Contemporary Authors

• Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910 University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 2015

1. Corazón de Dixie : Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910 LCCN 2015018768 Type of material Book Personal name Weise, Julie M., author. Main title Corazón de Dixie : Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910 / Julie M. Weise. Published/Produced Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2015] Description 344 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. ISBN 9781469624969 (pbk : alk. paper) Shelf Location FLM2016 079908 CALL NUMBER F220.M5 W45 2015 OVERFLOWJ34 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM2) CALL NUMBER F220.M5 W45 2015 CABIN BRANCH Copy 2 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE

• University of Oregon - https://history.uoregon.edu/profile/jweise/

  Julie Weise

  Julie Weise profile picture
  Associate Professor
  Phone: 541-346-4833
  Office: 353 McKenzie Hall
  E-mail: jweise@uoregon.edu
  Office Hours: Spring 2017: Wednesday 3:00-3:45 pm, Thursday 2:30-3:15 pm.
  Education

  Ph.D., History, Yale University

  M.A., M.Phil., History, Yale University

  B.A., with distinction, Anthropology and Ethnicity, Race, & Migration, Yale University

  Profile

  I am an interdisciplinary historian exploring themes of identity, citizenship, migration, race, and nations in hemispheric and global context. My first book, Corazon de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910 (University of North Carolina Press, 2015), includes five historical case studies of largely-forgotten communities: the Mexicans and Mexican Americans who, since 1910, have arrived into landscapes traditionally understood to be black-and-white (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina). The book won the Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians among other distinctions, and has a companion website with primary sources, corazondedixie.org.

  My second book was inspired by my experiences creating and teaching a course about global migration. The diverse students in my class quickly saw connections among the experiences of migrant groups in different parts of the world, yet too few historians were making such connections in their scholarship. My current project, Citizenship Displaced: Migrant Political Cultures in the Era of State Control, explores diverse migrant workers' political consciousness and relationships to origin and destination states in the post-World War II period. To tackle global questions without losing sight of workers' actual experiences, I focus on three contemporaneous migration case studies: Mexico-U.S., Spain-France, and Malawi-South Africa. I have presented on this research at the Universities of Giessen (Germany) and Bern (Switzerland) as well as the Latin American Studies, International Studies, and American Studies associations' conferences.

  In addition to academia, I have experience in the immigration policy arena. From 2001-2 I worked in the administration of Mexico’s President Vicente Fox as a speechwriter and researcher for the cabinet-level Office of the President for Mexicans Living Abroad. I have also worked as a translator, paralegal, project manager, and policy researcher at immigration-related agencies in New Haven and Los Angeles. I joined the UO History department in 2013 after four years as an Assistant Professor of International Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

  Publications (selected)

  Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910, University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

  Book companion website with primary sources for teaching: http://corazondedixie.org

  “Dispatches from the ‘Viejo’ New South: Historicizing Recent Latino Migrations,” Latino Studies 10:1-2, special issue, “Latinos in the U.S. South,” May 2012.

  “Mexican nationalisms, Southern racisms: Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the U.S. South, 1908-1939.”American Quarterly 60:3, special issue, “Nation and Migration—Past and Future,” September 2008.

  For further publications and pdfs, see my academia.edu page.

  Awards and prizes

  Winner, Merle Curti Award for best book in U.S. social history, Organization of American Historians (2016)

  Co-winner, CRL James book award, Working Class Studies Association (2016)

  Honorable Mention, Theodore Saloutos Book Award for best book in immigration history, Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2016)

  Honorable Mention, Deep South Book Prize, Summersell Center for the Study of the South (2016)

  George Washington Egleston Prize for best dissertation in American history, Yale University (2009).

  Fellowships (selected)

  Norman H. Brown Faculty Fellowship, University of Oregon

  Weatherhead Fellowship, School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, NM

  National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Award

  National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend

  Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies

  Media

  Op-Eds

  "Historians on Trump's first 100 days in office," Time.com, April 27, 2017

  “Trump’s anti-immigration policy rooted in ’90s California,” The San Francisco Chronicle, Zocalo Public Square, and Ventura County Star, May 12, 2016.

  "McCrory's Real Legacy on Latino Immigration," The Raleigh News & Observer, November 23, 2015

  "What Trump Doesn't Know About Southern Conservatives and Immigration," National Journal, August 7, 2015

  “A Heavy Price to Ending Birthright Citizenship,” The Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2010

  Blog posts

  "Defining El Sur Latino," Southern Foodways Alliance blog, May 16, 2017.

  "African Americans and Immigrants' Rights in the Trump Era," UNC Press Blog #immigration roundtable, April 6, 2017

  “2016: The year nativism conquered the South,” Immigration and Ethnic History Society blog, December 29, 2016.

  Interviews

  "Mexican Migration to the Deep South," by Beth English, Working History: Podcast of the Southern Labor Studies Association, December 7, 2016

  "Exploring the Corazón de Dixie with Julie M. Weise," by Karen L. Cox, Pop South: Reflections on the South in Popular Culture (blog), January 18, 2016

  Interview on Mexican immigration to Georgia and the U.S. South, Georgia Public Broadcasting's On Second Thought, January 7, 2016

  Interview on Corazón de Dixie by Lori Flores, New Books in Latino Studies Podcast, December 17, 2015

  Interview on Mexican immigration in the South and the U.S., WUNC radio's The State of Things, Chapel Hill, December 10, 2015

  Interview on Corazon de Dixie research and bilingual Latino history teaching, UO Today, Oregon Humanities Center, March 2015

  "A Tale of Two Immigration Politics in Maryland and Virginia," Al-Jazeera America, November 3, 2014

  "Residents Uneasy about Immigrant Shift Into Suburbs," NPR All Things Considered, October 19, 2014

  Radio interview about immigration reform, Bill Carroll show, KFI AM, Los Angeles, 2013

  “Immigration reform may solve longterm care worker shortage,” Healthcare Finance News, March 12, 2013

  “Immigration reform could increase California tax revenue, shift worker base, experts say,” The Long Beach Press-Telegram, January 28, 2013

  Interview, Charter Local Edition on CNN Headline News, September 2010

  Presentations

  "Corazón de Dixie: La Historia de los Mexicanos en el Sur," Qué Pasa-Mi Gente, Charlotte, January 21, 2016

  “Mexican Archives and the Search for Old Immigrants in ‘New’ Destinations,” Cornell Institute for the Social Sciences, March 2, 2012

• Yale University - http://erm.yale.edu/testimonies/julie-m-weise

  Julie M. Weise

  The best part of the ER&M program was the small and dedicated community of majors and faculty. Even though most of the classes we took were in other disciplines, the structure of the major and particularly the senior seminar allowed us to get to know each other, support each other’s growth, and encourage each other’s questioning. ER&M was my most important intellectual community in college. The interdisciplinary approach also paid off later in my career: I ended up getting a Ph.D. in History, but was hired to teach in an interdisciplinary program. In ER&M, I learned to ask big questions, appreciate the contributions of different disciplines, and have substantive conversations across different fields. Those are skills I use in my job every day now.

  Bio:
  Julia published her research in an article, “Mexican Nationalisms, Southern Racisms: Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the U.S. South, 1908-1939,” in the September 2008 issue of the journal American Quarterly.She have received awards and fellowships for her work, including the Yale Graduate School’s George Washington Egleston Historical Prize and more recently, a Faculty Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

• Pop South - https://southinpopculture.com/2016/01/18/exploring-the-corazon-de-dixie-with-julie-m-weise/

  QUOTED: "Mexican-origin people have been a significant part of U.S. history since 1848, when the United States took what is now the U.S. Southwest from Mexico and made those who were living there into U.S. citizens. But 1910 is when the major narrative of Mexican American history shifts from conquest to immigration. The Mexican Revolution began that year, and the upheavals it caused kicked off the first major wave of cross-border migration; this only quickened due to demand for Mexican labor during World War One and the Roaring ’20s."
  "From the 1960s-90s, Mexicanos became an important rhetorical symbol for white conservatives in Southern agricultural towns."

  Karen L. Cox
  January 18, 2016

  Immigration from Mexico is very relevant to our understanding of the contemporary American South. It’s also been a political hot potato. To help us understand the history of Mexican immigration to our region, Pop South talks with historian Julie M. Weise, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Oregon, about her new book Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910.

  PS: For general readers, why does your book begin in 1910?

  Mexican-origin people have been a significant part of U.S. history since 1848, when the United States took what is now the U.S. Southwest from Mexico and made those who were living there into U.S. citizens. But 1910 is when the major narrative of Mexican American history shifts from conquest to immigration. The Mexican Revolution began that year, and the upheavals it caused kicked off the first major wave of cross-border migration; this only quickened due to demand for Mexican labor during World War One and the Roaring ’20s. Most people think of this migration having gone only to the Southwest; scholars have explored it also for the Midwest. But when one looks back to sources written at the time, it becomes clear that Mexican migrants were really everywhere in the U.S. during the 1920s — from Alaska to Pennsylvania, and indeed, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. These latter migrations are the subjects of my book’s early chapters.

  PS: How has the culture of Mexicanos added to the culture of the American South?

  Mississippi even has a "Hot Tamale Trail." Photo credit: Southern Foodways Alliance
  Mississippi even has a “Hot Tamale Trail.” Photo credit: Southern Foodways Alliance
  The influence of Mexicano culture on Southern culture has, at least until recently, been experienced at the very local level, and at times has even been deliberately hidden; this is part of why it has taken so long for their story to be told by historians. Mississippi’s signature Hot Tamales were most likely first brought there by the thousands of Mexicanos who lived and worked in the Delta in the 1920s-30s; yet, those Mexicano descendants who remained in the Delta deliberately assimilated into the white side of the color line and seldom acknowledged, let alone celebrated, their Mexican heritage. So until recently, the tamales were not closely associated with their original purveyors. Across the river, black and white people who lived in the Arkansas Delta in the 1950s –many still alive today– have vivid memories of the exciting cosmopolitan influence that Mexican workers brought to their small towns during that decade.

  PS: What makes the experience of Mexicanos in the South similar/different from other regions of the United States?

  During the Jim Crow period, Mexicanos struggled economically everywhere that they worked as low-wage, mostly-rural laborers; the South often provided them a bit more economic mobility than elsewhere but at other times, their economic conditions there were worse. However, the limits placed on Mexicanos’ life chances specifically by race were much less significant in the South than in the Southwest. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) was interpreted by courts to guarantee Mexicans’ legal classification as white, but Southwestern locations like Texas and California found workarounds and still solidified Jim Crow exclusion of Mexicanos from the privileges of whiteness.

  By contrast, Mexicanos were oppressed by a distinctly non-white racialization in early 1920s Mississippi, but by the 1930s had successfully challenged that status and eventually assimilated onto the white side of the color line. Interwar New Orleans is perhaps best compared to Chicago or Los Angeles, urban locations that also had growing black and European immigrant populations in that period. My research shows that New Orleans is unique among these cities, the only place historians have yet uncovered where Mexicanos’ racial experiences were much closer to those of European immigrants (not just off-white Italians and Jews but even German and French immigrants) as opposed to their Mexicano counterparts elsewhere.

  PS: In the current debate over immigration, there is tough talk about building a wall on the southern border of the U.S. to keep Mexicans out. Historically, how has the U.S. South evolved in its thinking about Mexican immigration to where it now includes support for a wall?

  From the 1960s-90s, Mexicanos became an important rhetorical symbol for white conservatives in Southern agricultural towns. Mexicanos came to be seen as a not-black minority with whom white conservatives and Evangelicals could “build bridges” across race lines without directly confronting slavery and Jim Crow. This was an opportunity to make amends for their opposition to civil rights for blacks, while at the same time having a convenient foil with which to criticize blacks’ work ethic. In that sense, the growing population of Mexicanos in conservative parts of the South shaped particular local cultures of pro-immigrant conservatism, which defied (and often butted heads with) national trends in anti-immigrant politics during the late twentieth century. For example, local white conservative legislators would regularly do everything they could to prevent immigration enforcement, and white Evangelicals invested disproportionately generous resources ministering to Mexicanos as opposed to white or black poor people in their communities.

  Paradoxically, the South’s integration into the nation, and the adoption of California-generated images of Mexicanos as unworthy consumers of whites’ tax dollars, has made local conditions and policies progressively harsher for the South’s Mexicanos since about 2005. These movements have been based more commonly in the region’s least “Southern” spaces–suburbs and exurbs–rather than its traditional rural areas, though that may be changing as we speak thanks to forces unleashed by the campaign of Donald Trump. While some say the Southernization of U.S. politics accounts for its rightward turn in the 1980s, it’s the Westernization of Southern politics that accounts for the South’s recent turn to the right on immigration.
  Julie Weise
  Julie Weise
  Tell Pop South readers about your next project

  Writing Corazón de Dixie while teaching courses on global migration, I began to notice intriguing parallels between the ideas of Mexican workers and their government officials about what migration was supposed to accomplish for Mexican men in postwar Arkansas, and the ideas about migration held by migrants (Spanish, Italian, and Turkish among others) who worked in northern Europe, particularly Germany, during the same period. I am excited to be now learning German and perfecting my French so that I can study the ways these discourses moved across the Atlantic, and perhaps the Pacific as well, in the postwar period.

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• T and F Online
  http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714839.2016.1228190
  Word count: 21

  Please access link for review, unable to copy. - (writer's note - NOT ABLE TO VIEW!!!!! Deleting from biocrit.)

• New Books Network
  http://newbooksnetwork.com/julie-m-weise-corazon-de-dixie-mexicanos-in-the-u-s-south-since-1910-unc-press-2015/
  Word count: 264

  QUOTED: "the first book to comprehensively document Mexicans’ and Mexican Americans’ long history of migration to the U.S. South."

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  JULIE M. WEISE

  Corazon de Dixie
  Mexicanos in the U.S. South Since 1910

  UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS 2015
  December 17, 2015 Lori A. Flores

  Julie M. Weise‘s new book Corazon de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South Since 1910 (UNC Press, 2015) is the first book to comprehensively document Mexicans’ and Mexican Americans’ long history of migration to the U.S. South. It recounts the untold histories of Mexicanos’ migrations to New Orleans, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina as far back as 1910. In the heart of Dixie, Mexicanos navigated the Jim Crow system, cultivated community in the cotton fields, purposefully appealed for help to the Mexican government, shaped the southern conservative imagination in the wake of the civil rights movement, and embraced their own version of suburban living at the turn of the twenty-first century. Rooted in U.S. and Mexican archival research, oral history interviews, and family photographs, Corazon de Dixie unearths not just the facts of Mexicanos’ long-standing presence in the U.S. South but also their own expectations, strategies, and dreams.

  Also, check out the book’s companion website here or primary sources, teaching materials, and more.

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