Natalia Molina: Analyzing Race, Immigration, and Urban History
The scholarly work of Natalia Molina examines the complex intersections of race, gender, labor, immigration, and urban history. Her research focuses on how different immigrant groups navigate narratives of belonging, the formation of racial identities, and the evolving nature of citizenship in the United States.
By analyzing the relational understandings between various groups, Molina reveals how racial categories are not static but are constructed and adapted over time through political, social, and scientific lenses.
Key Facts
- Research Focus: The intersection of race, gender, labor, and immigration within urban history.
- Core Theory: The use of "racial scripts"—patterns of racialization that are transplanted from one group to another.
- Geographic Emphasis: Significant focus on Los Angeles and the experiences of Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese immigrants.
- Methodology: Advocates for a relational approach to race, moving away from frameworks that center exclusively on whiteness.
- Philanthropy: Donated all 2022 proceeds from A Place at the Nayarit to No Us Without You, a food security organization for undocumented immigrants.
Major Publications and Research
Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1940
Published in 2006, this work investigates the construction of race through the lens of science and public health. Molina explores how early twentieth-century health campaigns categorized Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican immigrants as either "healthy" or "disease-ridden." These classifications were used to justify limiting access to medical services and housing, while framing migrant groups as threats to public health. The study also documents the ways these communities protested such systemic injustices.
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How Race Is Made in America (2013)
In this volume, Molina examines Mexican immigration between 1924 and 1965. She argues that the immigration regimes of this era created specific racial categories, such as "Mexican American," which continue to influence modern perceptions of ethnicity. A central concept in this book is the racial script—the idea that racialized narratives are easily adopted and adapted, often being transplanted from one marginalized group to another.
Relational Formations of Race: Theory, Method, and Practice (2019)
Co-edited with Daniel Martínez Hosang and Ramón Gutiérrez, this interdisciplinary text proposes a framework for analyzing race relationally. Rather than centering whiteness, the authors emphasize the interconnectedness of racial categories. The book utilizes examples from settler colonialism, Chicanx history, and American Indian historiographies to show how racial groups tactically negotiate power dynamics and adapt racial constructions.
A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community (2022)
This work focuses on the Nayarit, a Mexican restaurant in Echo Park owned by Molina's grandmother, Doña Natalia Barraza. Molina describes the restaurant as an urban anchor that provided a safe space for ethnic Mexicans, gay men, and divorced single women during the 1960s. This process is identified as placemaking—the act of asserting belonging and creating meaning in a neighborhood marked by homophobia, gentrification, and nativism (the policy of protecting the interests of native-born inhabitants against those of immigrants).
The book also highlights translocality, demonstrating how immigrant social networks—driven by patria chica (local community pride)—can transform economic and cultural landscapes across national borders. Doña Natalia's sponsorship of immigrants allowed many employees to eventually start their own businesses.
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Summary of Major Works
| Year | Title | Primary Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Fit to Be Citizens? | Public health, race construction, and immigrant access in LA. |
| 2013 | How Race Is Made in America | Mexican immigration and the evolution of racial scripts. |
| 2019 | Relational Formations of Race | Relational methodology and interconnected racial categories. |
| 2022 | A Place at the Nayarit | Placemaking, translocality, and community in Echo Park. |
Forthcoming Research
Molina's upcoming work, The Silent Hands that Shaped the Huntington: A History of Its Mexican Workers, will examine the history of the Huntington Library and Henry E. Huntington. By centering the perspectives of Mexican workers, the project aims to illustrate how immigrant labor contributed to a racially stratified political economy and transformed the racial landscape of Southern California.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are "racial scripts" in Molina's research?
Racial scripts are patterns of racialization and narratives that are created for one group and then transplanted or adapted to apply to other racial groups over time.
What is the "relational approach" to studying race?
A relational approach analyzes race by looking at the interconnectedness and interactions between different racial categories, rather than using a traditional framework that centers whiteness as the primary point of reference.
What does "placemaking" mean in the context of A Place at the Nayarit?
Placemaking refers to the process where marginalized individuals—such as ethnic Mexicans, gay men, and divorced women—assert their belonging and create meaningful social links within a physical space to resist exclusion.
How does Molina define translocality?
Translocality refers to the way immigrant social networks operate across national boundaries to transform the local cultural and economic landscapes of their new communities.
What was the impact of public health campaigns in early 20th-century Los Angeles?
Public health campaigns were used to categorize immigrants as "healthy" or "disease-ridden," which served to limit their access to housing and medical services while portraying them as threats to the public.