Chican@ studies midterm

Mestizaje

def: Mixed Spanish and indigenous ancestry, or mixed ancestry of any kind (more broadly) Molina: Eugenicists emphasized this mixed ancestry when arguing that Mexicans were unfit for self-government and represented a miscegenation threat (racial script) Racial formation theory: Some mixed races were preferred over others, considering the Spanish casta system. Afro-Mexicans were at the bottom. Chino-Chicanos not accepted as legitimately Mexican, with the offsprings of Chinese-Mexican intermarriages portrayed as aliens in the political cartoons of the day. Selective tradition: Minimized connection with pueblo Indians ("lure of whiteness") in order to be considered socially "white" // Afro roots erased in Olvera St, Spanish Fantasy Past narrative

Architecture + consolidation of power

- Chinese + Mexican immigrants denigrated to crowded court houses or Chinatown homes that lacked proper housing conditions, perpetuating "dirty" immigrant stereotype -Spanish Fantasy Past for tourism -- power to that ideal, commodification of a culture

Frontier Thesis

Define: Frederick Jackson Turner's idea in the late 19th century that the frontier was the meeting point between savagery and civilization and that the American race would evolve to a higher stage through its encounter with the frontier Text/lecture app: The painting we saw in lecture suggested that the Euroamerican settlers entered peacefully and brought the light of civilization with them; ignores conquest theory. Overall significance: Ignored the fact that this land was already owned by Mexican-American people and other groups -- legitimized white superiority. Helps us understand how Mexican American people were perceived during this time -- as savages that needed to be civilized.

Californios

Define: Spanish elite landowners at the top of the casta system; displayed their high status through fancy clothing and large tracts of land Text/lecture app: After the Mexican-American war and the subsequent CA Land Act, the Californios' social contracts that outlined their land tracts from the Mexican government did not hold up under court. The Californios ultimately were bought out by Euroamerican settlers and land squatters. Overall significance: Shows fluidity of race within the Spanish casta system (and Chican@ studies in general) since several of these rich landowners were not white in appearance.

"The lure of whiteness"

Define: Whites had more social and political power so other racialized groups tried to become classified as white Text/lecture app: Gomez argues that American colonizers used this strategy to keep Mexican Americans and Indians in their racial place. By luring Mexican Americans to identify as white, Anglos prevented Mexican Americans from joining together to fight Anglo-American colonists (who were largely outnumbered in some areas of the southwest -- New Mexico). Also a factor with New Mexico trying to prove they can self-govern to be admitted into the union. Distancing from "Mexican" or Indian to "Spanish" blood Overall Significance: Bolsters white superiority, with "white" being the goal. Also divided Mexican Americans from their Pueblo neighbors, helping them to reproduce racism by making gains at each other's expense.

Immigration Act of 1924

Define: a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country already living in the U.S. (based on 1890 census) Text/lecture app: Mae Ngai demonstrates that the concept of the "illegal immigrant" resulted from numerical limits on immigration. With the creation of Border Patrol in 1924, Mexicans circumvented increased restrictions and fees, thus becoming linked to illegality. Overall significance: Exempted Western hemisphere from quotas, so Mexican immigration increased as farmers relied on cheap labor from immigrants

Spanish Casta System

Define: a hierarchical racial classification system developed by Spanish elites in the 18th century Text/lecture app: Settlers lower on the casta system were lured to the Los Angeles territory where they could acquire territory and thus move up their rank in the system. This made Los Angeles multi-racial from the start. Overall significance: Such race categories were flexible, as one could move up the ranks through land ownership, effectively "changing" their race. Proves that race is a social construct.

Mestizo/La raza cosmica

Define: a man of mixed race, especially the offspring of a Spaniard and an American Indian, which together was thought to produce a stronger race Text/lecture app: "La raza cosmica" became popular after Mexican Revolution to refashion Mexican identity Overall significance: Example of a counterscript that took pride in Mexican/Mexican-American's mixed culture.

Zoot suit

Define: a man's suit of an exaggerated style, characterized by a long loose jacket with padded shoulders and high-waisted tapering trousers, popular in the 1940s Text/lecture app: Zoot suits meant to take up space, be in-your-face, and they broadcasted Mexican Americans' distinct style. Later used to reference Mexican Americans as in "The Spirit of '43" Disney cartoon. Overall significance: Rebellious style that represented a new fusion of Mexican and American culture.

Imperialist nostalgia

Define: a mood of nostalgia that makes racial domination appear innocent and pure; people mourning the passing or transformation of what they have caused to be transformed. Text/lecture app: The attitude of Americans who sought to live in a "simpler" time in 1920s Olvera Street. Mourning that this time no longer exists because of the rise of modernization. Overall Significance: Again erases the history of conquest of Mexican Americans in favor of a romanticized past that perhaps never existed.

Racial scripts

Define: a narrative about one racialized group that can be recycled and applied to another racialized group Text/lecture app: In "How Race is Made in America," Natalia Molina establishes the concept of racial scripts by demonstrating how different racial projects operated at the same time, affecting different groups simultaneously. Overall significance: Helps us to understand how racial groups, including Mexican Americans, are linked across time and space without directly crossing paths. Allows us to see how race is constructed by examining how racial scripts emerge.

"We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us."

Define: a phrase to describe what happened to those Mexicans living in Northern Mexico at the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo when the U.S. border shifted to include their land Text/lecture app: In "Manifest Destinies," Laura Gomez demonstrates how Mexican Americans joined American society, not as immigrants, but as a people conquered in war. Overall Significance: Mexican-Americans lose their social and political power, seen as an "off-white" racial group. Perceived as foreigners in their own land.

Selective tradition

Define: a selective narrative that legitimizes the status quo; conquest over memory through narrative Text/lecture app: One example is the Spanish Fantasy Past presented in Olvera Street. Ignores the conquest of Mexican-Americans by Euroamericans. Overall Significance: Demonstrates how memory shifted the depiction of Mexican Americans to a quaint, preindustrial people. Brought in tourism to commodify Mexican culture and bolster white superiority. Leaves gaps in history that Chican@ studies seeks to fill.

Zoot suit riots

Define: a series of racial attacks in 1943 in Los Angeles between Mexican American youths and European American servicemen stationed in Southern California Text/lecture app: Molina notes how notions of race, biology and crime were combined to pathologize young male Mexicans as "deviant" with institutionalization seen as the solution. Overall significance: Part of a racial script of the deviant immigrant, also applied to Chinese Americans

Olvera Street

Define: a street in Los Angeles that became popular in the 1920s when Christine Sterling styled the street to suit tourist expectations of the Spanish Fantasy Past Text/lecture app: In "Citizens of the Past," Phoebe S. Kropp argues that Olvera Street's Mexican influence placed Mexican culture into a relic of the past. Celebrated Mexican past to support the denial and denigration of Mexicans in the present. Overall significance: Anglos could put on the costume and take it off, but Mexicans were stuck with an anti-modern stereotype. Helps us understand how Mexican Americans were perceived during this time period.

Off-white

Define: a term to describe Mexican American's precarious position in the Angloamerican racial hierarchy Text/lecture app: Laura Gomez notes that although Mexican citizens were legally white they were socially treated as "nonwhite" race. Overall significance: Characterizes Mexican Americans' unique position in society as outside of the racial binary at the time. Not quite white, not quite black.

Double colonization

Define: a term to describe how certain groups can be twice marginalized by the existing power structure Text/lecture app: Native Americans in the Southwest territory were twice colonized, first by the Spanish in the 1600s and again by Euroamericans in the 1800s through the Mexican American war. Overall significance: Helps us to understand the identity of Chican@ people as both the conquerer and the conquered.

Social construct

Define: a way of classifying individuals through political and social processes Text/lecture app: In Manifest Destinies by Laura Gomez, Gomez argues that race is a social construct and does not occur in the natural world. It is just a way to simplify the classification of people. As such, who is included in the construct changes over time (ex: Mexican Americans deemed "white" legally after Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and later put in their own group once immigration increased in the early 20th century) Overall significance: The Mexican-American race can be considered a social construct since its definition is flexible and changes over time.

Pio Pico

Define: a wealthy multi-racial Mexican of African descent that lost all of his land after legal disputes when Euroamericans began to settle California Text/lecture app: Part of El Pueblo's African roots. Pico was one of the Afro-Mexicans that moved to LA for upward social mobility from land ownership. Overall Significance: Helps us to understand that racial fluidity during this time meant moving away from blackness. "Mestizo" meant Spanish-Native, with no place for Afro-Mexicans and Chino-Chicanos

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Define: agreement between U.S. and Mexico that ended the Mexican-American war Text/lecture app: Gave Mexican citizens three options -- leave for Mexico within a year, stay and retain MX citizenship, or do nothing and become U.S. citizens; Mexicans supposedly had protection of their property, though it later became dispossessed through land disputes with Euroamerican settlers. Overall Significance: Mexicans became legally white but socially "off-white." Beginning of Mexican-Americans as a racialized group as the Senate later stipulated that Mexicans would be admitted "at the proper time" as judged by Congress (whiteness still linked to citizenship at time)

Racial formation theory

Define: an analytical tool in sociology used to look at race as a socially constructed identity, where the content and importance of racial categories are determined by social, economic and political forces. Text/lecture app: Professor Romero demonstrated how the Mexican race formed in opposition to other groups, namely Chinese immigrants. The Chinese didn't fit the "mestizo" ideal of post revolution Mexico, nor the "criollo-blanco" ideal of Northern Mexico. Overall significance: Helps us to understand how Mexican and Mexican-American people used the same racial construction techniques as Anglos to set themselves apart from other racialized groups.

Census

Define: an official survey of a population Text/lecture app: census survey shows change in how Mexican Americans were classified racially over time Overall significance: shows how statemakers struggled to label MX-origin people, shows how they defied racial categories at the time

Timoteo Andrade

Define: dispute that resulted when Andrade filed a petition to become a naturalized citizen Text/lecture app: Molina explains how Andrade's case demonstrated a degree of fluidity in terms of racial eligibility for citizenship since he listed his race as "Spanish" and ethnicity as "Mexican." Overall significance: Shows how "Mexican" was an unstable category and could be grouped with other European immigrants if the "Spanish" aspect was emphasized while the "Indian" aspect was minimalized.

Conquest

Define: evolution of land from matter to property by drawing lines on a map and assigning meaning and power to those lines (Patricia Limerick) Text/lecture app: departs from traditional ideologies of Western expansion (Manifest Destiny, Frontier Thesis) by emphasizing the effects on Mexican American and Native American peoples who already populated the Western territory Overall significance: Conquest is an ongoing process, occurred through dispossession of Californios' lands and Spanish Fantasy Past.

Borderlands

Define: spaces of permeability that reject ethnic absolutism, values clashes of cultural exchange, present whenever 2+ cultures meet Text/lecture app: Borderlands present in Los Angeles. We see this in "Making Do" when it talks about court houses and Chinatown and how Asian and Mexican immigrants interacted in small living corridors. Overall significance: Helps us understand the hybridity of Chican@ culture. Wasn't formed in a vacuum but rather shaped by groups around it.

Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto

Define: the battles that led to Texas becoming an independent republic (although not recognized as so by Mexico's congress) and ultimately a state in the U.S. Text/lecture app: The battle resulted from tensions over slavery, with Anglos resisting Mexico's law to ban slavery. Euroamericans began to outnumber Mexicans, which led to Mexico's loss of the territory after these battles. Overall Significance: These battles entrenched racial lines as Alamo Anglos were newcomers encroaching on Mexican land; when Texas was later annexed by the United States, Mexicans became foreigners in their own land

Reverse one-drop rule

Define: the belief that one drop of non African blood in a black person or non Native American blood in a Native American makes you mixed or white. But no drop of non white blood in a white person can make you mixed. Text/lecture app: Another form of Europeans trying to dilute other ethnic groups and take control Overall Significance: The reverse one drop rule basically strips non white single races of a single race identity and maintains the white one.

Citizenship

Define: the fact or status of being a citizen of a particular place Text/lecture app: Shades of citizenship -- through birthright (14th ammendment) or through naturalization. Molina illustrates that there lies a difference between legal and social citizenship because the Naturalization Act of 1790 linked citizenship with whiteness. Overall significance: Although Mexicans legally became U.S. citizens after the Mexican-American war, they were still treated as foreigners and did not exercise the political power of whites.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Define: the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. Text/lecture app: In "How Race is Made in America," Molina demonstrates how fears of a Chinese population explosion led to this and other exclusionary acts coupled with an unfavorable depiction of Chinese immigrants as sexually deviant and a threat to morality. Overall significance: Foundation for immigration policy towards Mexicans, as issues of who was fit to be a citizen were debated and contested. This racial script of Chinese immigrants as sexually deviant was later applied to Mexican Americans.

Manifest Destiny

Define: the idea that God had chosen Anglos of the U.S. to bring civilization to an inferior people ("divine duty") Text/lecture app: Ideas that relied on racism that were used to justify the Mexican American war as explored by Gomez in "Manifest Destinies." Legitimized white superiority. Overall significance: Demonstrates the view of the national identity at the time and that Mexican-origin people were clearly not a part of it. Beginning of the social construction of the Mexican American as "other."

Chicano studies

Define: the interdisciplinary field of research focused on Mexican origin people in the United States Text/lecture app: It's a term that student movements in the 60s/70s appropriated from a previously derogatory term to approach the study of Mexican origin people. We can approach Chicano studies through three lenses--migration and immigration, social identity, and the built environment. Overall significance: The term limits the study to a particular group (people of other Latin American origins are not included).

Repatriation

Define: the process of returning a person - voluntarily or forcibly - to his or her place of origin or citizenship Text/lecture app: Molina shows how Operation Round-Up is an example of repatriation. Created cultural representation of Mexicans as social burdens and criminals to justify deporting them. Overall significance: Example of racial script affecting Mexican Americans. Compare Operation Round-Up with Japanese Internment. Also, Mexican Americans were racialized alongside Mexican immigrants as inherently unsuitable for U.S. citizenship. Mexican designated as own race on census.

Spanish Fantasy Past

Define: the romanticized version of California's past that privileges its Spanish roots; senoritas, neophytes, paternalistic Franciscans Text/lecture app: Present in Olvera St, "Ramona." New Mexico as "Land of Enchantment" to whiten the state and thus increase chances of statehood. Proposes the inevitable decline of traditional cultures and the march of Euro-American progress. Overall Significance: Focusing on a Spanish past negates a Mexican present. Also erases the multicultural influences of Mexican culture (African, Chinese).

Mexican-American war

Define: the war between Mexico and the United States from 1846-1848 resulting from tensions over slavery and contested territory Text/lecture app: John O. Sullivan sparked the narrative that the Mexican-American war was part of the U.S.'s "manifest destiny" to spread from coast to coast Overall Significance: With a win for the U.S., this war changed the power structure of the Northern Mexican territories that were annexed. Beginning of the end for Mexicans' social and political power.

Dispossession

Define: to put a person out of property possession Text/lecture app: After the Mexican-American war and the subsequent CA Land Act, the Californios' social contracts that outlined their land tracts from the Mexican government did not hold up under court. The Californios ultimately were bought out by Euroamerican settlers and land squatters. Overall Significance: Dispossession = one of the ways to understand the conquest of Californios by Euroamericans.

Contested beginnings

Define: two ways of approaching the beginning of Chicano studies -- precolonial Mesoamerica or Colonial Mexico Text/lecture app: We learned about pre-classic, classic and post-classic Mesoamerica and its continued impact on the Chican@ culture, especially in iconography. We also learned about the conquest of Mesoamerica by Cortez the subsequent redistribution of wealth. Overall significance: If we begin with precolonial Mesoamerica, we can better understand the indigenous roots of Chican@ culture. If we begin with New Spain, we can better understand Spain's influence and focus on how conquest is at the historical foundation of Chican@ Studies.

To what extent can we conceive of "Mexican American" as a race or racial group? Address Molina's definition of racialization.

Racialized by Whites: white legally but not socially Racialized by Mexicans: setting boundaries between themselves and the Chinese, defining themselves in opposition to the Chinese Not a defined racial group with mestizo heritage; some classified as white because they emphasize Spanish heritage, others classified as Indian Counterscript: Raza cosmica

Racial script examples

Racializing Mexican Americans by comparing them to racialized groups already familiar to Americans 1) Chinese Exclusion Act - foundation for immigration policy toward Mexicans, who are also perceived as dirty/deviant immigrants 1a) "Chinese Inspectors" - racial profiling of Mexican immigrants in Imperial Valley (CA) by Border Patrol 2) Japanese Internment during WWII - Operation Roundup for Mexicans/Mexican-Americans 3) Opponents of MX immigration calling it "the Negro problem" of the Southwest 4) Emphasizing MX American's mestizaje in order to associate them with Indians and thus prove them unfit for self-government 5) Nativists calling Mexicans "peons," associating them with debt peonage (an institution following slavery). This links Mexicans to blacks as menial laborers.