Immigrant Deportability and Emotive Archive Creation

Abstract

Advocating the perspective of emotive history, this article looks at two examples of emotive archiving—the assembly of artifacts, photographs, oral interviews, and documents that record the feelings of Mexican immigrants as an inspiration for family members. The commitment and creativity of the archivist (usually a woman) is a feminist act of empowerment and an expression of love and honor to the subject of the archive, while the innermost feelings of the memorialized individual, often repressed from fear of apprehension and deportment, are expressed openly, forming a model for younger family members.