Kimie Yanagawa Sanematsu (Tokuyama) (January 1, 1915 - August 23, 1997) [1] was an American educator. In 1953 she was the first Japanese person to be naturalized in the United States since 1922, and the first in El Paso, Texas. News from the time period also stated that she was the first Japanese woman to be naturalized in the United States under the McCarran immigration act.
Yanagawa left Tokyo when she was six and her family moved to Oakland, California. [2] After two years in California, she and her family moved to El Paso, Texas. [2] Her father was a physician. [3] She went to Crockett School, where she commenced in 1928. [4] When she was 16, she spent a year in Tokyo and then she and her family came back to El Paso. [2] She was a salutatorian graduate of Austin High School in 1932. [5] Yanagawa earned a scholarship to attend Mills College, where she planned to major in music. [6] Her graduation from Mills was planned for June 1937. [5] She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. [5] In 1939, she married Shunichi S. Tokuyama, a physician. [7] It was an arranged marriage, and it eventually ended in divorce. [8] Yanagawa went on to Texas Western College and earned her master's degree in education in 1948. [9] After graduating, she began teaching at Franklin Elementary. [9]
In 1948, Yanagawa declared her intention to become a United States citizen, even though Japanese people were often excluded from citizenship. [10] [11] In 1953, she became the first Japanese woman in the United States and the first Japanese person in El Paso to become a naturalized United States citizen. [2] [10] Yanagawa benefited from the passage of the McCarran immigration act, which allowed Japanese immigrants to become citizens of the U.S. [12] At her citizenship ceremony, she had her full name to shortened, dropping Tokuyama from her name. [2] That same year, Yanagawa moved to Tacoma, Washington. [13]
In 1960, she met Ben Sanematsu at the University of San Francisco where they were both taking special education classes. [14] Sanematsu was blind, so Yanagawa offered to read some of the assignments for him. [14] Later that year on December 20, they were married. [15] [16] In 1962, the couple began to travel across the country. [17]
Yanagawa had a stroke in 1993 and lived in a nursing facility until her death in 1997. [15] She was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. [18] After her death, her husband, Sanematsu, created a scholarship in her honor. [19] The scholarship now memorializes both of them. [19]
Irene Ryan was an American actress and comedian who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her portrayal of Daisy May "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of Buddy Ebsen's character Jed Clampett on the long-running TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). She was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964 for the role.
The Cable Act of 1922 was a United States federal law that partially reversed the Expatriation Act of 1907. (It is also known as the Married Women's Citizenship Act or the Women's Citizenship Act). In theory the law was designed to grant women their own national identity; however, in practice, as it still retained vestiges of coverture, tying a woman's legal identity to her husband's, it had to be amended multiple times before it granted women citizenship in their own right.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran–Walter Act, codified under Title 8 of the United States Code, governs immigration to and citizenship in the United States. It came into effect on June 27, 1952. The legislation consolidated various immigration laws into a single text. Officially titled the Immigration and Nationality Act, it is often referred to as the 1952 law to distinguish it from the 1965 legislation. This law increased the quota for Europeans outside Northern and Western Europe, gave the Department of State authority to reject entries affecting native wages, eliminated 1880s bans on contract labor, set a minimum quota of one hundred visas per country, and promoted family reunification by exempting citizens' children and spouses from numerical caps.
Japanese Nationality Law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of Japan. The primary law governing nationality regulations is the 1950 Nationality Act.
Nationality in Mexico is defined by multiple laws, including the 30th article of the Constitution of Mexico and other laws. The Constitution's 32nd article specifies the rights granted by Mexican legislation to Mexicans who also possess dual nationality. This article was written to establish the norms in this subject in order to avoid conflicts which may arise in the case of dual nationality. This law was last modified in 2021.
Lucy G. Acosta was a Mexican-American activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). She was a political appointee under various mayors of El Paso, Texas. She was elected to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1987. The Lucy G. Acosta Humanitarian Awards were named in her honor, and have been presented every year since 1993.
The Kuwaiti nationality law is the legal pathway for non-nationals to become citizens of the State of Kuwait. The Kuwaiti nationality law is based on a wide range of decrees; first passed in 1920 and then in 1959. An Amiri decree was passed later in 1960. Since the 1960s, the implementation of the nationality law has been very arbitrary and lacks transparency. The lack of transparency prevents non-nationals from receiving a fair opportunity to obtain citizenship. A number of amendments were made in 1980, 1982, 1994, 1998, and 2000.
Rosa Ramirez Guerrero is a Mexican American educator, artist and historian from El Paso, Texas. She was the founder of the International Folklorico Dance Group. Guerrero has also been active with work in the Catholic Church, and has been called the "Dancing Missionary" in religious circles. She is also known for her multicultural dance programs which have been performed around the country and featured in a film called Tapestry. She was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame and has an El Paso school named after her.
Ingeborg Heuser was a German dancer, choreographer and teacher who worked primarily in the Southwest United States. She is credited with popularizing and promoting ballet in El Paso, Texas.
Kate Moore Brown was an American musician, clubwoman and traveler who lived in El Paso, Texas. Brown was one of the first graduates of El Paso High School. She was the first person to teach music in the public schools in Texas and El Paso and was the first woman to own a bicycle in El Paso. Brown is also one of the original creators of the El Paso International Museum which later became the El Paso Museum of Art.
Joan H. Quarm was an American educator, theater director, and actor. She was a major figure in El Paso theater productions from the late 1950s until the 2000s. She was responsible for creating two theater companies in El Paso, including the first bilingual theater company in the city. Quarm also worked as a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and as a theater critic.
Becky Duval Reese is an American curator and art museum director. She is best known for her work as the director of the El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA) and oversaw the museum's move in 1998. She was inducted into the El Paso Women's Hall of Fame in 2005.
Julia I. Felsenthal was an American social worker based in Chicago. She was one of the founders of the National Council of Jewish Women.
Rosa Lyons McKay was an American politician. She was one of the first women elected to the Arizona state legislature, serving in the 1917–1918, 1919–1920, and 1923–1924 sessions. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 2019.
Annie Clo Watson was an American social worker based in San Francisco, best known for her efforts on behalf of Japanese Americans during and after World War II.
Belen Borrego Robles is a former national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and served as the group's first national woman president. She has many years experience working for the United States Government in positions relating to immigration and customs.
Rosalind Goodrich Bates was an American lawyer and clubwoman, based in Los Angeles, California. She was a trial attorney who practiced international law and served as a Judge Pro Tem in the Los Angeles Superior Court. She was a founder and president of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).
Lilliana M. Owens, S.L. was an American historian, writer, educator and Catholic nun. She was known for her historical writing and her Catholic comic books.
Kanza Omar, sometimes billed as Princess Kanza Omar, was a Moroccan dancer who appeared in Hollywood films in the 1940s and 1950s.