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Seven Moments from U.S. History That Matter Now
七大歷史時刻終顯其重要性
The dates most Americans remember (July 4, 1776, for example) work as shorthand for signal events.
大多數美國人都已銘記于心的那些日期(比如1776年7月4日)堪稱就是那一標志性時間的縮寫。
If change takes place across decades,
如果改變跨越了數十年，
individual moments remind us what came before and how we got to where we are.
那一個個的時刻便提醒著我們那之前發生了什么，我們又是如何走到今天的。
So, with Americans celebrating their country at a time of widespread disagreement about what it stands for,
因此，在這個“美國”所代表的意義已經出現了廣泛的分歧的時代，在全美人民歡慶祖國生日之際，
TIME asked top historians to nominate moments that resonate now—
《時代》周刊請最為杰出的歷史學家提名了幾個與當下共鳴最為強烈的時刻——
moments that just might serve as the menemonic devices the nation seems to need.
可以充當當下美國似乎正好需要的助記手段的時刻。
On these pages, several explain their choices.
有幾位給出了他們選擇那些時刻的原因。詳見下文。
1954: The U.S. begins mass deportation of Mexican immigrants
1954年：美國開始了大規模驅逐墨西哥移民
In 1954, the federal government carried out one of its first mass deportations of Mexican immigrants from the U.S.
1954年，聯邦政府展開了首批大規模驅逐美國境內的墨西哥移民行動。
Operation Wetback, as it was known, ended up separating parents from their children,
這場名為“濕背客行動”的方案拆散了家庭，
stranding deportees in the deserts of northern Mexico without food or water,
致使那些被驅逐的移民滯留在墨西哥北部沒有水，也沒有食物的沙漠里，
and damaging the U.S.’s reputation at home and abroad.
嚴重損害了美國在國內外的聲譽。
For decades prior, the southwestern borderlands had prospered under a more luid, humane and practical deinition of boundaries,
在此之前的幾十年里，西南邊境地區，在當時更靈活、更人道，也更明智的邊界劃定政策下，一直頗為繁榮，
driven in large part by the wants and needs of the blended, binational border communities.
而這一繁榮很大程度上是邊境上雜居的兩國人民的需求所帶動的。
In deference to these local interests, the federal government had resisted engaging in draconian deportation measures.
當時，考慮到當地利益，聯邦政府一直拒絕采取嚴厲的驅逐措施。
Those reservations fell by the wayside as a wave of anti-Mexican animus, triggered by an economic recession,
然而，一場經濟衰退引發了反墨西哥敵意浪潮，
led the Immigration and Naturalization Service to adopt a highly militarized approach to immigration law enforcement,
繼而導致移民歸化局開始采取高度軍事化的移民執法方針，“濕背客行動”就是這一方針的核心產物，
with Operation Wetback at its center.
先前的保留政策便紛紛被棄置一旁。
Since 1954, mass deportations have become so routine that the American public now takes them for granted.
自1954年以來，大規模驅逐政策已經如此司空見慣，以至于美國公眾現在已經認為理應如此。
We have forgotten that there was a time in U.S. history
我們已經忘記歷史上有一段時期，
when the removal of hundreds of thousands of immigrants by the federal government was unthinkable.
聯邦政府驅逐數十萬移民根本是難以想象的事。
By S. Deborah Kang
本文作者黛博拉·康。
And Kang is an associate professor of history at California State University, San Marcos.
康是加州州立大學圣馬科斯分校歷史學副教授。
She is the author of The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1917–1954
也是《移民歸化局上線：制定美墨邊境的移民法，1917–1954》一書的作者。
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