Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race (Volume 53) (American Crossroads)

There are few places where mobility has shaped identity as widely as the American West, but some locations and populations sit at its major crossroads, maintaining control over place and mobility, labor and race. In Collisions at the Crossroads, Genevieve Carpio argues that mobility, both permission to move freely and prohibitions on movement, helped shape racial formation in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles and the Inland Empire throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By examining policies and forces as different as historical societies, Indian boarding schools, bicycle ordinances, immigration policy, incarceration, traffic checkpoints, and Route 66 heritage, she shows how local authorities constructed a racial hierarchy by allowing some people to move freely while placing limits on the mobility of others. Highlighting the ways people of color have negotiated their place within these systems, Carpio reveals a compelling and perceptive analysis of spatial mobility through physical movement and residence. Collisions At The Crossroads Examines Mobility--the Means By Which We Experience, Manage, And Give Meaning To Everyday Channels Of Movement--as An Agent In The Production Of Racial Difference. It Demonstrates The Ways Forces As Different As Historical Societies, Indian Boarding Schools, Bicycle Ordinances, Alien Land Laws, Immigration Policy, Traffic Checkpoints, Fair Housing, Incarceration, And Route 66 Heritage Construct Racial Hierarchies By Allowing Some People To Move Freely While Placing Limits On The Mobility Of Others. Further, It Examines The Ways People Of Color Have Negotiated Their Place Within These Meaning Systems Through Claiming The Right To Mobility Or, In Other Instances, The Right To Stay Put. This Work Focuses On The Development Of The Inland Empire, An Understudied Region Located East Of Metropolitan Los Angeles, Over The Course Of The 20th Century--provided By Publisher. The Rise Of The Anglo Fantasy Past : Mobility, Memory, And Racial Hierarchies In Inland Southern California, 1870-1900 -- On The Move And Fixed In Place : Japanese Immigrants In The Multiracial Citrus Belt, 1882-1920 -- From Mexican Settlers To Mexican Birds Of Passage : Relational Racial Formation, Citrus Labor, And Immigration Policy, 1914-1930 -- Del Fotingo Que Era Mio : Mexican And Dust Bowl Drivers In Metropolitan Los Angeles, 1930-1945 -- From Citrus Belt To Inland Empire : Mobility Vs. Retrenchment, 1945-1970 -- Conclusion: The Reemergence Of The Anglo Fantasy Past. Genevieve Carpio. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 311-338) And Index. There are few places where mobility has shaped identity as widely as the American West, but some locations and populations sit at its major crossroads, maintaining control over place and mobility, labor and race. In Collisions at the Crossroads, Genevieve Carpio argues that mobility, both permission to move freely and prohibitions on movement, helped shape racial formation in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles and the Inland Empire throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By examining policies and forces as different as historical societies, Indian boarding schools, bicycle ordinances, immigration policy, incarceration, traffic checkpoints, and Route 66 heritage, she shows how local authorities constructed a racial hierarchy by allowing some people to move freely while placing limits on the mobility of others. Highlighting the ways people of color have negotiated their place within these systems, Carpio reveals a compelling and perceptive analysis of spatial mobility through physical movement and residence.
  CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction 1. The Rise of the Anglo Fantasy Past 2. On the Move and Fixed in Place 3. From Mexican Settlers to Mexican Birds of Passage 4. “Del Fotingo Que Era Mio” 5. From Citrus Belt to Inland Empire Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index