What is JacketFlap

  • JacketFlap connects you to the work of more than 200,000 authors, illustrators, publishers and other creators of books for Children and Young Adults. The site is updated daily with information about every book, author, illustrator, and publisher in the children's / young adult book industry. Members include published authors and illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, booksellers, publishers and fans.
    Join now (it's free).

Sort Blog Posts

Sort Posts by:

  • in
    from   

Suggest a Blog

Enter a Blog's Feed URL below and click Submit:

Most Commented Posts

In the past 7 days

Recent Posts

(tagged with 'American West')

Recent Comments

Recently Viewed

JacketFlap Sponsors

Spread the word about books.
Put this Widget on your blog!
  • Powered by JacketFlap.com

Are you a book Publisher?
Learn about Widgets now!

Advertise on JacketFlap

MyJacketFlap Blogs

  • Login or Register for free to create your own customized page of blog posts from your favorite blogs. You can also add blogs by clicking the "Add to MyJacketFlap" links next to the blog name in each post.

Blog Posts by Tag

In the past 7 days

Blog Posts by Date

Click days in this calendar to see posts by day or month
new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: American West, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 2 of 2
1. Immigration in the American west

The headline reads: “Border State Governor Issues Dire Warning about Flood of Undocumented Immigrants.” And here’s the gist of the story: In a letter to national officials, the governor of a border state sounded another alarm about unchecked immigration across a porous boundary with a neighboring country. In the message, one of several from border state officials, the governor acknowledged that his/her nation had once welcomed immigrants from its neighbor, but recent events taught how unwise that policy was. He/she insisted that many of the newcomers to his/her state were armed and dangerous criminals. Even those who came to work threatened to overwhelm the state’s resources and destabilize the social order.

Indeed, unlike earlier immigrants from the neighboring nation who had adapted to their new homeland and its traditions, more recent arrivals resisted assimilation. Instead, they continued to speak in their native tongue and maintain attachments to their former nation, sometimes carrying their old flag in public demonstrations. Worse still, the governor admitted that his/her nation seemed unwilling to “arrest” the flow of these undocumented aliens. Yet, unless the “incursions” were halted, the “daring strangers,” who are “gradually outnumbering and displacing us,” would turn us into “strangers in our own land.”

Today’s headline? It could be. The governor’s fears certainly ring familiar. Indeed, the warning sounds a lot like ones issued by Governor Rick Perry of Texas or Jan Brewer of Arizona. But this particular alarm emanated from California. That might make Pete Wilson the author of this message. Back in the 1990s, he was very vocal about the dangers that illegal immigration posed to his state and the United States. As governor, Wilson championed the “Save Our State” ballot initiative that cut illegal aliens from access to state benefits such as subsidized health care and public education. He campaigned on behalf of the initiative (Proposition 187) and made it a centerpiece of his 1994 re-election campaign.

Wilson, however, was not the source of the letter cited above. In fact, this warning dates back to 1845, almost 150 years before Proposition 187 appeared on the scene. Its author was Pio Pico, governor of the still Mexican state of California.

The unsanctioned immigrants about whom Pico worried were from the United States. Pico had reason to be concerned, especially as he reflected on events in Texas. There, the Mexican government had opted to encourage immigration from the United States. Beginning in the 1820s and continuing into the 1830s, Americans, primarily from the southern United States, poured into Texas.

Map of  CA, NV, UT and western AZ when they were part of Mexico"California1838" by DigbyDalton - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Map of CA, NV, UT and western AZ when they were part of Mexico, “California1838″, by DigbyDalton. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

By the mid-1830s, they outnumbered Tejanos (people with Mexican roots) by almost ten to one. Demanding provincial autonomy, the Americans clashed with Mexican authorities determined to enforce the rule of the national government. In 1836, a rebellion commenced, and Texans won their war of secession. Nine years later, the United States annexed Texas. And now, claimed Pico, many officials of the United States government openly coveted California, their expansionist designs abetted by American immigrants to California.

In retrospect, the policy of promoting American immigration into northern Mexico looks as dangerous as Pico deemed it and as counterintuitive as it has seemed to subsequent generations. Why invite Americans in if a chief goal was to keep the United States out? Still, the policy did not appear so paradoxical at the time. There were, in fact, encouraging precedents. Spain had attempted something similar in the Louisiana Territory in the 1790s, though the territory’s transfer back to France and then to the United States had aborted that experiment. More enduring was what the British had done in Upper Canada (now Ontario). Americans who crossed that border proved themselves amenable to a shift in loyalties, which showed how tenuous national attachments remained in these years. From this, others could draw lessons: the keys to gaining and holding the affection of American transplants was to protect them from Indians, provide them with land on generous terms, require little from them in the way of taxes, and interfere minimally in their private pursuits.

For a variety of reasons, Mexico had trouble abiding by these guidelines, and, in response, Americans did not abide by Mexican rules. In Texas, American immigrants destabilized Mexican rule. In California, as Pico feared, the “daring strangers” overwhelmed the Mexican population, though the brunt of the American rush did not commence until after the discovery of gold in 1848. By then, Mexico had already lost its war with the United States and ceded California. Very soon, men like Pio Pico found themselves strangers in their own land.

Featured image credit: “Map of USA highlighting West”. CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Immigration in the American west appeared first on OUPblog.

0 Comments on Immigration in the American west as of 1/23/2015 5:13:00 AM
Add a Comment
2. The Joys of Research


Let's face it--the dirty secret of many a nonfiction writer, and even some fiction writers I know, is that the best part of working on a book is the research. We get to learn all sorts of interesting facts, snoop into the private letters of long-dead people, and stare into the faces of folks from other cultures, wondering what their lives were really like. We get to feel important--only a pencil and loose paper allowed in the archives--we're dealing with valuable materials, no ink marks or pilfering tolerated. And how about those silly white gloves that never fit that you have to wear if your handling something really important?
I'm in Cody, Wyoming, as I write this, doing research as a Resident Fellow at the Cody Institute for Western American Studies--doesn't that sound impressive? I'm writing a book about the relationship through time between Indians and horses and thoroughly enjoying being a total nerd for a couple of weeks. Not only do I get to enjoy ferreting out obscure facts, I get to appreciate the beauty of exquisite objects like this beaded horse blanket in the Plains Indian Museum.
The Harold McCracken Research Library here has an abundance of books and archives relating to all aspects of the history of the Old West as it's part of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. If you ever need information about Plains Indians, Buffalo Bill, Yellowstone ecology, or western art, this institution should be on your list. In addition to the above, the The Cody Firearms Museum contains the most complete collection of American firearms as well as European examples from as long ago as the sixteenth century. Who would know that a little town tucked into a Wyoming valley would contain such research resources? And where else will you be told, "Turn left at the Gatling gun," when you ask how to find a curator's office?
I was lucky enough to become a Fellow here because a friend alerted me to the opportunity. I wonder how many other institutions around the country offer such residencies to people like us. It's a good idea to check on grants and residencies when you are planning your research.
Book authors aren't the only sticklers for facts. Hugh Fordin includes this story in his book, "Getting to Know Him: A Biography of Oscar Hammerstein II." Hammerstein researched every detail for his lyrics, such as the ingredients in a genuine New England clambake for his song in the musical, "Carousel." For "Oklahoma," he wrote this lyric:
June is bustin' out all over
The sheep aren't sleepin' any more!
All the rams that chase the ewe sheep
Are determined there'll be new sheep
And the ewe sheep aren't even keepin' score!

Alas, a colleague told him, sheep mate in the winter, not in June. But Hammerstein couldn't let go of this clever lyric, so when anyone asked about it, he replied, "What you say about sheep may all be very true in most years, sir, but not in 1873. 1873 is my year and that year, curiously enough, the sheep mated in the spring."

We, however, can't be so loose with the truth in our pursuit of our craft, so research away--after all, that's where so much of the fun resides!

1 Comments on The Joys of Research, last added: 9/12/2008
Display Comments Add a Comment