“ I wanted to analyze the history and legacy of the forced removal of non-white immigrants in the U . S ., which is a reflection of the history of immigration law and law enforcement in this country .”
— KELLY LYTLE HERNÁNDEZ ’ 96
As a student , she initially majored in chemistry until an ethnic studies course sparked a passion that had long been lying in wait . It was a natural switch to make , she says : “ To learn from some of the best critical thinkers on race and gender in the country ? I wouldn ’ t have had it any other way . Thank God for GE requirements !”
After graduating , she spent a year in South Africa working on a farm school before returning to the UC system for graduate and post-doc work . She was driven throughout it all by her family ’ s dedication to community service and social justice , and a passion for history .
Lytle Hernández ’ s most recent book , City of Inmates : Conquest , Rebellion and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles , takes a critical look at the rise of mass incarceration in Los Angeles , which currently maintains the nation ’ s largest jail system . In writing the book , she was initially stymied by the lack of historical records kept by the Los Angeles police and sheriff ’ s departments . She instead tracked down documents that comprise what she coined the “ rebel archive ,” records that survived state destruction and were saved by people seeking change . The archive allowed her to track how the rise of mass incarceration in Los Angeles across two centuries amounted to a system of mass elimination , designed to remove indigenous and racialized communities from the area . This conclusion fueled her desire to join others in the movement to end mass incarceration . Working with organizers and advocates based in Los Angeles , she developed Million Dollar Hoods , a research project that maps how much public funds are spent on incarceration per neighborhood . The broad-based project revealed how certain neighborhoods are disproportionately impacted by L . A .’ s jail system and how the county ’ s budget is inordinately used to incarcerate residents of a few neighborhoods , often on health-related charges like drug possession and driving under the influence . Honing into the costs of incarceration , Million Dollar Hoods has supported efforts to shift public funding away from police and jails , toward systems that are proven to create thriving families and communities , such as housing , education and health services .
For instance , a recent Million Dollar Hoods report titled “ Policing Our Students ” sparked such a change . With an analysis of arrest data collected by the Los Angeles School Police ( LASP ), the Million Dollar Hoods team revealed that deep racialized disparities persist in school-based arrests and that one of every four arrests made by the LASP was of a child in elementary or middle school . In response to these findings , the L . A . County School District pulled together a work group to find ways to end the disparities , stop arrests of children younger than 15 and divert resources into social support services . Lytle Hernández hopes that similar findings and resulting actions can likewise address other systemic issues . “ Imagine if we diverted the money now spent to lock people up to fund substance abuse programs , better housing and more employment options ,” she says .
It ’ s an example of what can happen when university research meets grassroots action to effect real , institutional change . This is the core of her work , and in a sense , what her life experience has led to : a deep-seated commitment to use research to advance racial justice in the United States by dismantling systems of mass deportation and incarceration .
2019 MacArthur fellow Kelly Lytle Hernández ’ 96 plans to work on two more books over her fellowship period , adding to the pair already published :
Migra ! A History of the U . S . Border Patrol ( 2010 ) documents the rise of the U . S . Border Patrol as the second-largest police force in the United States and examines how the Border Patrol came to focus its resources upon policing Mexican immigrants .
City of Inmates : Conquest , Rebellion , and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles , 1771-1965 ( 2017 ) tracks two centuries of evidence , from the Spanish colonial era to the Watts Riot , detailing the influences that resulted in Los Angeles operating the largest jail system in the U . S .
Bad Mexicans , due in 2021 , examines a snapshot of U . S . and Mexican history when a group of Mexican dissidents came to the states to stir revolt in Mexico and how the Mexican leadership at the time worked with U . S . officials to quash the revolt .
And a yet-untitled book will focus on the history and impact of the U . S . -Mexico border and chronicle the border ’ s influence on race , immigration and violence against marginalized communities .
Learn more about Lytle Hernández ’ s work at tritonmag . com / history
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