Featured

Professor Takes New Look at Mexican Repatriation

Published

7 years ago

June 12, 2017

By Matt Reed, SF State News

President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants back to Mexico has echoes from another era — the mass repatriations from the United States of approximately 1 million Mexican immigrants and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent during the Great Depression.

That’s been the subject of San Francisco State University Assistant Professor of Sociology Marla A. Ramirez’s research for the last six years, and she says she’s found similarities and one key difference between what happened in the 1930s and the political climate of today.

“Before, there was always the construction of the good immigrant and the bad immigrant,” Ramirez said. “But what we’re seeing now under Trump, unlike the 1930s, is that it has shifted to targeting immigrants in general. Even Dreamers, who are a model minority, are college students, and workers, and even if they have no criminal record, they are still being targeted for deportation.”

One similarity, she said, was the scapegoating of Mexicans that was rooted in the economic uncertainty of the time. With so many people out of work, government officials became fearful that there were too many people dependent on public benefits.

“There was the idea that immigrants were taking jobs and living off public welfare, and the solution was to create more jobs for U.S. citizens by deporting them en masse,” she said. “Initially, the plan was to repatriate every undocumented person, but that was unfeasible. The solution then was to deport Mexicans because of the proximity of the country, and also because of the rail system between the two countries, which facilitated the transportation for the mass repatriations. It was just more convenient for supporters of mass removals.”

According to Ramirez, peak removal took place between 1930 and 1933, when about 500,000 people were deported. The overall number of deportations remains in dispute.

“Reports of how many people were removed in the 1930s varies,” she said. “It varies from a half million to 2 million, but I argue that it was approximately 1 million, if the repatriations are examined between the years of 1921 and 1944, instead of only focusing on short periods during the decade of the 1930s.”

Ramirez began looking into the subject while writing her master’s thesis on the experiences of undocumented immigrants as college students. One student surprised her by saying he considered himself a U.S. citizen, even though he didn’t have papers. His grandmother was a U.S. citizen, had been removed in the 1930s and died soon after in Mexico.

Ramirez found that while there’s been a lot of research and writing about the experiences of Mexican nationals who were repatriated in the 1930s, not much has been done on the children and grandchildren of repatriated U.S.
citizens. Her work is a three-generational analysis of the prolonged consequences, socially and legally, of their forced removal.

The biggest challenge initially was finding people to interview. But in 2012, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors issued a formal apology for the county’s role in local raids and in rounding people up. That followed a 2006 state law — the Apology Act for the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Program.

The two formal apologies were commemorated with a plaque that was unveiled at a ceremony at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, a Mexican-American museum and cultural center near downtown Los Angeles.

“I said, ‘I have to go. Families might be there,’” Ramirez said. “I approached them and told them about my project, and they generously agreed to be interviewed. Other participants were found by a snowball approach, through recommendations of participants who knew others who had experienced repatriation.”

The oral history became an integral part of her doctoral dissertation, and she is now revising her book manuscript and working on a book proposal. In all, Ramirez conducted 20 original oral histories and used an additional 30 interviews she found in archives in Los Angeles and El Paso, Texas. She spoke to members of a family in Anaheim, Calif., another family in Pasadena, Calif., and members of another family that is spread throughout California, Alabama and Mexico.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Related Topics:Mexico news San Francisco

Up Next

Pacific Pharmacy Students to Host Free Health Fair, June 25

Don't Miss

Juneteenth Festival in Marin City

Oakland Post

Click to comment

City Government

San Pablo Appoints New Economic Development and Housing Manager

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo. Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Published

1 day ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Kieron Slaughter. Photo courtesy of the City of San Pablo

The Richmond Standard

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo.

Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Before that he was an associate planner in the City of Richmond’s Planning and Building Services Department from 2007-2015.

San Pablo City Manager Matt Rodriguez lauded Slaughter’s extensive experience in economic development, housing and planning, saying he will add a “valuable perspective to the City Manager’s Office.”

Slaughter, a Berkeley resident, will start in his new role on Nov. 12, with a base annual salary of $164,928, according to the City of San Pablo.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

City Government

Aaron Osorio Rises Up Ranks to Become Richmond’s Fire Chief

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10. “I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.” Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Published

1 day ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Richmond Fire Department Chief Aaron Osorio. Courtesy photo

By Mike Kinney

The Richmond Standard

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10.

“I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.”

Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Osorio is a San Francisco native who rose up the ranks in the Richmond Fire Department over the last 21 years before being elevated to chief.

He joined the department in 2002 and has served in multiple roles including firefighters, engineer, captain, battalion chief, training director and deputy fire chief. He said he truly loves working in this community.

While it isn’t common for a fire department to hire a chief that came up through its ranks, Osorio was credited by the city for serving Richmond well during uncommon times.

The city lauded him for developing internal policies and vaccination clinics during the initial COVID response, for supporting activation of the emergency operations center in response to a potential mudslide disaster in Seacliff last year, helping to draft mutual aid agreements and working to increase fire response capabilities for industrial incidents.

He’s also led departmental hiring and recruitment since 2018.

Osorio said it is an honor to be hired as chief and has big plans for the department moving forward. He said he wants to continue hiring and promoting for vacant positions, and also completing a strategic plan guiding the direction of the organization.

He also aims to replace and renovate a number of fire department facilities placed on the Capital Improvement Plan and create new ways to recruit that will enhance the diversity of the department.

Osorio said his experience within, and love for, the city of Richmond puts him in a good position to lead the department. He says he knows what is needed and also the challenges that are unique to the city.

“I look forward to utilizing that institutional knowledge to move the fire department forward in a positive direction and enhance the services we provide to the community,” the chief said.

Osorio holds a bachelor of science degree in Fire Administration and is also a California State Fire Marshal-certified chief officer, company officer, and state instructor.

He also holds numerous certifications in fire, rescue, hazardous material, and incident command.

The chief has been married to his wife, Maria, for 26 years and they have two sons, Roman and Mateo.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Published

1 day ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:

“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.

Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.

Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.

1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.

Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.

IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.

As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.

Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”

The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.

And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.

Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.

In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.

As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.

We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.

We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Let’s get this done.