2019-2020 IDAAS Signature Event Speaker Series: Yen Le Espiritu

Thursday, March 5 @ 4:30pm
Hahn Hall 108, Pomona College

Title: From Sea to Shining Sea; United States Continental Imperialism

Lecture Description: Most historians date the beginning of US imperialism to the 1898 US invasions and occupations in the Pacific and Caribbean. In doing so, they characterize the invasions and occupations that led to US claiming sovereignty over its present continental configuration as “expansion” or “manifest destiny.” But, the United States was imperialist from its founding, its split from the British Empire a result of the British settlers in the 13 colonies seeking their own empire, as documented in the Northwest Ordinance, which included maps extending the Atlantic colonies/states to the Pacific. One-hundred years of genocidal warfare against Indigenous Nations across the continent followed, including the military Invasion and occupation of Mexico, annexing the northern half.

Bio: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a historian, writer, and professor emeritus in Ethic Studies at California State University. She is author or editor of 15 books, including Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico and the literary memoir trilogy:  Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie; Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975; and Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War, and her award winning 2014 book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Her most recent book is Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment. Forthcoming a book on the US claim to be “a nation of immigrants.”