As the Arizona anti-immigrant law SB 1070 is signed into law, I was thinking this morning that Arizona History may begin to explain some of the very different lenses through which different Arizonans of all races stake out turfs in this very emotional debate.
I will give some history of our state, and of the interconnectedness of Arizona and Mexico, in an attempt to shine a somewhat different light on our problems. The diary is quite long, and if asked, I will break it into separate parts in coming days.
Arizona was originally a part of Mexico.
more over the great orange fold...
In Mexico, Spanish and tribal languages were of course the only languages spoken. Arizona, especially Southern, Western, and Eastern Arizona, enjoys quite diverse demographics and rich and ancient Hispanic, Mexican, Catholic, and Native American cultures, unrelated to the current immigration debate.
Many “Hispanics” who will be stopped under the new immigration laws to show proof of citizenship have family ties dating back way before any white people arrived. Some might ask, “Who is the undocumented immigrant here?”
Because of an arrogant belief that God wanted Protestant White people to occupy lands all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean (“Manifest Destiny,”), White Protestant adventurers from the East “settled” in Arizona, which was still part of Mexico, in the 18th and 19th century… without immigration papers, I would wager.
Around 1850, in order to put territories ALL across the continent under US control, the U.S Army invaded and occupied Mexico all the way down to Mexico City. It was a bloody war on both sides, but the US Army prevailed and eventually settled by forcing Mexico to give up control its northern territories, including what later became Arizona - for just 15 million dollars.
UPDATE: from comments
Gives the false (but very common) impression that the US "bought" Arizona in the Gasden Purchase Actually they took 70 % of Arizona by force of arms, in the Mexican American war, finalized in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). A couple of years later they purchased the remaining 30 % in the Gasden Purchase.
many thanks to tiponeill.
The last of the so-called “Indian Wars” was also fought in what is now Arizona, in the early 20th century. White immigrants ejected native Hopi, Navajo, Havasupai, Yaqui, Apache, Tohono O’odham and other tribal peoples from their original tribal lands. There are 20 “Indian Reservations” in Arizona, comprising huge swaths of the state. Some tribes’ sovereign tribal lands still continue into modern Mexico, and, like for Kurdish populations in Turkey and Iraq, these artificial borders further complicate the current “border problem”.
The Phoenix and Northern Arizona areas were “settled” by White Mormons sent by Brigham Young in the latter half of the 19th century, and there is still a significant Mormon influence in Arizona. Phoenix is still the largest population center in the state, thus (sadly) has the largest number of legislative districts. It is physically and culturally different from the rest of Arizona in many ways. It has lawns and palm trees and sidewalks and much more modern infrastructure in the way of huge malls and resorts and recreational spaces... and gated and retirement communities…and is more “conservative” than other parts of Arizona (if by conservative you mean “I’ve got mine, YOU there, stay off my lawn.”).
That is not to say there are not many “Old-West” style gun-toting libertarian ranchers all through the state, and their influence also strongly influences public policy. In 1970, Gov. (one-eyed Jacks) Jack Williams declared John Birch Day as an Official State Observance. And who can forget the MLK Day fight in the 1980’s, when Arizona refused to recognize the holiday? The legislature eventually reversed its stance after an economic boycott of the state, including by the NFL refusing to allow an Arizona Superbowl.
Arizona has also spawned several landmark Supreme Court decisions including, Miranda, and Crosslin vs Mountain Bell, an EEOC decision strengthening EEOC enforcement in states, like Arizona, without strong anti-discrimination laws.
Arizona is my adopted state, and the adopted state of many others of its residents. We arrived largely in the latter quarter of the twentieth century to retire or because of the low cost of living, but did not share or even understand any strains of this Arizona cultural heritage.
No one complained about the low cost of (often immigrant) labor to build and landscape their homes, and staff their restaurants and resorts, the basis of that low cost of living, and of course none of us studied Arizona history in school.
A large number of Arizona’s current residents thus fail to truly appreciate the impact of this very recent, noisy, and contentious White Wave that has taken over this serene yet often contentious desert land.
Mostly unnoticed was the generous welcome we received, quite unlike the welcome we now extend to Mexican citizens coming here to work. The immigration quotas and 7-10 year backlogs of applications are the subject of another diary, but immigrant peoples from Mexico and many other countries are unmistakably finding work, contributing to the US economy and supporting our services and our seniors on Social Security and Medicare with their taxes, despite our unworkable rules of the immigration road. Uh, no tax refunds for them, and no Social Security or Medicare services, a huge net gain for the US Treasury.
In addition, it is important to understand that we Americans have contributed mightily to the immigration problem. We have badly misused our Southern neighbors, extracting profits and leaving scorched earth where once there was a functioning country. The US has laid waste to the Mexican economy, even after we left the parts of Mexico (like Arizona) we didn’t claim as spoils of war. As examples,
• US tax-supported (cheaper) imported agricultural products destroyed the largely agricultural native society of Mexico, extracting profits to corporate agriculture in the US. Because of this unfair competition, it was no longer worthwhile for largely subsistence local farmers to bring products to market. Some former farmers became much-maligned US agricultural workers, with and without visas, depending in part on how our laws changed. Most would arguably prefer to go back and forth to their homes in Mexico, leaving their families there, but, even if they had a visa originally, they don’t leave the US out of fear of getting back in. They become permanent shadow residents and try to smuggle family members in to join them.
• Some former farmers went to Northern Mexico for work as US industry moved factories into Northern Mexico for cheaper labor than in the US… and then moved them out to Asia for yet cheaper labor, extracting profit on the backs of these now further broken lives, the metaphorical tailings and slag of greedy US corporations, leaving a population with again no means of supporting itself. Many came North to the US to work, with and without visas, and were eagerly welcomed as low wage workers in food processing plants, by landscaping and construction contractors, etc.
• The US appetite for imported drugs along with prohibition making them extremely profitable, and the importation of US weapons to largely gunless Mexico, created a dangerous war between Mexican drug cartels. We insisted the Mexican government clamp down on the drug trade, and many murdered innocents have paid with their lives. Our only interest seems to be in preventing the spread of the violence we had a direct hand in creating, further into the US.
I do not pretend to know what all the answers are to these and many other strands of what we loosely call “the immigration problem.” But I do know that the simplistic Republican portrayal of it as an unwelcome invasion of our country by “aliens” is as untrue and misleading as “death panels” and “bailouts,” and the conversation MUST be broadened. And the definition of who exactly is "illegal" must surely be thought through with greater understanding of history, notwithstanding that issues of border security and visa and immigration laws and the manner of their enforcement desperately need attention in the US Congress.
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