Dominican International Migration

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Bibliographic Essay on U.S. Latino/a History José M. Alamillo Washington State University “We did not cross the border, the border crossed us!” is a popular slogan frequently shouted by native-born and immigrant Latinos and Latinas during rallies and marches across the country. This slogan is an attempt to counter mainstream stereotypes that all Latino/as are immigrants and only recently arrived to the United States. Among the “oldest” Americans, Latino/as can trace their history to the 1500s when Spaniards founded settlements in Florida, Texas and New Mexico well before Plymouth Rock and Jamestown. This historical fact is often forgotten in current discussions and debates over immigration and the so-called “Latinization” of American society.…show more content…
Since New York City is home to the largest Dominican community outside of the island it has attracted the most attention by scholars. One book that examines the migration between New York and Dominican Republic is Between Two Islands: Dominican International Migration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) by Patricia Pessar and Sheri Grasmuck. Contrary to popular perceptions the migration of Cuban exiles to the United States dates to the nineteenth century well began before the Cuban Revolution. In “With All, and for the Good of All’” The Emergence of Popular Nationalism in the Cuban Communities of the United States, 1848-1898 (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1989) Gerald Poyo focuses on those exiled Cubans who found support for their popular nationalist ideas among Cuban workers in Key West, Tampa and New York City. In With Open Arms: Cuban Migration to the United States (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1988) Felix Masud-Piloto provides an overview of 20th century Cuban migration to the United States within the context of U.S.-Cuba relations and the Cold War. A comparative study that examines relations between Cubans, Blacks and new immigrants is Alex Stepick, This Land is Our Land: Immigrants and Power in Miami (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). As mentioned above, the large majority of Central Americans arrived in the United States during the1980s to escape war, political upheaval and economic insecurity in their respective countries. One of the first books to document the highly ambiguous legal status of Salvadoran immigrants living and working in the “margins” of American society was Sarah Mahler’s American Dreaming: Immigrant Life on the Margins (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995). Cecilia Menjivar’s Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000) challenges the conventional image of immigrant solidarity by showing how harsh economic

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