Pedro Regalado | Migration in the Crucible: Nueva York After 1960

The Global Studies in Migration and Diaspora Research Workshop is excited to announce its second meeting featuring Pedro A. Regalado, Assistant Professor of History at Stanford who researches and teaches the history of race, immigration, planning, and capitalism in urban America. Join us for an insightful discussion about his book chapter "Migration in the Crucible: Nueva York after 1960." 

Food and refreshments will be provided. 

The presentation will be followed by a Q&A and an open discussion. A working paper will be recirculated among those who RSVP. 

Abstract: This chapter traces the transformation of New York City’s Spanish-speaking communities from the 1960s to the 1980s, highlighting their diversification, the enduring influence of U.S. imperial policy, and the city’s broader economic restructuring. During this period, Spanish-speaking newcomers sustained local industries while maintaining transnational ties through remittances that simultaneously reshaped Latin American economies and reinforced New York’s historic connection to the region. Yet migrants arrived in a city in crisis: deindustrialization, fiscal collapse, and white flight deepened poverty and sharpened racialized anxieties over “illegal aliens,” even as activists, unions, churches, and community organizations mobilized in defense of immigrant rights. At the same time, tensions between Puerto Ricans and more recent arrivals revealed both the limits and the potential of panethnic identity and activism.