The intersection of Asian and Latin American studies has produced a burgeoning new field in transnational studies.
Dr. Jerry García was so taken aback when he first heard of Japanese Mexicans that his curiosity about them never faded during his military service or subsequent college career. For his dissertation, he wanted to write about Mexican immigration but didn’t find an aspect that hadn’t already been done, in some cases multiple times.
Ultimately, he explored Japanese migration to Mexico and subsequent assimilation. The decision added a unique dimension to his ongoing research in Mexican American labor history.
“The struggles of the Japanese in Mexico have some parallels with Chicanos in the United States,” says García, now an assistant professor of history and Chicano/Latino studies at Michigan State University.
García is among a growing number of U.S. scholars whose expertise and writings shine a spotlight on the connections between Asian and Hispanic populations and cultures.
“So much of the focus in popular culture and the media is on strife, but there are a great deal of interrelations between Asians and Hispanics,” says Dr. Jinah Kim, a Northwestern University lecturer and assistant director of its Asian American Studies program. Among other things, she examines the differential racialization of Hispanic and Asian immigrants through multiculturalism and romanticized representations of the Asia- Pacific region.
