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History
Student Lectures
Gabriel Rodriguez:
"The Immigrant Women of Lordsburg: Creating Stability
in a Small, Anglo-Hispanic Town"
With the financial assistance of an ACM
research grant, Gabe Rodriguez investigated the experience of
seven women who had immigrated from Mexico to the small town
of Lordsburg in the 1950s.
Through a series of interviews, Gabe learned
that migration to Lordsburg in the 1950s had some distinctive
characteristics. The women Gabe studied migrated in stages, moving
first from rural Mexico to a large Mexican city (Ciudad Juarez),
then moving to an American city (El Paso).
This two-stage migration allowed the women
to gain some familiarity with the American society and economy.
While living in Ciudad Jurez, they worked in the U.S., only later
making the move to El Paso. What makes these women's migration
unusual was the third stage: migration to the small town of Lordsburg,
population 3,000.
Gabe argued that life was pretty good for
those who had migrated to Lordsburg in the 1950s: there were
plenty of jobs, the cost of living was low, most women did not
need to work and elected to stay home to care for their children.
Houses were humble, but they were affordable too. As one women
said of home ownership: "I lived like a queen because I
knew it [the house] was ours.”
Lordsburg had a large Hispanic population,
and this helped ease the transition. One could exist comfortably,
Gabe, explained, without speaking English. Indeed, many of the
women he studied did not experience a language barrier until
some of their grandchildren grew up with English as their first
language.
While some studies emphasize the immigrant
as a victim of forces over which she has no control, and as suffering
from a sense of uprootedness, the women of Gabe's study made
choices that considerably ameliorated the negative aspects of
migration. They came already familiar with American society and
economy. They owned their own homes, their men had good jobs,
and they belonged to a Hispanic community.
Julian Zebot: "Ethno-Religious Identity in the Anglicization
of the Dutch in Colonial New York"
The gradual Anglicization of the Dutch
in colonial New York and the means by which the Dutch for a time
resisted it were the topic of Julian Zebot's presentation. The
English take-over of the Dutch city of New Amsterdam in 1664
(the English renamed it the city New York) was met with a mixed
response by the resident Dutch. The Dutch lost political power
and economic contacts. How they responded to the changes, however,
varied with their station.
The old Dutch elite adapted rather quickly,
allying with the new English rulers. Julian argued that, in contrast,
the vast majority of New York's Dutch population was alienated
by the "complex process of transition.” Middling and
lesser folk suffered economic hardship. They were expected to
become Englishmen. Many emigrated, either returning to the Netherlands
or going to New Jersey. Those who remained in New York put up
a cultural resistance.
The main institution for resistance was
the Dutch Reformed Church. Julian argued that Dutch New Yorkers
"flocked" to the Dutch Reformed Church in growing numbers.
In particular, women saw the church as a way to preserve Dutch
culture and language. The composition of Dutch reformed membership
became increasingly "ethnically pure.” In other words,
the church became "increasingly Dutch while New York at
large became increasingly English.”
Julian explained that the English were
not ignorant of the socio-political significance of the Dutch
Reformed Church. From the start, the English rulers sought to
control its leadership through appointments. They established
competing cultural institutions where Dutch-speakers could learn
the English language. These efforts eventually worked; many younger
Dutch New Yorkers were increasingly Anglicized. They saw no advantage
in clinging to the old ways and the old hostilities, and they
had no memory of the days before English rule. Even the power
of the Dutch Reformed Church was diminished, as a new generation
began establishing splinter churches in new locations. |
