‘Making a Non-White America’Posted in Articles, Campus Life, History, United States on 2013-09-23 18:47Z by Steven |
inside: CSUF News
California State University, Fullerton
2009-08-18
Mimi Ko Cruz
Allison Varzally’s Book About California’s Ethnic History Wins National Award
Interracial marriages and other ties in diverse communities throughout California during the formative years of the 20th century are explored in Allison Varzally’s book, “Making a Non-White America: Californians Coloring outside Ethnic Lines, 1925-1955.”
Published by University of California Press, Varzally’s book has won the Immigration and Ethnic History Society’s 2009 Theodore Saloutos Memorial Award in American Immigration History.
The award, which comes with $1,000, is presented for the book judged best on any aspect of the immigration history of the United States.
Varzally, assistant professor of history, said the honor “is exciting recognition from an organization that I admire.
“Some of my favorite books in the field have won this award,” she said.
Varzally, of Los Angeles, uses the voices from oral histories she conducted to weave a scholarly interpretation on the state’s history. She touches on World War II, the Zoot suit riots, discriminatory laws, segregation, class, politics, religion, work and education.
The book’s cover features a picture of Sugar Pie De Santo, a Filipina-black woman who grew up in San Francisco’s Fillmore District in the 1940s.
De Santo, Varzally said, “creatively and selectively borrowed from her parents’ cultures, enjoyed her blended family background and became a famous musician.”…
Read the entire article here.