"Expulsion of U.S.
Citizens: Unconstitutional Deportation of Mexican Americans
During the 1930s" Is Focus of CSUF Lecture
Christine Valenciana to deliver lecture on the forced deportation
of Mexican-Americans in the 1930s, including her mother.
March 13, 2005 :: No. 170
Christine Valenciana, assistant professor
of elementary and bilingual education at Cal State Fullerton,
was always aware that her mother, as a child, had been forced
to journey to Mexico in 1935. What Valenciana didn’t
realize was that her mother was just one of an estimated one
to two million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who were forcibly
deported during that era.
“I thought what happened to her and her
family was an isolated incident,” she recalled. “I
had no idea that this happened on a much larger scale.”
Valenciana made the discovery in her student days while conducting
research for a community history course.
The stories of her mother and other relatives
who were among those forcibly deported to Mexico in the 1930s
are now in the archives of the university’s Center for
Oral and Public History.
Valenciana will deliver a lecture on “Expulsion
of U.S. Citizens: Unconstitutional Deportation of Mexican
Americans during the 1930s” at 7 p.m. Monday,
April 18, in the university’s Titan Student
Union.
The program, which is open to the public free
of charge, will feature those who experienced the unconstitutional
deportation; Francisco Balderrama, professor at Cal State
Los Angeles and author of the book “Decade of Betrayal”
and his co-author, Raymond Rodriquez; Sen. Joseph Dunn (D-Garden
Grove); Attorney Sue Dunbar; and Steve Reyes of the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Clips of the
documentary “Betrayal and Violation” also will
be shown.
The event is sponsored by the student group
Hermanas Unidas de Cal State Fullerton and the faculty group
Researchers And Critical Educators (R.A.C.E).
Researchers estimate that approximately 60
percent of those deported during the 1930s were children who
were born in America and others who, while of Mexican descent,
were legal citizens.
For example, Valenciana’s mother was
9 years old when she was unconstitutionally deported. She
was a United States citizen who was born and raised in Los
Angeles. Her dominant language was English, although she knew
rudimentary Spanish. Suddenly, she was removed from the only
home she’d known, taken out of her school, away from
her friends and sent to a foreign country. She didn’t
understand the customs. She was forced to live outdoors and
was teased because she couldn’t speak Spanish very well.
It was difficult for adults, as well. Mexico
was also in the midst of a depression at that time, and jobs
were hard to find. Many of the deportees had jobs, homes and
families in the United States. They hadn’t been in Mexico
for decades, yet were expected to just pick up and start again.
This deportment literally broke up families.
For instance, some who were deported had subsequent children
who were born in Mexico. That meant that some children in
the same family were American citizens while others were not.
As these children grew older and married, many had children
who were born in Mexico, so these children were not considered
American citizens either.
Researchers have found the effects of the unconstitutional
deportations to be far ranging and ones that continue today.
For more information on the lecture, contact
Susana Flores, lecturer in elementary and bilingual education
and president of R.A.C.E., at 657-278-7507 or sflores@fullerton.edu.
Media Contacts: |
Susana Flores, lecturer, elementary
and bilingual education, and president of R.A.C.E., at
657-278-7505 sflores@fullerton.edu
Valerie Orleans, Public Affairs, at 657-278-4540 or vorleans@fullerton.edu |
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