Urban space, ethnic community, and national belonging: the political landscape of memory in Little Tokyo

The “Little Tokyo” neighborhood of Los Angeles was the center of pre-internment community life for Japanese immigrants and their children and is still considered the symbolic home of later generations of Japanese Americans in Southern California. Drawing on three years of ethnographic research in Little Tokyo, I explore in this article how contemporary Japanese Americans have used and transformed this ancestral landscape in order to express, contest, and formalize collective memories of the Japanese American experience, particularly with regard to their place in the national body politic. Historical narratives inscribed at many places in Little Tokyo, both informal and institutional, project a narrative of sacrifice, suffering, and redemption in the context of internment and military service, articulating neatly with mainstream American tropes of overcoming hardship as a process of ‘earning’ citizenship and its benefits. However, such narratives are also contested by alternative interpretations and representations of these spaces that describe a special role for Japanese Americans in making demands of their government, rather than just sacrifices to it. The resulting debates, disagreements, and even occasional consensus around constructions of nation, identity, community, and belonging are rooted in the ‘sacred ground’ of Little Tokyo, gathering meaning and persuasive power through their connection to a symbolically dense site of shared memory. The multiple memory projects of this landscape reveal how Japanese Americans have envisioned their relationship to the concept of America, to each other, and to other communities with shared experiences in a diverse metropolis.

From Wetland to Saltland: Natural Obstacles and Socioecological Consequences in the Production of Solar Salt in Venezuela

ABSTRACT

This article provides a critical analysis of the process involved in transforming small-scale artisanal production of solar salt into large-scale industrial production by Produsal in Los Olivitos Wildlife Refuge and Fishing Reserve in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. In doing so, it highlights the socioecological impacts resulting from this process in the wetland and the fishing community of Ancón de Iturre. Using political economy of nature as a theoretical framework, especially notions of the formal subsumption of nature, materiality of natural resources, and the commodification of nature, this article explores how the biophysical characteristic of salt and the ecosystem where it is contained present a specific set of natural obstacles for its production; the different strategies used by Produsal to overcome these obstacles; and the social and ecological contradictions embedded in the process.     

A new Late Cretaceous crocodyliform from the western margin of Gondwana (La Rioja Province,Argentina)

The Cretaceous witnessed the greatest diversity of Gondwanan notosuchian crocodyliforms, which displayed high levels of diversity and a notable array of specialized forms that developed in different ecological niches. Among this diversity, the advanced notosuchians are a clade of mid body sized forms which displays a remarkable abundance but is restricted to two lithological units from the Late Cretaceous of South America, the Adamantina Formation in southeastern Brazil and the Bajo de la Carpa Formation in Patagonia (Argentina). The only exceptions known so far were the Late Cretaceous Labidiosuchus from the Marilia Formation in Brazil and Yacarerani from the Cajones Formation in Bolivia. Herein we report a new Cretaceous crocodyliform, Llanosuchus tamaensis gen. nov. et sp. nov., found in the Los Llanos Formation (Campanian?) in northwestern Argentina (La Rioja Province). The small specimen includes well preserved fragments of the cranium and mandible with an estimated skull size of about 9 cm lengths. This crocodyliform shares several derived characters with Notosuchus terrestris from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation (Patagonia) and it was found in a weakly developed sandy paleosol profile formed in wet local conditions but in a region characterized by semi-arid climate and active eolian sedimentation. The presence of a new advanced notosuchian in the Cretaceous of western Gondwana, and its intermediate geographical region between the known South American species (Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia), has interesting implications, and adds another record of an advanced notosuchian in deposits with inferred warm climates and semi-arid paleoenvironments. Finally, Llanosuchus tamaensis supports a Late Cretaceous age for Los Llanos Formation with important geological implications for La Rioja Province.     

Linked and Independent African American Migration from Los Angeles

This paper examines African American migration from Los Angeles County, 1985–1990, utilizing Census Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) data to identify linkages between Los Angeles migrants and others in destination households. Increased migration to suburban counties and to regions outside of the South, since 1975–1980, suggests an overall diversification of African American migration. The majority of outmigrants were “independent” because they moved into 1990 destination households that contained only migrants from the same origin, Los Angeles County. Others were linked either to nonmovers or to migrants from other places in destination households. A discriminant analysis suggests that many migrants linked to nonmigrants were moving for assistance, depending on others at the destination for housing and financial resources. In contrast, independent migrants have the personal resources to set up their own destination households.     

Finite-element simulations of long-period ground motions: Japanese subduction-zone earthquakes and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

Large earthquakes at shallow depths commonly excite long-period ground motions in distant sedimentary basins, thereby inflicting damage upon large-scale structures. For example, the 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, Japan, damaged oil tanks in the Yufutsu Basin, located 250 km from the epicenter. Similar long-range effects were also observed during the 2004 earthquake off Kii Peninsula, Japan. In this study, we present the results of simulations of these earthquakes undertaken using the finite element method (FEM) with a voxel mesh. In addition, to examine whether the 1906 San Francisco earthquake excited long-period ground motions in the Los Angeles-area basins, we performed long-period ground motion simulations of most of the California region. The FEM simulations confirmed the importance of path effects for the development of long-period ground motions.     

Racialized Identitites and the Formation of Black Gangs in Los Angeles

This article traces the history of Black gangs in Los Angeles, California and identifies the factors that were most significant in the formation of these gangs during two waves of gang formation in the post-World War II period. The results of this analysis suggest that the racialization of Black youths played a major factor in both waves of gang formation. The more popular explanations based on economic and community deficiencies, themselves a by-product of racialization, are more central to gang maintenance and proliferation than gang formation.     

Aptian–Albian Cupressaceae (sensu stricto) woods from Cañadón Asfalto Basin,Patagonia Argentina

This paper describes the first macrofloristic record from Los Adobes Formation (Chubut Group) in Cañadón Asfalto Basin (Patagonia, Chubut Province, Argentina). The studied fossils were recovered from the Aptian–Albian Bardas Coloradas Member, and consist of silicified woods preserved in fluvial channel deposits. One wood shows homocellular rays with smooth radial and tangential walls, diffuse axial parenchyma, tracheid pitting of the abietinoid type and cross-field pitting cupressoid usually ordered in rows and columns indicating placement within Cupressinoxylon hallei Kräusel. This fossil tree resembles some members of the extant Cupressaceae s.s., as Austrocedrus chilensis (D. Don) Pic. Serm. & Bizzarri, Pilgerodendron uviferum (D. Don) Florin, Fitzroya cupressoide (Molina) I. M. Johnst. and Libocedrus plumosa (D. Don) Druce. Due to poor preservation the other fossil wood specimen was assigned to cf. Cupressinoxylon Göppert 1850 nom. cons. prop. This is the first unequivocal record of C. hallei from the Cretaceous of South America and the oldest reliable record of the Callitroideae, indicating that this subfamily was well established since the mid-Cretaceous in the Southern Hemisphere.     

Korean Americans in Los Angeles: Decentralized Concentration and Socio‐spatial Disparity

This study analyses the socioeconomic and demographic make‐up of Koreans in Los Angeles metropolis, the largest hub of Koreans in the United States, to better understand the decentralized concentration of Koreans by addressing their within‐ and among‐group variations. By employing the rarely used measures of correspondence and typology analyses, we delineate the boundaries for Korean clusters using Getis and Ord G* local statistic, wherein each cluster's neighborhood and demographic characteristics are compared to gain nuanced insights of within‐group variations, and its evolution during 1970–2010. Cluster level analysis of Koreatown suggests that even though it was classified as a Korean cluster, Korean Americans were unevenly distributed across these clusters, with underrepresentation in white‐dominant neighborhoods, whereas much of their intraurban spaces were shared with Hispanics. All clusters except extended Koreatown exhibited Li's ethnoburb‐style spatial patterns. The Koreatown and suburban clusters were also distinct in terms of their demographic/ethnic, socioeconomic, educational, age/life cycle, and housing characteristics, suggesting socio‐spatial polarization. Our analysis, challenges the commonly perceived notion of Koreans being a homogenous group and Asians being model minorities. We illustrate significant within‐group differences among the Koreangelos. We, thus, propose innovative measures to analyze population groups to flesh out rich narratives of America's fast changing social geographies.     

The influence of foliation on the fragility of granitic rocks, image analysis and quantitative microscopy

Fabric-dependent anisotropy is important in understanding the mechanical behaviour of foliated rocks because the foliation creates mechanically weak discontinuities. Using optical microscopy, a foliation index (FIX) was calculated for a group of granitic rocks in southern Sweden that displays a range of textures from foliated to nonfoliated. Image analysis from scanning electron microscope with backscattered detector (SEM/BSE) images was used in order to measure the rock texture of these samples. The analyses were compared with the Los Angeles (LA) test, which measures resistance of rock aggregate to fragmentation. The results demonstrate that the measured grain size, shape and spatial arrangement are important parameters controlling the fragility of the rock. Both the texture and foliation must be taken into account to obtain a significant relationship with the mechanical analyses. We suggest that this alternative method could be a helpful tool for predicting a rock's suitability as an aggregate as it gives a better understanding of the material properties compared to mechanical testing.