History 346

Professor J. Wu

Reading Questions

Karen Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices

1. What motivated Karen Leonard to study Punjabi-Mexican American families? What types of sources did she use for this project? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each source? What were her original assumptions/theses regarding Punjabi-Mexican families? How did these evolve over the course of her research?

2. What types of methodologies or theoretical concerns inform her book?

3. On pages 4 and 5, Leonard discusses the various terms used to describe Punjabi-Mexican families. Why is terminology important? What do the terms reflect?

4. In chapter 1, Leonard writes:

An understanding of the Mexican-Hindu experience confirmed that ethnicity is both persistent and flexible, that ethnic identities are continually constructed and reconstructed by individuals and society. As Comaroff puts it, ethnicity is something to be explained, rather than something that can be used to explain other phenomena. (p. 12)

What does this passage mean? How is this conception of ethnicity different from previous notions? What factors or forces construct ethnicity? Think of some examples from the book that supports this passage. Do you agree or disagree with this idea.

5. Who are the Punjabis and why did they immigrate to the Imperial Valley of California? Compare the Punjabi communities in Southern versus Northern California.

6. Why did Punjabi men and Mexican women marry one another? What were sources of cultural conflict as well as consensus? Compare the relationships of Punjabi-Mexican families with “Indian” and “Mexican” communities. How did these relationships change over time?

7. Compare the male and female networks among Punjabi-Mexican families. What do these networks suggest about the relationship between gender and ethnicity?

8. How did the second generation of Punjabi-Mexican families define their ethnic identity? What does Leonard define as indicators of ethnic identity? How did the ethnic identity of the second generation change over time? How did region and class shape conceptions of ethnicity?

9. How did historical events and legislation, like the Alien Land Laws, the Great Depression, the Luce-Celler Bill, the independence of India and Pakistan, and the 1965 Immigration Act, impact Punjabi-Mexican families?

10. Identify and explain the significance of these terms.

1917 "Barred Zone" Immigration Act

1923 Thind Case

Sikhism

Compadrazgo

Luce-Celler bill

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