Marla Ramírez’s new book, Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women Who Endured Repatriation has received numerous awards in the past year. 

Marla Ramírez is an Associate Professor of History and Chicanx/e & Latinx/e Studies. She is a historian of the US­­–Mexico border specializing in Mexican American banishment, citizenship and state-imposed illegality, and gendered migrations. In addition to her highly acclaimed research and inspiring classroom leadership, she is committed to community-engaged scholarship. View her faculty profile here. 

About the book: 

Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women Who Endured Repatriation is a moving portrait of a grim period in American immigration history, when approximately one million ethnic Mexicans—mostly women and children who were US citizens—were forced to relocate across the southern border. From 1921 to 1944, approximately one million ethnic Mexicans living in the United States were removed across the border to Mexico. What officials called “repatriation” was in fact banishment: 60 percent of those expelled were US citizens, mainly working-class women and children whose husbands and fathers were Mexican immigrants. Drawing on oral histories, transnational archival sources, and private collections, Marla A. Ramírez illuminates the lasting effects of coerced mass removal on three generations of ethnic Mexicans.  

Read excerpts of interviews with Marla and the families who appear in her book here. 

Awards Banished Citizens has garnered thus far: 

 
Winner, Sal Castro Memorial Book Award in Chicano History, University of California, Santa Barbara (2027). Awarded to the best book in Chicano history by the Chicano/Latino Focus Group of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life. 

 
Winner, Armitage-Jameson Prize, Coalition for Western Women’s History (2026). Awarded to the most outstanding monograph or edited volume published in western women’s, gender, and sexuality history.   

 
Winner, First Book Prize, Oral History Association (2026). Awarded to a book that makes a significant contribution and advances theoretical issues in oral history.  

 
Winner, Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women’s and/or Gender History, Organization of American Historians (2026). Awarded to honor path-breaking books that challenge or change scholarly interpretations in women’s and/or gender history. 

 
Winner, Philip Taft Labor History Award, Labor and Working-Class History Association (2026). Sponsored by the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Labor and Working-Class History Association for the year’s best book in American labor and working-class history.  

 
Winner, Theodore Saloutos Book Award, Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2026). Awarded for the year’s best book on the immigration history of the United States. 

 
Winner, First Book Award, Immigration and Ethnic History Society (2026). Granted to recognize the work of an early career scholar in the field of U.S. immigration and ethnic history of the United States and/or North America. 

 
Honorable Mention, Merle Curti Social History Award, Organization of American Historians (2026). Recognized as one of the best books in American social history. 

 
Finalist, Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize, Texas A&M (2026). The award recognizes an outstanding, original interdisciplinary researched book in the humanities that appeals to both academic and wider audiences, Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M. 

 
Featured, “Looking to the Past to Shape the Future” book panel, LA Times Festival of Books (2026). 

 
Winner, Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, Kirkus Reviews (2025).