Books by Alfred P Flores
Tip of the Spear: Land, Labor, and US Settler Militarism in Guahan, 1944-1962
In Tip of the Spear, Alfred Peredo Flores argues that the US occupation of the island of Guåhan (... more In Tip of the Spear, Alfred Peredo Flores argues that the US occupation of the island of Guåhan (Guam), one of the most heavily militarized islands in the western Pacific Ocean, was enabled by a process of settler militarism. During World War II and the Cold War, Guåhan was a launching site for both covert and open US military operations in the region, a strategically significant role that turned Guåhan into a crucible of US overseas empire. In 1962, the US Navy lost the authority to regulate all travel to and from the island, and a tourist economy eventually emerged that changed the relationship between the Indigenous CHamoru population and the US military, further complicating the process of settler colonialism on the island.
The US military occupation of Guåhan was based on a co-constitutive process that included CHamoru land dispossession, discursive justifications for the remaking of the island, the racialization of civilian military labor, and the military's policing of interracial intimacies. Within a narrative that emphasizes CHamoru resilience, resistance, and survival, Flores uses a working class labor analysis to examine how the militarization of Guåhan was enacted by a minority settler population to contribute to the US government's hegemonic presence in Oceania.
Papers by Alfred P Flores
Little Island into Mighty Base": Indigeneity, Race, and U.S. Empire in Guam, 1944-1962
Author(s): Flores, Alfred Peredo | Advisor(s): Camacho, Keith L; Higbie, Frank T | Abstract: This... more Author(s): Flores, Alfred Peredo | Advisor(s): Camacho, Keith L; Higbie, Frank T | Abstract: This dissertation examines the creation of Guam’s post-World War II multiracial society through Chamorro land stewardship and the recruitment of non-local labor. This tiny 212-square-mile island in the western Pacific became a crucible of American empire that connected Guam, the Philippines, and the United States. This synergy of expansion between the U.S. government and private industry resulted in the construction of Apra Harbor, bases, military homes, and roads throughout Guam. This process was based on the U.S. military’s acquisition of land and the recruitment of approximately 28,000 civilian military workers, most notably men from the Philippines and the United States who constructed these installations. Central to this history are the experiences of Chamorros who fought to retain their ancestral lands and Filipino immigrant workers who organized to protect their wages. In turn, the military attempted to control indigenous land stewardship, Filipino labor, and interracial relationships on the island. However, the military’s expansion project also produced interracial encounters among Chamorros, Filipinos, and white Americans that were amicable, violent, and sometimes tragic. Consequently, the triangulation of Chamorros, Filipinos, and white Americans elucidates the connections between empire, indigeneity, and labor on a highly contested racialized island.
Malcolm D. Magee. What the World Should Be: Woodrow Wilson and the Crafting of a Faith-Based Foreign Policy . Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008. ix + 189 pp. ISBN 978-1-60258-070-1, $39.95 (cloth)
Enterprise and Society, Jun 1, 2011
... Alfred Flores. University of California, Los Angeles. ... For example, historians such as Nie... more ... Alfred Flores. University of California, Los Angeles. ... For example, historians such as Niels AageThorsen and John A. Thompson have acknowledged that Wilson was influenced by his religion but that its influence was limited to “cultural evangelicalism” (2). Other scholars have ...
(Re)centering Pacific Islanders in Trans-Pacific Studies
Critical Ethnic Studies
Alfred & Min U: A Cold War Family Story
Amerasia Journal, 2022
U.S. Colonial Education in Guam, 1899-1950
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 2019
Following the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the illegal overthrow and annexation of Hawai‘i, t... more Following the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the illegal overthrow and annexation of Hawai‘i, the US government transplanted its colonial education program to places in the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands. Specifically, American Sāmoa, Guam, Hawai‘i, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the US Virgin Islands would all have some aspect of the native boarding school system implemented. In many ways, the colonial education system in Guam was emblematic and exceptional to native boarding schools in the continental United States. Utilizing Guam as a case study reveals how the US military used schools as a site to spread settler colonial policies in an attempt to transform Chamorros into colonial subjects who would support American occupation.
Mixed Roots Stories, 2016
This Commons takes shape as a collection of concise thoughtpieces–most organized into cluster con... more This Commons takes shape as a collection of concise thoughtpieces–most organized into cluster conversations between each of the participants. We invite you to follow these conversations as they take place right here on our website each month. Our inaugural conversation, Island Relationality: Diasporic Indigeneity and Critical Mixed Race Studies, is one of great importance and its topics are often overlooked or understudied within Mixed Race Studies contexts. This first Commons brings together three innovative graduate students doing interdisciplinary work at the intersections of race, place, and decolonial studies, and we are excited to share with our MXRS communities a preview of their work.
The Possibilities for Pacific Islander Studies in the Continental United States
Amerasia Journal, 2011
Amerasia Journal, 2011
UCLA's location in Los Angeles situates it within a diasporic Pacific Islander (PI) community... more UCLA's location in Los Angeles situates it within a diasporic Pacific Islander (PI) community comprised mostly of Chamorros, Fijians, Native Hawaiians, Samoans, and Tongans; many of these populations represent the largest communities of these groups outside of Oceania.1 Some have even argued that this population increase makes America's west coast a de facto extension of Oceania.2 Chief among myriad explanations for this diasporic community is economic instability in Pacific homelands. Western colonialism and neocolonialism have created economic conditions that forced Pacific Islanders to migrate.3 Residing in an urban sprawl of low- and working-class neighborhoods, Pacific Islanders deal with many of the same daily realities of other immigrant groups: low socioeconomic levels, low education attainment, and poor health. However, as indigenous peoples, these populations are also uniquely positioned in the diasporic legacy of American imperialism and transnationalism. Consequently, they migrate from militar...
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Books by Alfred P Flores
The US military occupation of Guåhan was based on a co-constitutive process that included CHamoru land dispossession, discursive justifications for the remaking of the island, the racialization of civilian military labor, and the military's policing of interracial intimacies. Within a narrative that emphasizes CHamoru resilience, resistance, and survival, Flores uses a working class labor analysis to examine how the militarization of Guåhan was enacted by a minority settler population to contribute to the US government's hegemonic presence in Oceania.
Papers by Alfred P Flores