurred in national understandings of citizenship, accountability, responsibilities, and also power and autonomy. This project makes important interventions in the historical scholarship of race as well US history in two ways. The first is in the focus of study on a dynamic rural community in California. Fresno has a rich and important history that lends much to the understanding of race/racism, labor, and racial/spatial segregation. And yet, the San Joaquin Valley, especially its hub city, Fresno, has garnered limited academic inquiry. My project is highlighting the importance that rural California communities bring to macro-narratives of race and racism in the US. The second contribution of this project is that it seeks to understand multi-racial/multi-ethnic relationships within segregated neighborhoods. I focus on the importance of looking at communities of color, not as monolithic one-dimensional entities, but as fluid and active participants who worked and lived in relationship with and in reaction to other members, individuals, and racial groups in their physical spaces. My project flushes out those relationships in racially segregated Fresno to present a nuanced multi-racial picture of the community, highlighting the process of racialization and commodification of nonwhite people as laborers, while also demonstrating the negotiation of each group's position within Fresno. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process of writing this dissertation has been a long journey where I have learned many things, not only about the subject at hand, but also about who I am as a scholar and person. I am thankful to my multiple communities, which helped me finally achieve my goal. First and foremost I would like to thank the various institutions that helped fund my time at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The History Department at UC Santa Cruz generously funded various grants for conferences and professional development as well as a Summer Writing Fellowship and Teaching Fellowship. The Cota-Robles Fellowship funded my first two years of graduate study. The Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Dissertation made my early years of research and writing possible. The Chicano/Latino Research Center (CLRC) at UC Santa Cruz has been an invaluable resource. Early in my studies I was offered a mini-grant, which funded a research trip and also encouraged me to hone my presentation skills. The CLRC also offered much needed support in the area of professional development. I have most especially appreciated the opportunity to meet important scholars and colleagues in my field through the annual meeting of Chicana/o historians organized by CLRC. A huge debt of gratitude goes to my dissertation committee members who stood by me from the earliest steps of my project and assisted me at every stage of this process. Pedro Castillo provided the foundation for my early investigations into Chicana/o history and has been an amazing supporter of my work. Patricia Zavella has been a wealth of knowledge and pushed me to critically think about the ways I
Chinese Immigration to California: Welcomed Workers, Shunned Immigrants
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Studies, 2020
This paper explores the complex relationship linking the collapse of the mining and railroad industries, anti-Chinese sentiment, and the passage Chinese Exclusion Act. Although difficult to tease out, the paper also explores how these immigration issues, prompted primarily by domestic concerns, were intertwined with the diplomatic relationship between the United States and China, as it evolved over the period of 1858 through 1880. this paper looks at historical newspapers written in the early Californian state in the 1850s to the 1860s to understand how changing attitudes towards Chinese immigrants affected local anti-Chinese laws and how these local attitudes shaped national laws. This paper will show that while Chinese workers were welcomed early on for providing cheap labor, overtime they would be increasingly prejudiced against and blamed for growing labor disputes between white workers and corporations. Ultimately Chinese immigration would be scapegoated as the reason for decl...
BIBLIOGRAPHY 97 Acknowledgment The first person I owe gratitude to is Professor Poshek Fu. I did a research with Professor Fu two years ago on the history of Chinese students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was this research experience that stirred my interest on further exploring the lives of Chinese students in the United States more generally. My thesis advisor, Professor Augusto Espiritu, has greatly helped my research and writing process over the entire year. He recommended me insightful academic works, edited my drafts, and gave suggestions to all aspects of the project. This thesis wouldn't be considered finished without the useful guidance and cordial support of Professor Espiritu. Serving as the instructors of our honor courses, Professor James Brennan, Mark Micale, and Marc Hertzman devoted so much time and energy to our thesis writers. I have learned many valuable things from each of them. Their instructions are helpful not only to this project, but more so to my future academic career. 2
2017
With a myriad of transportation and architectural advances, Chicago grew faster than any other city in the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century, jumping to become the nation's second largest city in 1890. Chicago emerged not only as an industrial powerhouse, but also as a multicultural hub for transplants from rural Midwestern towns, immigrants from Northern and Eastern Europe, and African Americans resettling in northern cities during the Great Migration. Those who came were, in the words of novelist Theodore Dreiser, "life-hungry for the vast energy Chicago could offer to their appetites." 1 It was also in the midst of this exciting backdrop that the first Chinese migrants came to Chicago in the 1870s. But unlike Chinese migrants in San Francisco who experienced explicit anti-Chinese hostility, the Chinese in Chicago lived largely under the radar of the public eye, as "the average Chicagoan was no more tolerant toward Chinese than anybody else in the nation." 2 Some historians attribute this invisibility to the geographical isolation or to the small size of the Chinese population relative to other minorities, citing Chicago's "racial diversity" in helping "the Chinese 'disappear' in its multiethnic 'jungle'." 3 Between the 1890s and 1930s, however, the Chinese population in Chicago increased more than tenfold to roughly 6,000, according to population estimates at the time. Given this rapid change in population, how much did attitudes and perceptions toward the Chinese change? Moreover, how did these new migrants, many of
Becoming Asian American and the Magic of Historical Accident, 90 Or. L. Rev. 1203 (2012)
2012
I. Accident by First Job Choices: Starting out at the “U of O” in the Era of Diversity .................................................... 1205 II. Accident by Birth: Growing up Asian American in the Post-War Midwest ..................................................... 1208 III. Accident by Profession: Crossing the Twentieth-Century Color Line in Law Teaching ................................................ 1213
2012
I have a tremendous amount of people to thank for helping throughout this process. I would like to thank the library staff at Linfield College for directing me to valuable material and easing the frustration during the research process, specifically Barbara Valentine and Jean Caspers. I would like to thank my advisor Sharon Baliey-Glasco who provided valuable feedback to a frantic student time and again. Without the staff at the Oregon Historical society, this project would have not been written. The friendly and knowledgeable staff was my link to the academic world during the summer and was my main source of primary source material on both Portland and San Francisco. My friend Brooke Addis was the one who originally gave me the idea to research Portland's Chinese community and allowed me to vent during the painful writing process, a task that was not easy I am sure. Mike Denbo and Stephen Guttridge became my editors during this process, painstaking looking over my work for grammar errors and ensure this writing was my best worth. Their second options became more vital as the sleep exhaustion began to take its tool during the later months. Finally, to my family who supported me emotionally and financially during this endeavor. This paper wouldn't have been written without the support of these fabulous people as their professional and emotional support allowed me to finish this project and complete my degree. I am truly grateful to all of you.