Transcript Harvest of Empire

History 1302: United States
History since 1877
“Harvest of Empire”
Introduction
• The United States grew as Americans usurped territory from indigenous
people, enslaved Africans, invited foreign workers (Chinese and Irish built
the railroads; the Bracero Program, etc.), and as they invaded, occupied,
and dominated other nations politically and economically (Hawai’i,
Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Vietnam, etc.)
• People from nations dominated eventually came to the heart of the
empire.
• This pattern applies to the European empires of the early 20th century
(England, France, Germany, Holland, etc.)
• The principal excuse provided by the U.S. government for replacing
democratically elected governments in the third world for brutal
dictatorships in the mid and late 20th century has been that those were
regimes installed and supported by the Soviet Union and it was the
obligation of the United States to contain Communism and prevent its
further spreading in the world.
Denying and Delaying Citizenship
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Traditionally, U.S. authorities found strategies for denying and delaying citizenship
rights to conquer or subjugated people.
Examples:
Chinese Exclusion Act (1880).
Elk v. Wilkins (1884). The Supreme Court agreed with lower court rulings that the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not apply to Indians.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Legalized segregation of African Americans.
Downes v. Bidwell (1901). Also known as “The Insular Cases.” The Supreme Court
decided that United States territories were NOT subject to the provisions and
protections of the United States Constitution.
New Mexico and Arizona only added as states in 1912.
Immigration Act of 1920. Limited European immigration and entirely banned
immigration of Chinese and Japanese to the U.S. Did not apply to Mexicans.
Korematsu v. United States. Supreme Court Case (1944). Established the legality of
internment (concentration) camps for Japanese-Americans in the U.S.
The Bracero Program, 1942-1964
Initially 300,000 Mexican laborers come to agricultural areas.
Mid 1960s. c. 5 million had participated.
Image: Bracero worker ID card for Jose Solano Ramirez, who entered the United States for work in 1961.
Smithsonian Institution.
A Commercial Empire
• U.S. corporations exploit resources and labor of client nations
(Mexico, Afghanistan, Vietnam, etc.)
• Immigration laws keep those people from coming from the
U.S. But do they?
• Presence of Americans in those countries show the relative
wealth of the U.S.
• Poor people of client nations come to the heart of the empire
(Puertorricans, Vietnamese, Philippinos, Cubans, etc.)
• New immigrants maintain a vibrant U.S. economy which will
pay for retirement for the aging population of the United
States.
The film, “Harvest of Empire”
argues that:
• U.S. exploitation of Latin America results in abject poverty for
the majority of citizens of those countries.
• The U.S. government facilitates the establishment of brutal
and exploitative regimes in Latin America, which respond to
the United States while they oppress their own people.
• That Latin American and Caribbean immigrants flee from their
own countries and come to very heart of the country that
colonized their homelands.
• That new immigrants maintain a vibrant U.S. economy which
will pay for retirement for the aging population of the United
States.
Harvest of Empire: The Untold History of
Latinos in the United States (2012)
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Eduardo López and Peter Getzels, directors.
Based on a book by Juan González.
Some of the main characters:
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa (also known as "Dr. Q"). Director of the Brain
Tumor Surgery Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Director of
the Pituitary Surgery Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Director of the
Brain Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Nobel Peace Prize Rigoberta Menchu.
Reverend Jesse Jackson
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Junot Díaz.
Mexican historian Dr. Lorenzo Meyer.
Journalists María Hinojosa and Geraldo Rivera.
Grammy award-winning singer Luis Enrique.
Poet Martín Espada.