US history short essay

Read: Weekly introductory lecture; Cohen, entire; Martinez, entire; videos and other material from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and Oregon’s New Sanctuary Movement, available at: http://minutemanproject.com/ (Links to an external site.) and http://imirj.org/ (Links to an external site.

Post two 500-word answers on each of these two questions: 1) Cohen’s study deals largely with immigrant families in the United States and Martinez’s deals largely with families who were fractured by immigration.  Was that difference an important one?  Did being an immigrant who was part of an intact family much matter?  Why or why not?  2) Compare the arguments made by the videos and other material on the Minuteman and Sanctuary websites.  How can two groups come to such radically different positions on and descriptions of immigration?  For example, do they disagree on facts, or do these two sides simply have different visions for America?

Miriam Cohen, Workshop to Office: Two Generations of Italian American Women in New York City, 1900-1950, Cornell University Press, 1993.

Ruben Martinez, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, Picador, 2001.