Invited to IU through the Latino Studies Program for first summer session, Jerry Garcia enjoyed the chance to meet faculty and quietly do research while away from his new tenure track position at Iowa State University; he is appointed doubly in history and Latino studies there, and teaches a range of courses dealing with Latina/o history, U.S. history, as well as U.S. immigration and migrant labor issues.

 For his M.A. at Eastern Washington University in the History Department, Garcia wrote a thesis entitled, “The History of a Chicano Community in the Pacific Northwest, Quincy, Washington, 1948-1993.” He traces influences of religious, ethnic, and social ideas that gave rise to organizations this Mexican-American community created, many of which addressed civil and human rights.  Garcia added that Quincy is his hometown, and being an insider facilitated access to historical resources.

 His own heritage figured much less prominently as a bridge leading to the topic of his dissertation, which was completed for the History Department at Washington State University in July of 1999. Garcia wanted to deal with immigration again, and Mexico, “but Mexican immigration to the U.S. has been so overwritten,” he said.   And so he chose to examine Japanese immigrant communities established in Mexico between 1897 and 1940.  The beginning date for his frame marks the first officially documented arrival of Japanese into Mexico, although immigrants had been unofficially entering since the 1600s; 1897 marks the date the Enomoto Colony–comprised of 34 Japanese males, and located in Chiapas, Mexico–was established.  It was collaboratively put in place by the Mexican and Japanese governments in an effort to modernize Mexican farming.  Mexico “wanted to stop the Indians from using their own land only for subsistence, and so let immigrants from all over the world [purchase and cultivate that land] to help modernize food production for export.”  The initial colony, however, failed by 1901.  New Japanese immigrants entered at this time to rejuvenate the settlement, which was renamed the Japanese-Mexican Cooperative Society, and lasted until 1923. “The major reason for its dissolution was the Mexican Revolution.,” Garcia said. 

 “By the 1920s many Japanese had come into Chiapas and, along with those scattered from the dismantled colony, had established small stores; but that’s just one chapter of my dissertation.  Later I talk about Japanese immigration to other parts of Mexico,” which more closely resembled immigration by other immigrant groups. “I stop at 1940 because of WW II,” he said. “What is unique about the Japanese experience in Mexico during WW II is that, like in the U.S., Japanese were rounded up, however Mexico refused to put them in internment camps.  They were asked to live in two cities in the country’s the interior: Guadulajara and Mexico City.  But they could live anywhere they wanted within those communities, and could move  freely within those cities. The one exception,” Garcia added, “was in Chiapas.  The governor of Chiapas was successful in petitioning the Mexican government to allow the Japanese to remain where they were,” because they had been such longstanding and valued residents and had contributed to that state’s development.