Name: Catalina McGraw

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, Immigration—Latin America

Date of Fieldwork: February 16, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):David G. Gutierrez

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On Wednesday Febuary 16th, our group had the pleasure of meeting with David G. Gutierrez. Gutierrez is a UCSD historian and professor that specializes in Latino history and immigration. He told us about how he grew up in east Los Angeles around a lot of immigrants and immigrant families and how studying latin history and immigration was always going to be his path.

Gutierrez also said how ever since Donald Trump entered office, the issue of immigration has been brought to the surface in the form of a president spewing hateful things about latinos. He also notes how the white population is decreasing because white people are getting older and having fewer kids. This is because more immigrants are coming to the US and doing jobs white people don’t like including jobs in the food industry and farming. Because more immigrants are working and having more children, that in addition to the white population decreasing leads to a population shift.

I really enjoyed this interview because this was our group’s first interview and I feel like this was a great way to jump into fieldwork. I also think that my group gained a lot of information as to why Latin Immigration is a prominent topic.