UC Irvine

Many Punjabi Indians immigrated to Calif in the early twentieth century, married Hispanic women, & became successful farmers. The life history of one such family is presented to illustrate the problems experienced by the Mexican-Hindu community of interethnic families, with regard to citizenship, inability to lease or own agricultural land, & the changing conditions governing their political status in both the US & India, especially in the 1940s. Moola Singh's story illustrates an immigrant's changing concepts of self & society, the impact of state policies on individual & family experience, & the ways in which individual life cycles, family life cycles, & state policies interpenetrate.