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Dissertation Information for Arleen Garcia de Vera

NAME:
- Arleen Garcia de Vera

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2002)

ADVISORS:
- Valerie Matsumoto

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Don Toshiaki Nakanishi
- Michael Salman

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Constituting community: A study of nationalism, colonialism, gender, and identity among Filipinos in California, 1919--1946

Abstract: This dissertation argues that Filipino nationalists in California from 1919 to 1946 invoked discourses about the nation in a larger strategy to constitute community. It analyzes how elites tried to define the boundaries of identity and community, instill their standards, and compel the "proper" behavior, and how non-elites undermined nationalist attempts at surveillance and discipline by challenging elite ideals and evading their appeals to patriotism and proper conduct.

Fearing there were extremes of either "Orientalness" or "Westernization" among laborers, those from non-Tagalog regions, those with little formal education, and women, elites viewed the "community" in terms of "lack" and "excess." To resolve these contradictions and go beyond their male, Tagalog, and educated circle, nationalists utilized discursive strategies and devices, encompassing ideas, systems of representation, and cultural practices. These devices included the young, "green" Filipino, the romanticized reciprocity of the homeland, and the Westernizing influence of American colonial rule in the Philippines. Nationalists also drew upon strategies of discipline, such as anti-gambling crusades, Rizal Day queen contests, official responses to a controversial murder, and U.S. military service in the Philippines during World War II. All these were carried out with the goal of reforming women and men so that they would lead proper and stable lives.

This study differs from previous works that viewed Filipinos as immigrants moving towards linear assimilation. Given these discourses of colonialism, independence, and nationalism, this study conceives of Filipinos more as migrants whose experiences were marked by transnational and diasporic perspectives. It also differs in that it emphasizes the discursive devices, larger strategies, and the complexities and the contradictions underlying them, that an emphasis on events and institutions alone cannot elucidate. Finally, it also utilizes Philippine- and American-based sources: Filipino and mainstream newspapers in America, Manila newspapers, memoirs, federal government records, personal papers, other archival collections with Filipino materials, and oral history interviews. This work demonstrates the limits of community, the real work it took to maintain these boundaries, and the ways that empire and nation were inextricably, though uneasily, bound together.

MPACT Scores for Arleen Garcia de Vera

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-15 14:20:00

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Students under Arleen Garcia de Vera

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None