The great Arizona orphan abduction
(Book - Regular Print)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1999.
Physical Desc
xii, 416 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Status
Camp Verde Community Library - NF - Nonfiction Books
305.8 GOR
1 available
Chino Valley Public Library - SWNF - Southwest Collection - Nonfiction
305.8 GOR
1 available
Clark Memorial Library - SWNF - Southwest Collection - Nonfiction
305.8 GOR
1 available

More Details

Published
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1999.
Format
Book - Regular Print
Language
English

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-404) and index.
Description
In 1904, New York nuns brought forty Irish orphans to a remote Arizona mining camp to be placed with Catholic families. The Catholic families were Mexican, as was the majority of the population. Soon the town's Anglos, furious at this "interracial" transgression, formed a vigilante squad that kidnapped the children and nearly lynched the nuns and the local priest. The Catholic Church sued to get its wards back, but all the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the vigilantes. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction tells this disturbing and dramatic tale to illuminate the creation of racial boundaries along the Mexican border. Clifton-Morenci, Arizona, was a "wild west" boomtown, where the mines and smelters pulled in thousands of Mexican immigrant workers. Racial walls hardened as the mines became big business and whiteness became a marker of superiority. These already volatile race and class relations produced passions that erupted in the "orphan incident." To the Anglos of Clifton-Morenci, placing a white child with a Mexican family was tantamount to child abuse, and they saw their kidnapping as a rescue. Women initiated both sides of this confrontation. Mexican women agreed to take in these orphans, both serving their church and asserting a maternal prerogative; Anglo women believed they had to "save" the orphans, and they organized a vigilante squad to do it. In retelling this barely known piece of American history, Linda Gordon brilliantly re-creates and dissects the tangled intersection of family and racial values, in a gripping story that resonates with today's conflicts over the "best interests of the child."--Jacket flap.

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Camp Verde Community Library - NF - Nonfiction Books305.8 GORFind It Now
Chino Valley Public Library - SWNF - Southwest Collection - Nonfiction305.8 GORFind It Now
Clark Memorial Library - SWNF - Southwest Collection - Nonfiction305.8 GORFind It Now
Congress Public Library - SWNF - Southwest Collection - Nonfiction305.8009 GORFind It Now
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Gordon, L. (1999). The great Arizona orphan abduction . Harvard University Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Gordon, Linda. 1999. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. Harvard University Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction Harvard University Press, 1999.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction Harvard University Press, 1999.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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