From an early age, we are taught to believe that the United States is a melting pot of immigrants, a concept that is now entrenched in a frenzy of laws and debate. Such is the message behind Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis’s collaboration, No One Is Illegal, an examination of the history and treatment of immigrants in the U.S. with a particular focus on the U.S.-Mexico border.
To fully understand the significance of the American immigration movement, it’s important to have an awareness of the politics of exclusion. And to gain insight on this topic, we hear from Mike Davis. Davis is the brilliant–yes, brilliant–historian behind such works as City of Quartz and Planet of Slums.
Here he presents a succinct and engaging background of the vigilantes in California, dating back to the 1850s and backed by an extreme white prejudice analogous to the racial hatred in the South. The movement was led by a highly organized and influential group of white men who strived to “restore law and order to a society overrun by criminal immigrants.”
With a consistently objective, yet sympathetic voice, Davis narrates the ethnic cleansing that occurred on an unprecedented scale  to the Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and Mexicans. This violence was shed by the hands of various movements, from the “Zoot-Suit riots” in the 1940s to the present day Minutemen.
From there, Chacón takes over with a much more subjective view of the claims behind the often violent right-wing response against immigrants. A Chicano Studies and U.S. History professor in San Diego, Chacón hopes to incite a “wider discussion and debate about what kind of world we want and need as working people.” He describes “un pueblo mundial sin forteras,” or “a world without borders.”
But his breakdown feels more impassioned than scholarly, which gives it the tone of regurgitated propaganda. His outrage might be justified, but it falls short compared to Davis’ eloquence. Published in response to the immigrant’s rights movement in 2006, the book feels disjointed at times.
Humans have always been on the move, and mass migrations signify every period of human history. No One Is Illegal is a commendable introduction to the history and struggles of the immigrant in the United States, with striking photographs by Julián Cardona, but it should be used only as a companion to more balanced literature on the subject.
CATEGORIES: Culture, Human Rights
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- Worldchanging
These sorts of issues always get personal with certain people, but it’s too bad that Chacon’s section seems to be more of a rant motivated by his own beliefs as opposed to a more academic study. I always get turned off by this method of debate, and it sounds like Davis’ section, despite being more objective, makes a more persuasive argument for “a world without borders.” By laying out the facts and allowing us to come to our own conclusions, we are engaging with the issue, as opposed to being told what to think, which it sounds like Chacon is essentially doing. Seems like Davis would be better off on his own…
It sounds like Chacon’s portion is especially ineffective as its impassioned rhetoric is unlikely to convert any unbelievers. Reading this review made me think of a conversation I had with my very red-state Hank Hill type uncle a few weeks ago who is a fundamentally compassionate person, but has a hard time sympathyzing with individuals who enter the country illegally. I cringe to think how he would react to this “regurgitated propaganda.”
Interesting piece on this book — I may just pick up and read Davis’ portion. It’s unique to take a historical look back at the issues surrounding this border which we all associate more now with recent migratory patterns.
I don’t know that Chacon’s style of writing really matters, though. Does persuasion even exist anymore? When I watch these tea party protesters, (like the woman on the Daily Show who had a crucifix in a gun holster) I seriously doubt that eloquent reason OR impassioned rhetoric can persuade them to change their minds. In the same vein, I’m not likely to read a book by Ann Coulter or Glenn Beck, and if I did, it would probably only piss me off and cement my political opinions. (Plus, that Limbaugh-ian style of political speech has gained a huge following, and I’m doubtful that anyone would call that dreck scholarly, eloquent, or balanced.) So, while the content sounds interesting to me, I’m pretty sure that I’m the type of person that would quickly subscribe to the idea of “un pueblo mundial sin fronteras” anyway.
Having spent some time near border areas, I can assure you that at some point it becomes practically impossible to not speak passionately about your point of view on this very hot topic. Though, I do hope those who have facts to support their opinions about this discussion make sure to impress that upon those they are trying to inform!
mike davis is boring.