Photo by Metro Transportation Library and Archive/Flickr (Creative Commons)

A postcard of 1930s-era Olvera Street in Los Angeles, one of the places where Mexican immigrants and U.S.-born Mexican Americans were rounded up during the Depression as part of what's known as the Mexican Repatriation.

The long-ago forced removal of Mexicans and Mexican Americans that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors issued a formal apology for yesterday isn’t the relatively well-known 1954 campaign known by a name that the federal government wouldn’t use today. Rather, it was a federal push to repatriate Mexicans from the U.S. that has become just about buried in history.

The Depression-era campaign was called simply the Mexican Repatriation, with hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent forced to leave the United States during the 1930s as the economy ground to a near-halt, and the nation withdrew the welcome mat for those who became perceived as a job threat.

Unlike the 1950s-era Operation Wetback, there’s scarce mainstream awareness of the campaign, which has had little mention in history books. But scholars have written about the Mexican Repatriation, including in relation to events like the World War II-era internment of Japanese Americans and the so-called War on Terror following the 9/11 attacks.

In 2005, UC Davis law school dean Kevin R. Johnson wrote about the Mexican Repatriation, and lessons learned from it, in detail for the Pace Law Review. From the article:

Although “repatriation” is the term often used to refer to the campaign to remove hundreds of thousands of persons of Mexican ancestry from the United States in the 1930s, it is not entirely accurate. Federal, state, and local governments worked together to involuntarily remove many U.S. citizens of Mexican ancestry, many of whom were born in the United States. These citizens cannot be said to have been “repatriated” to their native land.

Approximately 60 percent of the persons of Mexican ancestry removed to Mexico in the 1930s were U.S. citizens, many of them children who were effectively deported to Mexico when their immigrant parents were sent there. My colleague, Professor Cruz Reynoso, former Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, was one of the so-called repatriates. A U.S. citizen by birth, a young Cruz could only ask his father “where is Mexico?” when informed that the Reynoso family was moving from southern California to south of the U.S./Mexico border.

The forced “repatriation” of an estimated one million persons of Mexican ancestry from the United States included the removal of hundreds of thousands of people from California, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, and New York during the Great Depression. It is clear today that the conduct of federal, state, and local officials in the campaign violated the legal rights of the persons repatriated, as well as persons of Mexican ancestry stopped, interrogated, and detained but not removed from the country. The repatriation campaign also terrorized and traumatized the greater Mexican-American community.

A book by Francisco E. Balderrama & Raymond Rodríguez entitled Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s documents the historical events surrounding the repatriation and concisely summarizes the campaign:

[L]ocal agencies, saddled with mounting relief and unemployment problems, used        a variety of methods to rid themselves of “Mexicans”: persuasion, coaxing, incentive, and unauthorized coercion. Special railroad trains were made available, with fare at least to the Mexican border prepaid; and people were often rounded up by local agencies to fill carloads of human cargo. In an atmosphere of pressing emergency, little if any time was spent on determining whether the methods infringed upon the rights of citizens.

To assist in the round-up, police conducted raids of public places, including the church La Placita on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles, where persons of Mexican ancestry were known to frequent. Olvera Street was not a tourist spot in the 1930s like it is today; then it was simply a meeting place for working class Mexicans near a church serving the Mexican immigrant and Mexican-American community. The people rounded up were often herded onto trains and buses or driven by social workers to the border. This was true for citizens by birth and those who had lawfully naturalized to become citizens.

Of those sent to Mexico between 1929 and the early 1940s, it’s estimated that more than half were U.S. citizens. There were tens of thousands sent away from the Los Angeles area, according to a short piece in the Los Angeles Times today, which mentioned that a monument to those who were sent to Mexico will be unveiled downtown this weekend. A California state bill apologizing for what happened was signed into law in 2005.

That post drew on 2008 data from the University of Notre Dame; now a UC Berkeley Labor Center study has added to the data on seniors of color. According to the UC Berkeley study, poverty rates among black and Latino seniors are more than twice that of the overall U.S. elder population.

Access to retirement savings could make a big difference, but due to a combination of factors, “less than half of Black workers (47.7 percent) and less than a third of Latino workers (31.6 percent) participate in an employer sponsored retirement plan.” Read the research brief:

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• Source: Berkeley

It’s Much Harder for Black and Latino Workers to Retire, Study Finds – ColorLines A new UC Berkeley report adds to the existing data on black and Latino seniors, who tend to rely more heavily on Social Security and have less retirement income than white retirees.

Supreme Court rejects Redondo Beach appeal on day laborer law – Los Angeles Times The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a Redondo Beach ordinance that sought to prohibit day laborers seeking work from gathering on street corners, and threatened them with arrest.

Woman in El Paso, Texas, hit by bullet from Juarez, Mexico is 1st cross-border shooting victim – The Washington Post A 48-year-old woman pushing a stroller in downtown El Paso was struck in the calf by an assault rifle round that apparently came from Juarez, where police were involved in a shootout with carjackers close to the border.

Judge delays ruling on Utah immigration law – Salt Lake Tribune A federal judge has said that he won’t rule on an enforcement-only Utah anti-illegal immigration law until the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision this year on Arizona’s SB 1070.

Photo by TexasT/Flickr (Creative Commons)

It’s a term that’s in the news today, so it makes sense to include it as a dictionary entry.

Just as the sound of it suggests, a “carwashero” is someone who works at a car wash, otherwise known in Spanish as a “lava coches”, i.e. one who washes cars.

Carwasheros are making headlines this afternoon because they’ve made some history in Los Angeles, making the city the nation’s first to have three unionized car washes. Workers at two South L.A. car washes, the Vermont Car Wash and Nava’s Car Wash, have won union contracts, joining a third car unionized car wash in Santa Monica.

The carwasheros, mostly immigrants from Latin America, voted last year to join the United Steelworkers union, organizing as part of a larger effort  that has been trying to curb worker exploitation in what is typically a low-paid and often hazardous occupation.

There’s even a song called “Carwashero (Lava Coches)” by Los Jornaleros del Norte (The Day Laborers of the North), a band whose songs cover political themes that relate to immigrants.

Unlike jornaleros, though, carwasheros are described by a term that’s purely a product of el norte. It’s terms like these that make up Multi-American’s evolving cultural mashup dictionary, a collection of bits and pieces of the evolving lexicon of words, terms and phrases coined as immigrants and their descendants influence the English language, and it influences them.

The most recent entry was gentefication, referring to how some upwardly mobile and mostly second-generation Latinos have been investing in older immigrant neighborhoods. Other entries have included informal coinages like Tweecanos, as used on Twitter, and Spanglish terms like Googlear and Twittear and Feisbuk. The series kicked off last spring with the etymology of the term 1.5 generation. Have suggestion for an entry? Feel free to post it below.

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Because it’s not just any historic urban Chinatown, it’s the one in L.A., where these things matter.

Photo by David Campbell/Flickr (Creative Commons)

How do American Muslim women navigate love, culture and identity?  KPCC’s Yasmin Nouh gives us a glimpse in this Q&A with the co-editor of a new anthology of Muslim women’s personal stories.

“Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women,” is an anthology of 25 love stories told by American Muslim women from different backgrounds – black, white, Arab, converts, lesbians, Sunni, Shia, South Asian. Editors Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi say they compiled them to dispel stereotypes that Muslim women are generally repressed, forced into arranged marriages, or live loveless lives dictated by men.

Each tale is more than a simple love story, with complex underlying themes that these women face as they navigate hybrid identities while searching for a sense of belonging as Muslims – and as the children of immigrants, in many cases – in the United States.

In one of the stories, for example, contributor Tanzila Ahmed follows a Muslim punk-rock band on their cross-country tour. A self-proclaimed Desi (meaning of Pakistani or Indian descent) punk rocker, she ends up having an affair with one of the band’s members. An excerpt:

I had fallen in love in the best way – with a boy, with like-minded people, and, maybe most important, with being honestly and truly myself. I had found a family that was cut from the same contradictory cloth and going through the same blasphemous struggles as I was. I had found myself, and I had let myself go. I had punk-rocked, prayed, loved, moshed, laughed, skated, cuddled, rocked, touched, kissed, and cried.

It wasn’t just a story about my falling in love with a guy, or following a band, or going on an adventure. It was about love, punk, and punk-drunk love. People who got me, really got me, and all that I came with.

Co-editor Nura Maznavi, herself the daughter of immigrants from Sri Lanka, discusses how the book got its start, what she learned along the way, and what the reaction to it has been so far.

M-A: What inspired the idea of “Love InshAllah”?

Maznavi: My co-editor Ayesha and I have been friends for many years. About five years ago, over coffee in San Francisco, we were chatting about how so much has been written about Muslim women, but very little of it has been written by Muslim women. Nowhere in the discourse did we see reflected the funny, independent and hilarious Muslim women we know. We wanted to change that. We decided to ask women to write about the search for love, because love is a universal emotion that resonates with everyone.

M-A: In the book you feature love stories told by American Muslim women of all different backgrounds – Sunni, Shia, black, white, lesbians, converts, Arab Americans, South Asian Americans. What was the purpose behind this? And what was the biggest challenge for you throughout the process of collecting such diverse stories?

Maznavi: We really wanted to shatter the stereotype held by many that Muslim women are a monolith – that we are all submissive, repressed and lacking agency over our lives. We thought that by showcasing the diversity of the American Muslim community – the most diverse community in the world – we could start to engage in a conversation that is more compassionate and empathetic, where each Muslim woman is seen for herself with a unique story to tell.

Editing was the most challenging and most rewarding experience of all. We spent a lot of time supporting our writers in taking their stories to the place of honesty and vulnerability that resonates with readers. And, through the process of editing, we developed wonderful relationships with each writer.

M-A: What surprised you most from the entries you received for the collection?

Maznavi: How very different each story was! Over the course of almost five years we received over 200 submissions, and no two were alike. Even if the women came from similar ethnic or cultural backgrounds, each woman looked at love and the search for love in a different way, in her own personal context.

M-A: What’s your favorite story from the book? Why?

Maznavi: Even though all the writers are of a different ethnic background than myself, and many of them practice their faith in different ways from me, there are elements of each story that I identify with. In all the stories there is an underlying theme of hope that I find compelling. That said, the story I keep coming back to is by Suzanne Shah, a Bangladeshi American woman who writes about falling in love with her husband, a black American Muslim. She writes with raw honesty, grace, and profound faith about the difficulties she’s faced in her life, in particular about her family’s disapproval of her interracial relationship, in a way that is quite moving.

M-A: What kind of impact did this book have on your life, and your spiritual journey?

Maznavi: This has been an extraordinary and life-changing experience. I feel so lucky to have worked on this book with one of my best friends, Ayesha Mattu. We both quit our day jobs at the end of last year to turn our full attention to the book. We’ve been working on this project for so long that we were both a bit nervous about how it would be received. It’s been extremely gratifying to see that it resonates with so many readers and opening up discussions in families and communities.

For me personally, this project has been incredibly empowering and spiritually uplifting. I’m an American Muslim woman and have, at times, felt frustrated about the way that Muslims, particularly women, are perceived – both within the Muslim community and the larger public. I am proud to be part of this courageous group of women who have shared their lives and loves to help us all connect on an intimate and personal level so we can recognize our shared humanity.

M-A: In the introduction you say that a reason for writing this book was to dispel stereotypes about Muslim women for the non-Muslim public, but there are stories in the book that touch upon issues like homosexuality and sex, generally considered taboo topics of discussion within the Muslim community. Is this a book geared towards the Muslim community, too? And if so, how do you navigate these waters? Has there been criticism and how have you dealt with it?

Maznavi: Within the Muslim community, there has not been the space for women to discuss their love lives in an open and honest way. There is the fear of shame, disapproval or judgment. Our hope is that this book allows an opening for women and families to start having important and necessary conversations about some of the issues touched on in the stories – sexuality, racism, homophobia, gender, divorce – so that we can support each other in some of these challenges and have women maintain a connection to their faith and communities.

The response to the book has been overwhelmingly positive. We have been so moved by the outpouring of support we’ve received from family and friends, and from our readers, especially as we’ve had the chance to connect with them in person during our book tour. We think that Muslim women have really been waiting for a book like this – a book where they see themselves and their lives reflected.

There have been some who have said that this book is not Islamic literature, and we agree with that. We state in our introduction that this book is not theology or an Islamic code of conduct. Rather, it is the lived reality of Islam in America through the lives of these Muslim women.

In anticipation of tomorrow’s Republican candidates’ debate in Arizona, CNN contributor LZ Granderson writes about the focus on the U.S.-Mexico border during the presidential campaign so far, writing about political euphemisms qualified with an “Oh boy, here comes the black guy playing the race card again.”

But he brings up the security gaps that exist on the U.S.-Canada border and what little attention this receives from candidates and existing politicos, questioning how much of the campaign immigration rhetoric we hear actually means what it means – or whether it means something else intended to appeal to voters. Thoughts, anyone? Granderson writes:

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• Source: Cnn

Now there will be plenty of other buzz words and euphemisms that will be tossed around during the debate, but since it is being held in Arizona, chances are the most popular phrase will be “secure the border.”

We must secure the border.

The candidates will argue that it’s a matter of national security. That it isn’t just the friendly illegal immigrants looking for work we must worry about, but terrorists, drug lords and other criminals who seek to make their way through our porous border. They will say if they were president they would build walls, add troops, even commission a Death Star to keep this country safe.

…They all will receive applause, and it will all sound great … until you realize that “secure the border” is slang for “keep the Mexicans out.”

Oh boy, here comes the black guy playing the race card again.

Yep, that’s me — pointing out that the Canadian border is largely ignored in this dialogue despite being more than twice the size of the Mexican border and less than 1% secure, according to a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office.

Read more at: www.cnn.com

National gathering in L.A. spotlights plight of day laborers – Los Angeles Times Hundreds of day laborers and former day laborers have gathered in downtown Los Angeles for a weeklong conference “to measure their progress since day laborers began a concerted effort to organize themselves two decades ago.” The program will also cover immigration issues.

Nebraska: Mixed Ruling on Immigration Crackdown – New York Times A federal judge has ruled against parts of a city ordinance in Fremont, Nebraska that would have banned the hiring of undocumented immigrants and prohibited landlords from renting to them. But some provisions, like one requiring employers to verify work authorization, were upheld.

Feds Asked to Investigate Allegations Arizona Sheriff Threatened Ex-Lover with Deportation – Fox News Latino A Latino organization is asking the federal Justice Department to investigate allegations that Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Arizona threatened his immigrant ex-lover with deportation if he went public with their relationship.

Immigrants will be expected to speak English and champion British culture – The Telegraph Under a new British government plan, children will be taught a “common culture,” and immigrants “will be expected to speak English.”

Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty images

Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks reacts reacts during a game against the Dallas Mavericks at New York's Madison Square Garden, February 19, 2012.

By now much of the country is familiar with the headline scandal this weekend involving New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin and ESPN, which on Saturday posted a headline with the phrase “chink in the armor.” ESPN fired the headline writer, who said it was “an honest mistake,” and the sports network suspended an anchor who used the phrase on-air.

Lin, meanwhile, has since told reporters he’s not ruffled and believes – or at least hopes – that the headline’s message wasn’t intentional.

Good thing he has a thick skin. Whether intentional or not, the headline is by now one of a long list of racially offensive and/or divisive cracks, graphics and comments regarding Lin, a California native and Harvard graduate who in recent weeks has become basketball’s first true Asian American superstar.

The blog Racialicious has compiled several recent examples, including a graphic from the Spanish-language ESPN Deportes depicting Lin in Chinese imperial garb with the phrase “Imperio Lin,” and an MSG Network graphic of Lin’s face coming out of a fortune cookie.

There’s also video of a Saturday Night Live skit spoofing the cookie graphic and several other cracks. Racialicious’ Arturo Garcia gives the show credit, but writes:

Best buckle up, though: the more exposure Lin and the Knicks get the rest of this year, the more inanities we as readers and consumers are going to have to speak up against.

In the New York Times this weekend, David Carr wrote about the “underlying racist tropes that still lurk in the id of American sports journalism, and by extension, the rest of us.” From his media column yesterday:

From the start, his run threatened the tabloid supply of puns and superlatives. “Lincredible!” shouted The New York Post on Feb. 11. And because tabloids have a back page and front page to shout from, we’ve sometimes been treated to a double dose of wordplay: “Lin and a Prayer” was the cover headline on The Daily News one day last week, while the back page blared “Just Lin Time.”

But all the froth and fun started to curdle, first on Twitter — the Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock tweeted a crude reference about Lin’s anatomy and the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. suggested that Lin was getting attention because of his ethnicity, not his accomplishments — and then in the tabloid press — on Wednesday, perhaps at a loss after several breathless days of punning, The Post went with the unfortunate “Amasian!”

The combination of Lin’s ethnicity and accomplishments created some excess, but no one could have predicted how low it might go. On Saturday, an article on ESPN’s mobile site recycled an ancient and blatantly offensive ethnic slur, and in the process suggested that some corners of sports journalism remained a backwater in the culture, a place untouched by a history of civil rights struggle and decades of progress.

Lin isn’t the first, of course, to struggle with prejudice in professional sports, as color lines have long existed. It wasn’t until 1947 – relatively recently, considering baseball’s long history – that Jackie Robinson debuted as the first major league black player with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

But even in sports where color and ethnic lines were broken long ago, the undercurrent that Carr writes about can still bubble to the surface. Last week, legendary boxing promoter Don King was criticized for using “wetbacks,” among other things, while hyping a fight in Texas between Latino boxers Erik Molina and Chris Arreola, who after the fight blasted King as “racist” on camera.

Readers, any thoughts on this?

Jeremy Lin isn’t fazed by ESPN racist headline controversy – Los Angeles Times In response to an ESPN digital headline using the phrase “chink in the armor” this weekend, New York Knicks basketball star Lin told reporters yesterday that he didn’t think it was intentional, “or hopefully not.” The headline writer was fired, and the anchor who used the phrase on air suspended.

ICE delivers hefty fines for paperwork errors – Houston Chronicle An analysis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employer audits since 2009, which have led to fines for many employers, though many of these have been not so much for illegal hiring as for employment verification paperwork errors.

Immigrants returning to Ala. – Philadelphia Inquirer It’s difficult to quantify how many left and how many are returning, but there’s anecdotal evidence that some immigrants who left Alabama after a strict anti-illegal immigration law went into effect last year have been trickling back after the mass deportations they feared didn’t occur.

Chen case: Asian-American soldiers endure bias – Wall Street Journal Military investigators examining the suicide of 19-year-old Danny Chen last fall say the young soldier was “showered with racial slurs and physical abuse by other soldiers at basic training and in Afghanistan.”

Latino Mormons speaking out against Romney – San Francisco Chronicle Some complain that the position on immigration voiced by presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, goes against what they see as “a basic Mormon principle of protecting immigrants.”