Denationalization of American women who married foreign husbands
- In 1907, the US government declared that any American citizen woman who married a foreign husband would assume the citizenship of the husband. I would like to explore the effects of this act on women: did this affect mostly lower class women who interacted with immigrant populations, or higher class women who could afford to travel abroad? How did women challenge the act? How do these challenges fit into the larger suffrage movement? It would also be essential to analyze the way race and ideas about intermarriage contributed to the passage and the enforcement of the act.
Wishlist sources:
- In 1936 Congress allowed women who lost their citizenship through foreign marriage between 1907 and 1921 to regain citizenship by applying for naturalization (Form N-415) and taking an oath of allegiance. It would be wonderful to get access to these immigration records.
- Any letters or testimony from women (maybe through the advocacy efforts of suffragettes) that shed light on internal conflicts about nationality or the injustice of losing citizenship.
- Transcripts from the deliberations in Congress (what was the congressional intent?)
Sources:
- Bredbenner, Candice Lewis. A Nationality of Her Own: Women, Marriage, and the Law of Citizenship. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1998 1998. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft0g500376/
- Hacker, Meg. “When Saying I Do Meant Giving up U.S. Citizenship,”
- Supreme Court cases involving women and loss of citizenship (Mackenzie v. Hare)
Mexican American Women in World War II: The Pachuca Sub-Culture
The generation that followed first great wave of Mexican immigration came of age during World War II. Concentrated in cities like Los Angeles, the Mexican-American youth had to negotiate two identities in the context of a highly nationalistic America. The zoot-suit and pachuco culture was one way Mexican American young men both rejected assimilation and incorporated certain American traits. The zoot suit subculture, first associated with black urban youth, appealed to Mexican American and Filipino American young men during the 1940s. The women associated with the zoot-suit movement were depicted as dependents of the pachuco males, but there has been some research that interprets the female pachucas as challenging gender roles and concepts of citizenship. In my paper, I would like to answer some of the following questions: How did pachucas distinguish their culture from the male pachuco culture? How did the dominant American society view/sexualize the pachuca concept? What sorts of conflicts did pachucas face with the patriarchal nature of the Mexican family? In what ways did the pachuca culture perpetuate/break gender norms? How did the context of WWII and the concept of the new working woman affect the pachuca culture?
Sources:
- Ramirez, Catherine. Crimes of Fashion: The Pachuca and Chicana Style Politics
- Escobedo, Elizabeth. “The Pachuca Panic: Sexual and Cultural Battlegrounds in World War II Los Angeles”
- Ruiz, Vicki From Out of the Shadows
Wishlist sources:
- Oral histories or interviews with Mexican American women during WWII
- Police reports or newspapers that talk about the zoot suit youth
Both topics are very interesting, but I especially like the first one (not least because I know a little about the second topic, but nothing about the first).
ReplyDeleteWhat were the debates/issues/concerns that instigated the 1907 law regarding the de-naturalization of women with foreign spouses? Who was it supposed to target in particular? How easy was it for women to become (re-naturalized? Were there instances in which women managed to circumvent this law? Why was it eventually repealed?
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteWhat I love about your first topic is that it revealed something about American history that I hadn’t previously known! I’m particularly intrigued by your #1 Wish List source; it may enrich your paper to analyze at the effects of the naturalization process, answering similar questions to those that you ask above. Further, seventeen years separate a woman’s right to vote and a woman’s right to regain citizenship - Why? What does that show us about American culture and an American woman’s identity? Who spearheaded the 1936 Congressional act? I think that your questions about the second topic are very strong. I am curious whether there are any artistic depictions of women in the zoot-suit movement, perhaps through film or visual arts. If so, this could add another unique dimension to your topic - one that looks primarily at tangible depictions of these young women that may reveal the intentions of those depicting.
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteAs post previous posts mentioned, the strength of your first topic lies in the oddity of the Denaturalization Act. It's certainly something that I had never heard of before, and reading your brief summary has me interested in finding out what the goals and purpose of it were, and why it was eventually repealed. I'd be fascinated to find out how you could expand your findings to make a more general or immediately relevant historical point, using the act as something more than trivia. Your idea to connect responses to the suffrage of the movement could be key here.
I'm somewhat partial to your second question because I plan on writing about the Zoot Suit Riots as a clash of varying definitions of masculinity, and I certainly want to learn more about pachuca culture. I think this is a great idea for an essay, but has the chance of growing beyond a manageable size if you are to sufficiently answer all the questions you pose.
-Dan Ruprecht
As others have said earlier, I am very interested in both your topics. Neither topic is something I know very much at all so I am very, very interested in learning more.
ReplyDeleteYour first topic appeals to me because it crosses gender, race, and class divides. It would be really interesting to explore a law that equally affected the classes because that is very often not the case. That being said, I think you are going to have to narrow the topic and pick only a few groups to explore so I am very excited to see which you choose.
You second topic definitely has more of the narrow focus that your first topic is needing. As someone who loves WWII, I am fascinated to see how the context of the war shapes the pachuca identity. Not knowing your sources that you have already identified, I would assume that you may have more success and find more materials with this second topic.
I want to echo what everyone else has said about your topics, especially the first one - I had never heard of that act, so I'd love to read an essay about it! I also think your questions about which categories of women the act affected most are right on track. I'd like to know which categories of women the act was intended to affect as well, so we can determine how successful the act was at accomplishing its purpose. I'm also curious to what extent the act discouraged marriage with foreigners - was the citizenship change a big deal to women, or was it not as important since they already couldn't enjoy many of the fruits of American citizenship.
ReplyDeleteFor your second topic, I'm curious about how Mexican American pachuca culture may have differed from that of the black or Filipina women who were part of zoot suit culture. It might be outside of the scope of this project, but I think it could shed some light on the potential motivations behind certain aspects of pachuca culture if you isolated the differences between how different demographics used different aspects of the culture.