As the end of her senior year of high school approached in 2023, Tamara Gysiger’s history teacher assigned her entire class a research project of their choice.

Gissiger, who was 17 at the time, focused on what she called “an untold, secret, traumatic, dark part of history”: the deportation of Mexicans in the 1930s during the Great Depression.

According to Gisiger, who lives in New York City, the deportations included the deportation of 1 million Mexicans, 60 percent of whom were U.S.-born citizens, making it one of the largest deportations in U.S. history.

The epicenter was Los Angeles, where up to 75,000 Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans were deported by train in one year, many at Union Station, Mr. Gissiger, now 19, said in a phone interview, recalling dates and numbers off the top of his head.

Gisiger's research, which involved contact with descendants of those deported, led to a panel discussion at the Hispanic Leadership Summit at the United Nations in December. The study could also lead to new legislation in California to erect statues commemorating a part of history that politicians, scholars and community leaders say is at risk of happening again.

“It's very important [the bill] “The same thing is happening now,” said Gisiger, who is of Mexican and Swiss descent. “Next year marks the 95th anniversary of the start of the Mexican deportations… Hopefully this statue and public awareness will stop history from repeating itself.”

of invoiceThe bill, which will have a public hearing Wednesday, was authored by Sens. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, and Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, both of whom were keen to memorialize the lives of those affected by deportations.

Becker said that after meeting with Gissiger and her family and reading her research paper, he realized how little he knew about that period of history, he added, and Gonzalez also said he didn't learn much about deportations while attending public school in California.

Gonzalez, whose mother is a Mexican immigrant, said the statue is important to combat “political rhetoric that's basically trying to reclaim that history.”

Mexican farm workers await deportation in California, 1950.

(Los Angeles Times)

“Let me be clear. [Former President] “Trump has come out of this election promising mass deportations, mass deportations of people who have American children,” Gonzalez said. “He's rekindling this generational trauma that many of us have pushed aside.”

Trump has made fears about immigration a central part of his campaign. He suggested using the National Guard. It plans to target 15 to 20 million people for deportation. said He intends to initiate “the largest mass deportation in the history of our country.”

Republican Rep. Tom Lackey of Palmdale said he supports the bill but feels comparing deportations to current immigration is “a very unfair treatment.”

“The issue of illegal immigration is a very emotive issue,” Lackey said. “I think there's a big difference between the way things were done back then and deporting people. They're not breaking any rules or laws by being here.”

Lucki said the memorial was an opportunity to show “how wrong this country has been in its development.”

“I think it's a very healthy thing to acknowledge that poor decisions were made or things were done that shouldn't have been done and then try to avoid doing them again,” he said.

The planning process for the statue would include creating a nonprofit to oversee the fundraising and development of the monument in Los Angeles, which supporters hope would be completed in time for the World Cup in 2026 or the Olympics in 2028. The cost has yet to be determined, but backers of the bill say it would be funded by private donations rather than state funds.

“The fact that there are some big events happening is important because, again, the whole purpose of this event is to get people to learn about this piece of history and acknowledge this part of our history because that's the only way we're going to make sure it doesn't happen again,” Becker said.

As for a location, Gissiger envisions placing the memorial either at Union Station or in a green space near Olvera Street. The design for the memorial hasn't been decided yet, but Gissiger hopes to have a Mexican sculptor carve it to depict the ways in which families were separated during the mass deportations by train.

“Through this statue we need to be able to give respect, courage and honor to every Mexican-American family. They need to hear that all their sacrifices were worth it,” she said.

There have been previous efforts and lawsuits to address the impact of restitution in California. One of the most recent efforts took place in 2005, when the state issued a formal apology and mandated the erection of a memorial in Los Angeles. The memorial was unveiled in February 2012 near La Plaza de Cultura y Artes.

But Kevin Johnson, dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law and professor of public interest law, said a statue created under Becker and Gonzalez's bill could be a more powerful memorial and an act of restorative justice.

“It will also help the community understand what happened and how it affected people at the time and how people perceived themselves,” Johnson said.

Wilmington native Martin Cabrera's late grandfather, Emilio Cabrera, didn't remember much about the day he was deported in 1931 at age 12. He was deported by train but was later able to return to the U.S.

Emilio Cabrera and his wife, Maria Asunción, in 1934. Although Cabrera was a U.S. citizen, he was deported to Mexico at age 12 but later returned.

(Family photo)

“As a person growing up, I couldn't understand: I was born in the United States, why would I be deported? But that's what was happening at the time. There was a lot of talk that Mexicans were taking all the jobs,” Cabrera said from his Chicago office.

Emilio, who died in 2005, had refrained from dwelling on the past because he had too much work to do, his grandson said.

“It happens, you deal with it and you keep working at it,” Cabrera said, “and that's the one thing my dad ever taught us – a hard work ethic. There are always challenges in life.”

Cabrera hopes the statue will include uplifting messages, including one that honors the resilience of the Latino community in keeping with her grandfather's legacy.

“I think the key message is that there are no limits to what we can do,” he said.