Chapter 13 & 14

Changing the Rules: Immigration Law 1948-1980

The immigration acts of 1924 had brought the national origins system into role until 1965. Most of the people such as Chinese, Filipino's, and Indians were all eligible to naturalization at the time. Asian Indians were residents in the United states. There were many changes that came after the Cold War, due to its high influence in immigration laws. 

The Displaced Person's Act was an act that had helped the indivuiduals that were persecuted by Nazi government who were fleeing persecution, and someone who could not back to their country because of persecution based on race, religion, or political opinions. The interesting thing that I found was the growth of Asian Immigration were more starling from 3 percent of all immigrants in 1940's rose to 6 percent and in the 1950's it rose 13 percent. Dramatic rises of Asian immigrants at the time. Another important aspect I had found interesting was when individuals come to a country, stay here, then sponsor there families. For example, an immigrant from Vietnam can come, receive there citizenship, then begin to call over there children if they have any back home, wives, and then eventually there parents within a period of five to eight years. 

New Asian Immigrants Chapter 14


Asian American immigrants population had been a huge growth by the 1980's. The chapter had many interesting facts about Asian American's (Japanese and Chinese), Filipino's, Asian Indians, Koreans, and Vietnamese. I found reading about Asian Indians to be the most fascinating part of the chapter =] . Short story about my fathers story, which some of the information from the chapter shows similarities with his life. My fathers family had came from India to the United States mostly during the late nineteenth century and some of early twentieth century. My fathers father and his father had came to the US by a plane from Jalendar, India in 1968. Most of them when they came to United States had came to California, since my dad was sponsored by his elder brother and sister-in law. He had came here in 1982 and resided in San Mateo, CA. Their was not many Indians mainly Punjabi's living in the area of San Mateo at the time. Most of them stayed up in Sacramento Valley (Central) and South Bay. 
 My father is of Sikh origin and when many Sikh's had came to California they went straight to Yuba City or San Jose. Yuba City reminds them of how back home looks, due to the fields in India and resemblance's of back home. They bought fields and houses and started their own community where they brought most of the land. Many people had bought land to build Sikh Temples (Gurdwara's) to have a sense of religion and togetherness in the community. The ones that came to San Jose had invested into more businesses,hotels, gas stations, and  cab companies. 

The story I found interesting to read about was Dalip Singh Saund who was born in Amritsar, India in an illiterate family. He had left during the Amritsar "massacre" fled to America where he pursued a higher education and obtained many degrees in his life time. Lived in Imperial Valley (Yuba City) Sikh and enclaved and worked as a rancher eventually a business man. Later, got married to an upperclass Czech American women, the most important cause his wife and he brought was the freedom for India and citizenship for Asian Indian in the US. He was highly involved in politics. 
Chapter 14 had many interesting information about each of the different Asian groups we have today. I better understand most of its history and the dramatic growth in our day today. What we had 51 years ago is quite different than what many will call a "change" today.

Chapter 11

Chapter eleven was filled with a lot of information. The class was divided up into reading three different sections. My group and I had read about the Asian American's which was the last section. Some interesting facts I found while reading are listed below.

-Depression of 1920's

-Five million immigrants ignored

-South "blacks" used GREAT MIGRATION places such as Chicago, which had alot of Mexican immigrants.

- "Emergency quota act"-1921

"1924 extended acts"

-Labor shortages during WW II

-Bracero Program

-Women roles in US at the time

-Japanese immigrants roles
-Canada and Mexico- so manu of the individuals did not have the quota act because they knew labor from Mexico.
-New American's had got visa's
-Some people left because they wanted to go back to their own country and be the status they were than being in a country that is rich
-Jews were discriminated
-Anyone with Jewish blood was tainted

-Chinese Exclusion Act
-Chinese in allels in 1882.
-Chinese were more in the agricultural work and Mexicans in labor work
-During WWI German's were very mistreated.
-American immigration law was discriminatory toward Chinese.
-105 Chinese quota slots
-War years had a labor shortage after the glut of unemployment in 1930's.
-When Chinese emigrated to US, 10,000 were women that to nonquota wives.

Chapter 12

When I would think about immigrants from the past I would think about Hispanic people right away. I did not know until just a few years ago that each minority group that first comes to the America is known as an immigrant. I found chapter 12 really interesting because it mentioned a lot about Mexican American community as the chapter goes on. What I thought was interesting was whether the Mexican American community was old or new, since the Census Bureau have been counting them as Caucasians. Most of the groups that are associated with this are Cubans, Puerto Ricans and groups that come on the same association of them. I would think they would have there own section in the census. At least have a column for Hispanics and Latino's of course this did not come into play until later on in the years. 

Just like the other groups that we have studied in the earlier chapters such as the Japanese, Chinese, and Philippine's the Mexican's had came to California for agriculture. Most of what happened in the valley's in California and the reading also mentioned they had sugar beet fields in Colorado. Living in California all my life I have been to many cities and I have noticed what city has the most highly dominated group that resides in the city. I have noticed Latino's are more in the ranches, farms, and cities where more of there people live in that is where most of them like to go to. Places that symbolize there hometowns from back home. For example, there are a lot of Hispanics that live in Redwood City more towards Middlefield Rd. The area reminds me of a mini Mexico at times. Everyone is in there own little worlds and when you go on this side of RWC you feel the atmosphere of mini Mexico at times. This is where most of the Mexicans have there hair salons, delicious Mexican food restaurants, schools are more dominated my latino children, markets, the men that sell snacks on bikes, more ice cream sellers in this area, 7 eleven that is owned by Hispanics, and many more resources that would remind a person of there own roots.

The chapter talked about interesting information and I really enjoyed the information it brought to my attention. We can't forget all the important and famous people: Rodolfo Gonzales, Rahul Castro, Caesar Chavez, Victoriano Huerta, Eva Longoria, Victor Ochoa, and Selena Gomez. Of course the list goes on... 

Interesting Fact's!

Oakland – California's third largest Mexican-American city by percentage (over 25%) after Long Beach (about 30%).San Francisco Bay Area – also with over one million Hispanics, many of whom are Mexican Americans, both U.S. born and foreign-born (see also Oakland about 10–20% Hispanic and San Francisco – the Mission District section- the city is 10–20% Latino).

San Jose, California – Nearly one-third of the city's population is Mexican-American or of Hispanic origin; San Jose has the largest Mexican-American population within the Bay Area.

Chapter 10

I enjoyed reading about Ellis Island. For most immigrants Ellis island was an "island of hope". In the same way for some it was the "island of tears". Two different way immigrants would interpret the island. The passengers were brought to the island by ferry's and ships. Interesting to see it was similar process to the other immigrant groups that had came by boat. It was interesting how they also had railroad tickets purchases, and they were prepaid, most of the people that had came were familiar with America, so they knew how to get there way around. I found it interesting how some of the people had came to America previously in their lives. There were negativities that came along with the arrival of most immigrants such as illness, medical problems, diseases, and there wasn't facilities offered to all immigrants at the time. 

I found it interesting what the literacy test was. the book states "a nativist goal for more than two decades did little to restrict immigration, although or cause it may deterred some from attempting to come" (Daniels 278). What was so special about the literacy test and how immigration had delta with it. The literacy rate in Europe was very high it was rising in fact. The literacy test was an important victory for the forces for immigration restriction. 

Chapter 9- Chinese, Japanese, and French Canadians

Reading chapter nine was really interesting because I enjoyed reading about the different minorities from other regions. First, the book mentions about the Chinese of SF's Chinatown is the most famous investment that I believe the Chinese anywhere in the US have contributed most of there heritage to.  Most of Chinatown has to do with working, shopping, and socialized. They were overcrowded mainly in slum areas. The Chinese had provided shops, services, communal organizations, and entertainment to Chinatown. Most Chinese outside of California also were involved in mining. Agriculture was also a huge deal for the Chinese. The book has many interesting facts and information about the Chinese and I feel like they have so much to offer to our society today. We have Chinatown, cities such as Daly City and San Francisco have a huge population of Chinese people, Chinese New Year, horoscopes, the yummy food, history from 1800's to present day, some of the famous people in our society are of Asian decent, some of the prettiest arts and sculptures, and many more that we have adopted from the Chinese people. 

Secondly, The book states the first group of Japanese to come were the "political refugees in 1869" (Daniels 250). Japanese immigrants were very successful in the long run. The Japanese American community developed generational lines. Most Japanese were urbanized. There cultural organizations were unique. The Japanese government courage the Japanese to adopt to Western dress, educate their children was there top priority. "In the 1880's and 1890's many and perhaps a majority of Japanese worked at urban occupations, but by 1900 their economic focus was agriculture where it remained" (Daniels 253).  The Japanese Americans were very diveresed. Most of them began to practice Buddhism which I thought was very interesting, they brought their culture here and began to practice in the churches in America. Most of the Japanese's religion was Christian. Religion had showed a sense of difference and devotion for them. 

Lastly, the chapter talks about the French Canadians. Most of the goals for the Canadians were to make money and go back for farmland which I noticed shows a similarity with other groups that came to the America's made money, either sent remittances or send back money back home. I found it interesting how important religion was to the French Canadians and how many different ways they had called their people of worship. French and Irish were seen as "papist interlopers by nativists" (Daniels 262). The French Canadians had some similarities to the Germans and most from the Irish. 

I very much enjoy how the French incorporated there identity to Canada. I remember when I went to Ontario most things are written in French if you go to certain restaurants and the street names are very unique. They also have many French like buildings in the cities. There is a feel as if you are in France =] . 

Amish Beard Cutting Article!

Hey Guys just thought you guys would be interested in reading this article I found interesting, since Dr. Andrews talked about the Amish people earlier in the semester, but this is a bit of a controversial issue. Check out the article link below. 

http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-amish-leader-beard-cutting-religious-matter-232845934.html

Readings for October 10

Why is it that every time someone wants to bring peace or a movement to our world, something always has to interfere and voices are not heard? If they are heard, they usually are not respected and most people lose there lives for saying something that could make a change to our world. As reading through the articles posted for the week of 10/10-10-10/14 the women that speak on there behalf about slavery (anti slavery society), activist, the civil rights movement, and lynching is mentioned. 

Our American ethnic history goes through changes and transformations within time. How were peoples identities shaped by the events that took place in there life. Lets look at a few abolitionist and the anti- slavery society. The first article is about Angelina Grimke, she and  her sister were in the stage of disliking slavery and wrote letters and had cases for ending slavery. Due to the letters that they wrote, officials in South Carolina had burned them. They were threatened and said if they ever returned home they would be arrested. I got out of the reading that slavery is a sinful act. The both sisters were sticking up to there voices and wanted officials to hear them. I enjoyed reading the appeals from the women. They use some strong and religious terms when trying to prove there points.

Second article was about an abolitionist by the name of Ida B. Wells. She came from a educated family at the time, her family were political activist. Her parents died, when her and her siblings were young, therefore she had raised her siblings by becoming a teacher to support and bring some money and food to the table. Reminds me of Hung who I had interviewed, he also took care of his siblings because he was to oldest and had to bring the food to the table to support them. She brought letters stating how blacks were treated at the time along with the many crucial events most experiences. Talking about white men and lynchings and what the one color meant to the other. 

 In the situation of Ida, she sat where ever she wanted in the train when riding. She was experienced with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad because they forbade her from siting int he ladies coach. This is when she sued the company, and began writing about her experiences. She brought awareness of fighting against racism and sexist in America and brought it in a legacy of her courage and pride. 

The short articles about lynching brought a sense of scarce to me. I am familiar with the term because in high school I had gone on the Sojourn to the Past trip with fellow class mates. We visitied the East coast most of the areas where the slavery, civil rights movements took place, and the destinations of some of the influential people were killed. Lynching existed during slavery period and in some parts of the country today. The article regarding 

Activists demand hate crime probe into Black man’s horrific dragging death brought horrific scenes to my eyes I can only imagine what the man had gone through. If he was tied to a truck and dragged until his body parts were removed can only bring horrific scenes to your mind. This had happened in Paris, Texas to a young 24 year old, black man. Who knew lynching would still be popular today. They call it the "Jasper-style" lynching. The interview was conducted from the mom of the young man that was killed. Shows racism also exists in many parts of our world today and people can go under and circumstances to be hateful and brutal to individuals. Most of the people that commit these crimes are your own friends. How does that make sense?