Historical Constructions of Ethnicity: California's Punjabi Immigrants

Abstract

IMMIGRANTS FROM the Punjab province of India came to California\nat the turn of the twentieth century and settled in the state's major\nagricultural valleys. About five hundred of these men married Mexican\nand Mexican-American women, creating a Punjabi Mexican second\ngeneration which thought of itself as "Hindu" (the name given to immigrants\nfrom India in earlier decades). This biethnic community poses\ninteresting questions about the construction and transformation of ethnic\nidentity, and the interpretations of outsiders contrast with those of the\npioneers and their descendants. These interpretations direct attention to\nthe historical contingency of ethnic identity and to the many voices\nwhich participate in its definition.

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