Overview

A moving portrait of a grim period in American immigration history, when approximately one million ethnic Mexicans-mostly women and children who were US citizens-were forced to relocate across the southern border. From 1921 to 1944, approximately one million ethnic Mexicans living in the United States were removed across the border to Mexico. What officials called ""repatriation"" was in fact banishment: 60 percent of those expelled were US citizens, mainly working-class women and children whose husbands and fathers were Mexican immigrants. Drawing on oral histories, transnational archival sources, and private collections, Marla A. Ramírez illuminates the lasting effects of coerced mass removal on three generations of ethnic Mexicans. Ramírez argues that banishment served interests on both sides of the border. In the United States, the government accused ethnic Mexicans of dependence on social services in order to justify removal, thereby scapegoating them for post-World War I and Depression-era economic woes. In Mexico, meanwhile, officials welcomed returnees for their potential to bolster the labor force. In the process, all Mexicans in the United States-citizens and undocumented immigrants alike-were cast as financially burdensome and culturally foreign. Shedding particular light on the experiences of banished women, Ramírez depicts the courage and resilience of their efforts to reclaim US citizenship and return home. Nevertheless, banishment often interrupted their ability to pass on US citizenship to their children, robbed their families of generational wealth, and drastically slowed upward mobility. Today, their descendants continue to confront and resist the impact of these injustices-and are breaking the silence to ensure that this history is not forgotten. A wrenching account of expulsion and its afterlives, Banished Citizens illuminates the continuing social, legal, and economic consequences of a removal campaign still barely acknowledged in either Mexico or the United States.

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9780674295940

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Reviews

We cannot remember history if we were never taught it. Banished Citizens is a crucial text not just for Latina/o history but for the nation's history—one that speaks to democracy, rights, and the dangers of exclusion. This is a history we must remember, not just for the past, but to safeguard the future. -- Natalia Molina, author of <i>A Place at the Nayarit</i>

We cannot remember history if we were never taught it. Banished Citizens is a crucial text not just for Latina/o history but for the nation's history—one that speaks to democracy, rights, and the dangers of exclusion. This is a history we must remember, not just for the past, but to safeguard the future. -- Natalia Molina, author of <i>A Place at the Nayarit</i> A groundbreaking and essential work. Marla A. Ramírez gives voice to a generation too long overlooked, uncovering the resilience, courage, and enduring spirit of those unjustly expelled despite their US citizenship. Both heart-wrenching and deeply inspiring, this beautifully written book is a triumph of historical scholarship and a testament to the power of reclaiming silenced stories. Ramírez’s critical insights into the enduring impact of deportation and repatriation could not be more timely or urgent than they are today. -- Mireya Loza, author of <i>Defiant Braceros</i> Through a rich account of four families banished from the United States to Mexico in the early twentieth century, Marla A. Ramírez incisively reveals how illegality was imposed on US citizens and their descendants. Banished Citizens is the rare work of history that tells us as much about the struggles of today as it reveals about our American past. -- George J. Sánchez, author of <i>Boyle Heights</i> and <i>Becoming Mexican American</i>

Author Information

Marla A. Ramírez is Assistant Professor of History and Chicane/x and Latine/x Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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