Claudia Bernardi
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR of History of the Americas at the University of Perugia (2023-)
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR of the project "The Mobility Regime across Mexico and United States: the case of farmworkers from Tabasco and Oaxaca (1930s-1970s)" at the University of Padua (2022-25).
Profesora visitante at Centro de Estudios Históricos -El Colegio de México (2023, 2024); affiliated visitor (2023) and postdoctoral fellow (2014/15) of the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History at Harvard University, Cambridge-USA; Guest-researcher at Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut of Berlin (2022); Visiting Professor in "History of the Americas" at Ghent University (2021/2022); Visiting fellow at History department of Ghent University (2021, 2018); visiting fellow at Europa Institut-Universität Basel (2016).
Ph.D. in Euro-American Studies (2013, University of Roma Tre)
Contact: [email protected]
Address: Via A. Pascoli, 20 - 06123 Perugia (PG)
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR of the project "The Mobility Regime across Mexico and United States: the case of farmworkers from Tabasco and Oaxaca (1930s-1970s)" at the University of Padua (2022-25).
Profesora visitante at Centro de Estudios Históricos -El Colegio de México (2023, 2024); affiliated visitor (2023) and postdoctoral fellow (2014/15) of the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History at Harvard University, Cambridge-USA; Guest-researcher at Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut of Berlin (2022); Visiting Professor in "History of the Americas" at Ghent University (2021/2022); Visiting fellow at History department of Ghent University (2021, 2018); visiting fellow at Europa Institut-Universität Basel (2016).
Ph.D. in Euro-American Studies (2013, University of Roma Tre)
Contact: [email protected]
Address: Via A. Pascoli, 20 - 06123 Perugia (PG)
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rulers and those who are ruled, which includes the decisions of a
small group that have shaped the world as we know it. It also narrates
the actions of the majority of humanity, which created new worlds
by accepting, refusing or resisting domination. All these actions and
reactions are part of history, and forge processes of change and
transformation that happened over time and are reconstructed or
remembered centuries or millennia later.
This textbook also aims to narrate how humanity, as a single species,
created different modes of living, different economic systems,
cultures, political and social formations, ideas, beliefs and worldviews.
These systems organised humans into common organisations and
around common ideas, but they also highlighted differences between
humans. These differences originated over time; they were created by
humans themselves.
This textbook covers the history of humanity, from homo sapiens
departure from Africa to the twenty-first century. Volume 1 spans the
years 70,000 BCE to 1000 CE; Volume 2 covers 1000 to 1870 CE; Volume
3 spans the years 1870 CE to the twenty-first century. The first volume
focuses on the expansion of frontiers, starting with the agricultural
frontier that created empires and cities. The second volume narrates
the story of the connection of different frontiers and the creation
of the first intercontinental trade system. The third volume looks at
the intensified intervention of complex systems of frontiers on our
planet.
Each volume is divided into three chronological chapters. Each
chapter starts with an overview of the chapter, then covers the four
themes by which the book is structured. Instead of reading historical
transformations as single topics, we have chosen to organise our
narrative in four themes and to look at the different transformations
that have occurred in the world. The four themes are 1) humans change
nature, 2) humans on the move, 3) social organisation and inequality,
and 4) worldviews.
Il volume narra la storia dello spazio di frontiera tra Messico e Stati
Uniti. La figura principale che traghetta il lettore in questo viaggio
in territori contesi e densi di attriti è il bracero, il lavoratore migrante
messicano, protagonista sia delle turbolente migrazioni verso nord e
delle deportazioni a sud del confine, sia del programma d’importazione
di forza lavoro e di gestione della mobilità noto come Programa Bracero.
Il bracero diviene, al contempo, simbolo di modernizzazione e
oggetto di discriminazione. Un lavoratore temporaneo, “disponibile”,
razzializzato, a basso costo, flessibile e quasi privo di diritti che, lungi
dall’essere una mera vittima, intraprende varie forme di fuga dai regimi
del lavoro e della mobilità che hanno generato e trasformato lo spazio di
frontiera.
Journal papers
Through the use of sources collected in the Archivo General de la Nación in
Mexico City, the essay investigates the relation between peasant’s mobility and forms of land possession by: describing the forms of land possession and their juridical framework after the agrarian reform; focusing on the management of Mexican workers’ mobility; assessing the desires and practices of mobility of ejidatario and other peasants that interacted with the politics of immobilisation within Mexico.
Keywords Mexico; Arizona; migration; labour; unión; republicans
Resumen
Este articulo investiga los conflictos entre la élite conservadora, las organizaciones de trabajadores y los migrantes mexicanos en Arizona en las décadas de 1960 y 1970, cuando se produjeron importantes enfrentamientos en torno al llamado ‘problema de indocumentados’. Mediante un enfoque de historia laboral y el uso de fuentes primarias, el artículo da voz a los trabajadores temporales, gobernadores y al cuerpo electoral republicano de Arizona, organizadores sindicales y ciudadanos, trabajadores y asociaciones antisindicales. El estudio investiga el papel desempeñado por los grupos políticos conservadores y los capitalistas del sudoeste en la difusión de los sentimientos anti-sindicales y migratorios; la relación entre estatus y contrato en el trabajo agrícola; las condiciones de reclutamiento y trabajo impuestas a los trabajadores migrantes; la confrontación política y los conflictos surgieron entre los sindicatos y las organizaciones de trabajadores migrantes en el régimen laboral agrícola de Arizona. En conclusión, si bien los esfuerzos de organización transnacionales condujeron al éxito en las confrontaciones laborales, las prácticas políticas excluyentes contra los trabajadores indocumentados–como la wet line–resultaron en la fragmentación de la ‘línea de color’ que finalmente exacerbó las fricciones entre los sindicatos de trabajadores agrícolas y los trabajadores migrantes.
Palabras clave: México; Arizona; migración; trabajo; sindicato; conservador
Keywords: biopolitics; colonization; crisis; mexicans; migrants
Le tematiche della violenza e della periferia sono sempre state centrali nella storia latinoamericana, come chiave teorica per comprendere le sue trasformazioni. Questo articolo intende analizzare la rappresentazione del corpo dei messicani negli Stati Uniti, dall’inizio del Novecento fino alla Grande Depressione, e il ruolo che essa ha avuto nel definire la deportazione nel contesto storico di trasformazione della sovranità. Dopo la crisi del 1929, la deportazione di migliaia di persone costituisce il primo caso in cui il governo statunitense sostiene un’espulsione massiva di migranti, una pratica politica che porterà a numerose conseguenze nella storia del Messico e della sua relazione con gli U.S.A., oltre a cambiare completamente il volto della frontiera e quello della migrazione stessa.
Parole chiave: biopolitica; colonizzazione; crisi; messicani; migrante
Book chapters
rulers and those who are ruled, which includes the decisions of a
small group that have shaped the world as we know it. It also narrates
the actions of the majority of humanity, which created new worlds
by accepting, refusing or resisting domination. All these actions and
reactions are part of history, and forge processes of change and
transformation that happened over time and are reconstructed or
remembered centuries or millennia later.
This textbook also aims to narrate how humanity, as a single species,
created different modes of living, different economic systems,
cultures, political and social formations, ideas, beliefs and worldviews.
These systems organised humans into common organisations and
around common ideas, but they also highlighted differences between
humans. These differences originated over time; they were created by
humans themselves.
This textbook covers the history of humanity, from homo sapiens
departure from Africa to the twenty-first century. Volume 1 spans the
years 70,000 BCE to 1000 CE; Volume 2 covers 1000 to 1870 CE; Volume
3 spans the years 1870 CE to the twenty-first century. The first volume
focuses on the expansion of frontiers, starting with the agricultural
frontier that created empires and cities. The second volume narrates
the story of the connection of different frontiers and the creation
of the first intercontinental trade system. The third volume looks at
the intensified intervention of complex systems of frontiers on our
planet.
Each volume is divided into three chronological chapters. Each
chapter starts with an overview of the chapter, then covers the four
themes by which the book is structured. Instead of reading historical
transformations as single topics, we have chosen to organise our
narrative in four themes and to look at the different transformations
that have occurred in the world. The four themes are 1) humans change
nature, 2) humans on the move, 3) social organisation and inequality,
and 4) worldviews.
Il volume narra la storia dello spazio di frontiera tra Messico e Stati
Uniti. La figura principale che traghetta il lettore in questo viaggio
in territori contesi e densi di attriti è il bracero, il lavoratore migrante
messicano, protagonista sia delle turbolente migrazioni verso nord e
delle deportazioni a sud del confine, sia del programma d’importazione
di forza lavoro e di gestione della mobilità noto come Programa Bracero.
Il bracero diviene, al contempo, simbolo di modernizzazione e
oggetto di discriminazione. Un lavoratore temporaneo, “disponibile”,
razzializzato, a basso costo, flessibile e quasi privo di diritti che, lungi
dall’essere una mera vittima, intraprende varie forme di fuga dai regimi
del lavoro e della mobilità che hanno generato e trasformato lo spazio di
frontiera.
Through the use of sources collected in the Archivo General de la Nación in
Mexico City, the essay investigates the relation between peasant’s mobility and forms of land possession by: describing the forms of land possession and their juridical framework after the agrarian reform; focusing on the management of Mexican workers’ mobility; assessing the desires and practices of mobility of ejidatario and other peasants that interacted with the politics of immobilisation within Mexico.
Keywords Mexico; Arizona; migration; labour; unión; republicans
Resumen
Este articulo investiga los conflictos entre la élite conservadora, las organizaciones de trabajadores y los migrantes mexicanos en Arizona en las décadas de 1960 y 1970, cuando se produjeron importantes enfrentamientos en torno al llamado ‘problema de indocumentados’. Mediante un enfoque de historia laboral y el uso de fuentes primarias, el artículo da voz a los trabajadores temporales, gobernadores y al cuerpo electoral republicano de Arizona, organizadores sindicales y ciudadanos, trabajadores y asociaciones antisindicales. El estudio investiga el papel desempeñado por los grupos políticos conservadores y los capitalistas del sudoeste en la difusión de los sentimientos anti-sindicales y migratorios; la relación entre estatus y contrato en el trabajo agrícola; las condiciones de reclutamiento y trabajo impuestas a los trabajadores migrantes; la confrontación política y los conflictos surgieron entre los sindicatos y las organizaciones de trabajadores migrantes en el régimen laboral agrícola de Arizona. En conclusión, si bien los esfuerzos de organización transnacionales condujeron al éxito en las confrontaciones laborales, las prácticas políticas excluyentes contra los trabajadores indocumentados–como la wet line–resultaron en la fragmentación de la ‘línea de color’ que finalmente exacerbó las fricciones entre los sindicatos de trabajadores agrícolas y los trabajadores migrantes.
Palabras clave: México; Arizona; migración; trabajo; sindicato; conservador
Keywords: biopolitics; colonization; crisis; mexicans; migrants
Le tematiche della violenza e della periferia sono sempre state centrali nella storia latinoamericana, come chiave teorica per comprendere le sue trasformazioni. Questo articolo intende analizzare la rappresentazione del corpo dei messicani negli Stati Uniti, dall’inizio del Novecento fino alla Grande Depressione, e il ruolo che essa ha avuto nel definire la deportazione nel contesto storico di trasformazione della sovranità. Dopo la crisi del 1929, la deportazione di migliaia di persone costituisce il primo caso in cui il governo statunitense sostiene un’espulsione massiva di migranti, una pratica politica che porterà a numerose conseguenze nella storia del Messico e della sua relazione con gli U.S.A., oltre a cambiare completamente il volto della frontiera e quello della migrazione stessa.
Parole chiave: biopolitica; colonizzazione; crisi; messicani; migrante
della storia dei messicani negli Stati Uniti in cui la costruzione di
un immaginario ostile e pericoloso, in particolare dei migranti, ha
prodotto politiche di espulsione e stigmatizzazione, muovendo da
processi di razzializzazione.1 Dalla seconda metà dell’Ottocento, con
l’annessione statunitense di buona parte del territorio messicano, il
corpo del messicano è “inciso” da stereotipi e politiche del controllo
che lo hanno trasformato in un corpo pericoloso, violento e persino
infetto. Le crisi economiche – prima la Grande depressione poi la
crisi energetica – sono utilizzate da governi e settori reazionari della
società come laboratori che, da un lato, sanciscono il processo di
razzializzazione e, dall’altro, identificano nel messicano la causa della
crisi economica ridefinendo il suo status sociale e giuridico sino a
coinvolgere i chicanxs.2
Il saggio analizza il contesto politico ed economico in cui si sono
moltiplicate politiche e pratiche fomentate da odio razziale, muovendo
da uno sguardo di lungo periodo che rintraccia nella colonizzazione
la matrice di stereotipi e discorsi di odio. Il saggio utilizza
fonti d’archivio – in particolare la stampa periodica messicana –
relative alla persecuzione dei lavoratori migranti, i braceros, a un
caso di tortura avvenuto in Arizona nel 1976 e alle mobilitazioni
del gruppo estremista e segregazionista Ku Klux Klan sostenuto
da vari settori istituzionali negli Stati Uniti. Lungi dall’essere vittime passive, migranti e chicanxs hanno organizzato forme di resistenza
alle politiche di deportazione, espulsione e razzializzazione.
The contributions in this book are based on extensive archival research and span Europe and North America over the past 500 years. They provide fresh historical perspectives on the various regimes of coercion, mobility, and immobility as constituent parts of the political economy of labour.
Moving Workers shows that all struggles relating to the mobility of workers or its restriction have the potential to reveal complex configurations of hierarchies, dependencies, and diverging conceptions of work and labour relations that continuously make and remake our world.
different case studies and analyzing the situation of transnational
commuters across several frontiers, we will look at the complexity of
the phenomenon, at its historical development, at the elements generating
this particular type of labor mobility, and at the characteristics of
borderlands where it happens, trying to use a global perspective.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Laura Fotia insegna Storia dell’America latina contemporanea presso l’Università degli Studi Roma Tre, è stata research fellow e visiting fellow presso diversi istituti di ricerca e università europei e americani. Tra le sue pubblicazioni, La crociera della Nave “Italia” e le origini della diplomazia culturale del fascismo in America latina (Aracne, 2017) e Diplomazia culturale e propaganda attraverso l’Atlantico. Argentina e Italia 1923-1940 (Le Monnier, 2019).
economic and environmental history, social and cultural history, among others. The expansion of 'commodification frontiers' led to profound transformations in the relationship between peasants,
land and the environment, in the Americas and in Europe. This radical change led to different responses by governments and peasants to the “land question”. In this context, we want to investigate how different tenure regimes (collective/community, private, cooperative) and the
practices of different actors (communities and peasant associations, land workers, public institutions, private intermediaries, movements, among others) changed in relation to agrarian reforms, and the environmental impact due to the extraction, dispossession or accumulation of
resources. We welcome contributions on cross-border and transcontinental regions, countries or communities -indigenous or not- that can contribute to the investigation of the processes of exchange of ideas and peasant practices in Latin American regions or between Latin America and
Europe.
With this call, we aim to bring together historians working on a variety of regions and periods to provide fresh perspectives on the study of im/mobilizations. The focus is on thematic research that engages with a broad range of workers’ experiences of mobility and immobility and the interactive processes of labour mobility and immobilization, which enables us to grasp the historical trajectories of labour relations.
We invite abstracts for papers that enrich the conversation about labor mobility and the related forms of coercion. Please send abstracts of less than 500 words and a short bio (max 200 words) to [email protected] or [email protected] by February 15, 2021. The proposal should include name, surname, current affiliation and contact details of the proponent. For the full Call for Papers see Attachment.
Please feel free to distribute the call to friends, colleagues, relevant networks or others who might be interested. Also, do not hesitate to get in touch with the coordinators Claudia Bernardi and Giulia Bonazza if you have any questions or comments.