IMMIGRATION

OPEN IN THIS PAGE:

https://imgflip.com/gif/1l26by

RESOURCES USED:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvlgt-7efdw

David Osuna

ETHN2 - A13

TA Omar Padilla

Notebook 4

Salvador Mena’s Zine Summary (FEEDBACK)

I think this summarizes a powerful story of the Latino immigrant experience, and the struggles that are encompassed by coming to America without anything. I really admire Salvador’s dad and how Salvador utilizes his dad’s hands as a symbol of hard relentless work. I think this Zine will come out really well. I think the audience is intended to understand and visualize the immigrant experience through the eye’s of Salvador’s father.

Compelling Quotes

“After going through years showing everyone around him why he should be considered an American citizen, he was able to take over his old Jefe’s job and become the owner of what is now known as ‘Salvador’s Gardening.’ ”

“His hands were a part of him, but they were what got him to become the man that he is now.”

I think these quotes could particularly be powerful in his Zine as they incorporate some of the main ideas his Zine is trying to deliver. Essentially the first quote shows how despite the obstacles, working hard and being relentless will allow you to expand economically ( I know meritocracy is not always the case , but in this case - his dad worked hard and was able to achieve a better opportunity to grow economically ). The second quote is basically the bread and butter for this zine, he can depict how his dad’s working hands are an overlapping concept for his dad’s achievements as an immigrant.

Compelling Anecdote

“ After going through years showing everyone around him why he should be considered an American citizen, he was able to take over his old Jefe’s job and become the owner of what is now known as “Salvador’s Gardening ...”

From his second notebook, I think a powerful anecdote for Salvador’s Zine would be how his dad was able to create his own gardening business, despite working under someone else supervision for so many years. I think it ties in with his dad’s hands symbolism and his dad’s work ethic. Essentially in his Zine he could incorporate how despite the drawbacks of the immigrant experience in America, his dad’s work ethic and hands were important elements in helping him create and maintain a business. I think expanding on this anecdote would bring a lot to his zine.

Compelling Image

Salvador’s image of his father’s hands should definitely be incorporated into his Zine. I think this image is the whole emphasis of his notebooks and is truly a powerful image for his analysis. Essentially the image of his father hands wraps up all his written analysis into a visual concept that can be powerful in signifying everything his father’s hands have helped his father achieved. It also seems like the image of his father’s hands in an original artwork so I’m pretty sure it is considered fair use.

Reword Analysis

i. Salvador’s zine depicts the immigrant life experience through the eye’s of his father. He uses his father’s hands to symbolize how he was able to adapt to the immigrant life experience and enter the gardening industry which tough manual labor. He as well explores different time frames of his father’s life from early childhood, to young adulthood, and present day and how these time frames were essential for developing the person his father has become today. One pivotal aspect of his father’s life is sacrifice - which encompassed leaving his family behind in Mexico, working long shifts with minimum holidays off, and physical and mental wear. His father’s sacrifice has paved way for giving his children the opportunity to make a life in the United States. Mena emphasizes how despite the obstacles faced by the immigrant experience, his father's perseverance were imperative as it allowed him to sustain a family and build a life in the United States of America.

ii. I think my analysis incorporates the most important aspects of his father’s immigrant experience. It talks about how it will show the immigrant experience through the eyes of an immigrant himself. Then talks about time frames in the life on an immigrant and also the sacrifices that are made in order to build a better life in a new country. Essentially leading up to how everything he has done has paved way for presenting opportunities for his children to succeed in this country.

iii. I think Salvador’s analysis over all is pretty good, after reading it a couple times I think he is very clear and his emphasis is very thorough,

My object will continue to be the American Green Card which incorporates the theme of Immigration and Citizenship. I want to expand on this object essentially because of the binds that are interlaced with this themes which are whiteness and citizenship. For the early days of America, citizenship had to be deconstructed and analyzed through the scope of whiteness.

Expanding on the executive order from president Donald Trump, originally last week he passed the executive order to prevent green and visa card holders from predominantly muslim countries from re-entering the United States via airports. This last week created societal and political turmoil with the enforcement of this executive order , as doctors, lawyers, and students whose origin pertains to the seven predominant muslim countries were denied entry to the United States or detained at customs in the airports. In efforts to prevent “Muslim endorsed terrorist attacks”, this executive order by President Trump hoped to restore a sense of patriotism to the American public while racializing a group despite people's legal documentation to reside and work in the United States. Green Card holders essentially possess an intermediate status leading to a path of citizenship, so how can we marginalize a group of individuals that essentially posses the qualities to gain citizenship ? As previously stated in my other notebook we can see that citizenship is a social construct rectified through whiteness and as well is utilized to neglect groups assimilation on basis of race, religion, and gender (intersectionality). Regardless, of this last controversial week , the executive order was overturned and deemed unconstitutional by the Federal District Court in Seattle. This then lifted the ban from the predominantly muslim countries and allowed immigrants to once again gain entrance to the United States of America. Essentially, overriding the potential harms induced to “America’s national security”. Removing the travel ban is one step closer to achieving social justice for people; however, recalibrating social injustices is never linear progress as laws and other factors always make groups vulnerable and apt for marginalization. Despite Trump's attempt to fuel patriotism through anti-religious and race tactics, counterhegemonic movements were pivotal in fueling the overturn of the travel ban as masses gathered to protest and speak about the backlash this travel ban would have on individuals and communities. Unfortunately, just as many people that supported removing the travel ban also supported it as Trumps delivery and notions propelled a sense of removing threats to a white Christian America , that is against muslim ideals and muslim induced terrorist attacks. This controversial executive order , fueled a week full of political turmoil , but eventually most individuals from these muslim dominant countries were able to regain entrance to the United States to reunite with their families and incorporate once again into their academia fields and jobs fields.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/us/politics/visa-ban-trump-judge-james-robart.html

For my second notebook I want to shift paradigms from talking about petroleum conflicts induced by globalization in Mexico, to having my object be the focus of an “American Green Card” which will be used to explore the ramifications of whiteness and what constitutes citizenship. An American passport encompasses the theme of Immigration and Citizenship in this ETHN2 course.

The first bind of focus for an American Green Card is citizenship. The Green Card serves as the intermediate status for most immigrants in the United States hoping to gain citizenship as it provides right to residency and working. Green Card holders are immigrants whose birth nation was not the United States therefore different stereotypes are encompassed with their country of birth which allows people to be marginalized. In the recent events, President of the United States, Donald Trump, passed an executive order to prevent immigrants from muslim majority countries from gaining entrance to the United States. Therefore, nationwide at airports people with legal green cards , but birth nations encompassed from these “muslim majority countries” allowed customs to detain these individuals. Despite legal documentation , and possessing these intermediate status of almost gaining citizenship people from muslim majority countries present a threat to a white supremacist country. An interlacing bind as well for this object is whiteness. Whiteness and Citizenships are two intermingling concepts that have been used throughout American history to marginalized people. This executive order is deteriorating green card holders because it can defer people's opportunity to gain citizenship. This incident is a repetition of the outcomes of 19th century Chinese Immigration for labor and 20th century Bracero Program. USA encouraged immigration for cheap exploitative labor which allowed them to exploit Chinese and Mexicans for manual labor. It led to the Chinese Exclusion Act and years of backlash for undocumented Mexicans. Essentially these individuals were pivotal for a young pioneering Industrial America, but their unfulfillment of whiteness allowed them to be racialized and for many year inapt for citizenship. Historically, and present day today we can see that whiteness is proportional to citizenship as any threat or counterhegemonic to predominant white America is a basis for marginalizing non white individuals.    

Based off the executive order banning individuals from predominantly muslim countries the main controversy for immigration is religion. From an intersectional lens, the individuals to face the most repercussions from this banning is females as them wearing hijabs allows them to be easy target and vulnerable. Individuals from the middle east already face repercussions of islamophobia but an individual being from the middle east and a female as well is more demeaning because they are prone to being marginalized at more extreme levels than males. Through the intersectional lens we can depict how race ( Arab ) , religion (muslim) , and gender (female) are imperative factors as woman with green cards face more backlash because their identification pictures in their green cards and their hijabs are constituting factors for profiling them and further degrading them than their male counterparts.

“The areas of the world that create danger for us, which is a factual basis, not a religious basis,perfectly legal, perfectly sensible ” - Donald Trump

“No president ever ever has used the authority and statute of the law to ban people based on their religion, ban people based on their nationality.” -  David Leopold, a Cleveland-based immigration lawyer

https://www.kcet.org/history-society/when-this-law-ended-what-happened-to-mexican-immigration

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/27/donald-trump-muslim-refugee-ban-executive-action

With the current turmoil that is happening in Mexico the object I have chosen is petroleum (gasoline). Essentially the imperative daily use of this chemical affects two nations the United States and Mexico, as Mexico is one of the United States main supplier of this fuel. This last winter break I spend one week in Guadalajara, Jalisco and Mazatlán, Sinaloa. I witnessed uprisings and revolts in response to the spiking gasoline prices imposed for Mexican citizens to pay. Essentially these have been counterhegemonic movements, to the Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto’s energy reforms that promised to lower prices, but instead are taking a toll on people’s wallets. With most families in Mexico already facing economic deficiencies and being faced with having to pay 18 pesos per liter of gasoline ( approx $3.40 USD per gallon ), the current uprisings should not be a surprise. In comparison to the USA hourly minimum wage of 10 dlls ( 80 USD daily ), Mexico’s hourly minimum wage is 8.76 pesos ( 50 US cents ). Therefore, with a daily wage of 4 USD how is petroleum supposed to be a resources with reasonable accessibility for all citizens ? I think my object is a pivotal resource for all countries, but I think the shared value between it in the United States and Mexico shows something more profound.

The theme that is correlates with is Globalization and Labor Circulations. Transnational corporations have created a deficit in Mexico as rising prices in gas are devaluing the peso and creating societal, economical , and political turmoil. The monopoly Pemex, is anchored to sell half of its yearly petroleum barrel production to the United States therefore allowing US to have 30 days storage worth of petroleum meanwhile Mexico has 3 days worth storage.

On January 8th, 2017 at a gas depot in Rosarito, Baja California as people attempted to create an embargo on the city’s main supplying gas station but then cops took over the situation and formed a blockade around the station to prevent civilians from interrupting daily operations. Later that day a civilian truck slammed into the blockage of police officers leaving multiple injured and killing a few. The truck was able to escape with the help of the protesting civilians.  Despite the wrongdoing these events have been circulating in Mexico in response to the deteriorating effects Transnational Corporations are imposing over citizens of Mexico ( rising gas prices). Pemex anchored service to store, transport, and distribute allow USA to receive petroleum for lower prices and sell for higher prices. Therefore, benefiting the United States through this form of imperialism, and on the other hand creating backlash for Mexico.

On January 5th, 2017 many commercial stores in the states of Mexico, Hidalgo, and Michoacan closed down in fear that they would put their employees in danger as civilians nationwide continued to sack stores and light building/cars on fire. These series of events are all outcries for the spiking Gasoline prices. As previously stated above, with the economic opportunities provided by the Mexican government how are civilians supposed to adapt or compensate for the rising gas prices if they cannot produce enough capital to adapt to the change. The most stolen items from stores that were sacked were clothes, food, washing machines, refrigerators, and televisions. These ramifications have been a product of the gas prices and uncertainty of people’s economic future.

In both my contexts, the revolving matter is petroleum. In the first context we can see that the product of spiking petroleum prices has led to violent and aggressive protests creating social turmoil. In the second context we can see that the product of spiking petroleum prices has led to the sacking of stores and robberies to compensate for the capital Mexican civilians don’t posses. The contexts don’t differ in outcomes, in fact the depict the harms of globalization through the transnational corporations. Essentially through globalization, United States can benefit meanwhile Mexico deteriorates. Through globalization  and treaties like NAFTA, United States can impose a an economic imperial dominance over North America by eliminating tariffs and spreading consumerism. Therefore, globalization is prominent as transnational corporations like Pemex allow United States to accomplish their incentives through international influence, but leave these “outside” countries at the brink of chaos.

http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-38515516

http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-38514442

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/pickup-truck-rams-dozens-of-mexico-police-officers-decked-out-in-riot-gear-850067523569