January 27, 1992
Freeman Allen, who lives in Claremont, has served in the past on the National Board of Directors. He spoke to the Council about the almost impossible plight of getting outings insurance back on a Chapter level, but said an effort was being made to get it back for National outings. Freeman said that he is running again this spring for the board and would certainly support any effort to get back insurance. He explained how he got his start in the Sierra Club years ago in the Ski Mountaineers and Rock Climbing Section.
On Saturday April 25 there are going to be 9 hikes led, all of which will converge on Muir Peak in honor of our founder's birthday (April 21). This is also for the 100th year anniversary of the founding of the Sierra Club in 1892. There will be ceremonies of the official dedication of Point 4688' as Muir Peak at 12:30pm. There will be tree planting before and a potluck party afterwards. I plan to attend. It should be a lot of fun.
One of the members of the Council said he thought it would be nice to have a Sierra Club float in the Rose Parade for our Centennial. The minimum charge to build one is $65,000. With tight money this year it is highly unlikely the Club will be entering a float.
Respectfully submitted,
Making Ethnic Choices
California's Punjabi Mexican Americans
by Karen Isaksen Leonard
(Due out in April 1992)
This is a study of the flexibility of ethnic identity. In the early twentieth century, men from India's Punjab province came to California to work on the land. The new immigrants had few changes to marry. There were very few marriageable Indian women, and miscegenation laws and racial prejudice limited their ability to find white Americans. Discovering an unexpected compatibility, Punjabis married women of Mexican descent and these alliances inspired others as the men introduced their bachelor friends to the sisters and friends of their wives. These bi-ethnic families developed an identity as "Hindus" but also as Americans.
Karen Leonard has related theories linking state policies & ethnicity to those applied at the level of marriage & family life. Using written sources and numerous interviews, she invokes gender, generation, class, religion, language, and the dramatic political changes of the 1940s in South Asia and the United States to show how individual and group perceptions of ethnic identity have changed among Punjabi Mexican Americans in rural California.
Karen Isaksen Leonard is a Professor of Anthropology at UC, Irvine. She is offering an author's discount marking the book down to $30. Please write her if you are interested in obtaining this book.