Building upon the popularity of this Special California History program offered in 2016
We now offer Part II - All New Presentions
 California Dreamin'
The Story of Migration and Immigration to the Golden State
 


Registration is offered for all three presentations together, as a one day history conference, on Saturday, January 28.  Please note that our regularly scheduled ABDNHA Lecture Series, on January 27, is on this same topic, as described at the bottom of this page.  

Part 1: Jan. 28, Sat., 10:00 am – 12:15 pm 

Who are the Californians?  The people who came here and why they came
 
Speaker:  Mary Jo Wainwright, History Professor, Imperial Valley College


Professor Wainwright tells the story of California's history in terms of immigration and migration. Over the years, the California Dream has taken different forms.  For many, the dream has been the land itself, for farming, vineyards, dairy, and ranching.  For others, it was gold, and then it was oil.  With America's westward expansion and the first continental railroad, it was the promise of jobs that pulled people to California. For others, it was the opportunities of expanded trade and commerce that the railroad brought with it. Hollywood and the movie industry then carried the vision of the California lifestyle to millions around the world, and before long, California came to represent sunshine, a free spirit, and an open road to the future—the very essence of America itself.  It was natural that the new technologies of Silicon Valley were born in California.  

Mary Jo Wainwright, is a professor of history at Imperial Valley College in Imperial, California.  Her specialty is California history.


Part 2: Jan. 28, Sat., 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Westering Women: Gender, Immigration, and Race in the American West, 1850 - Present

Speaker: S. Deborah Kang, Ph.D. 


The history of American West is often depicted as a man’s world filled with violent encounters between hardy pioneers, brave soldiers, and defiant Native Americans.  But this account of western history conveys only a small part of a larger and richer history, one that includes the experiences of immigrant and American women in the region.  In this program, Dr. Kang will trace the experiences of a multinational and multiracial cast of women and explain the differences that gender made in the American West.

S. Deborah Kang has taught immigration history and law at Cornell, Harvard, and Berkeley.  She is presently professor of Western and Borderland History at CSU San Marcos.  Her research and publications focus on the relationship between law and society along the nation’s northern and southern borders


Part 3: Jan. 28, Sat., 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Effects of Immigration on the Native People of San Diego 

Speaker: Richard Carrico, Professor, American Indian Studies, SDSU


The history of immigration into the American West is central to America’s self-told story of the American Dream and the concept of American Exceptionalism.  Yet when viewed from the perspective of the native Kumeyaay people of Alta California and the Kumiai of Baja California., immigration onto their traditional lands is as much about the effects on the people who were already there as on the new arrivals.  Beginning in 1769, there were successive waves of immigration into their territory—waves perceived as unwanted, culturally disruptive, and irreversible. Many of the effects were very harsh, with religious conversions, confiscation of native lands, destruction of the natural environment, and establishment of a border that divides people who were previously together.  Professor Carrico will offer this alternate view of the Spanish, Mexican, American, and Asian immigration into the paradise that we call San Diego. There are many parallels with the modern world as movements of people on a massive scale superimpose new languages, new cultures, and new religions on the well-established residents of the places where immigrants go. 

Richard Carrico is a Lecturer in the Department of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University.  He specializes in Native American consultation, ethnography, ethno history, history, and environmental compliance at the local, state, and federal level.

Register for all three Saturday Presentations. 
Tickets for this program are not refundable
Select Price Level - Add additional people at checkout

Note that Registration is for the Saturday programs only and not reserve a seat for the Friday night lecture at the Performing Art.  That program is first-come-first-serve only, free for ABDNHA members, and $10 at the door for all others.


The evening before our conference the following lecture will be offered


ABDNHA Desert Lecture Series
Jan. 27, Fri., 7 p.m. Meet the Speaker; 7:30 Lecture
The INS on the Line: Making Law on the US-Mexico Border
Speaker: S. Deborah Kang, Ph.D.


In this presentation, Dr. Kang will discuss her new book, The INS on the Line: Making Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954, (Oxford, 2017). In it, she argues that for much of the 20th century local Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials not only enforced the nation’s immigration laws, they also made them.  In the process, they developed a complex approach to border control, an approach that closed the line in the name of nativism and national security; opened it for the benefit of transnational economic and social concerns; and redefined it as a vast legal jurisdiction for the policing of undocumented immigrants. Despite its local origins, this approach to border control continues to influence the daily operations of the nation’s immigration agencies, American immigration law and policy, and our conceptions of the US–Mexico border today. 

- Space is limited and available on a first-come-first-serve-basis for this lecture. 
- The lecture is free to ABDNHA members, $10 all others, paid at door only.  
- Registration for the Saturday programs does not reserve a seat at this Friday night lecture.


At the Borrego Springs Performing Arts Center.  Info: 760-767-3098. Refreshments served.





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