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Engendering Transnational Ties: Mexicanas and the Other
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presented by

Luz Maria Gordillo

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ENGENDERING TRANSNATIONAL TIES: MEXICANAS AND THE OTHER SIDES
OF IMMIGRATION, 1942-2000

By

Luz Maria Gordillo

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
In partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of History

2005

ABSTRACT

ENGENDERIN G TRANSNATIONAL TIES: MEXICANAS AND THE OTHER SIDES
OF IMMIGRATION, 1942-2000

By

Luz Maria Gordillo

This research analyzes the origins and development of an immigrant transnational
network between 1940 and 2000 for women and men from San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, in
Western Mexico, and Metro Detroit in Michigan.

It maps out the history of Mexican immigration to and from San Ignacio and
Detroit and the construction of transnational communities from the 1940’s to 2000. This
analysis is focused on gender and Mexican women’s construction of social networks as
they wove a social tapestry that sustained immigration. Through my investigation I reveal
the previously negated historical context on immigration studies, and bring to light the
reinterpretation of social, cultural, political and economic structures. This study provides
a gendered analysis of the multiple relations negotiated between men and women and
how they affect and are affected by immigration. It contends that women in particular are
. the matrix by which the transnational communities were created and sustained.

This study analyzes the beginning of immigration from San Ignacio with those
who migrated as braceros to California working mostly in agriculture, and their decision
to migrate to Detroit and join the industrial frenzy of the 19403, 19505 and 19608.

It also analyzes notions of sexualities and introduces the concept of “transnational
sexualities.” Transnational sexualities challenges assumed deﬁnitions of

transnationalism that have fragmented immigrant’s experiences into two different sets of

understandings — one in their community of origin and the other in the US. Transnational
sexualities refer to their experiences as one set of constructed notions that are integral to
Mexican immigrant’s experiences in San Ignacio and Detroit.

This study illustrates how with the arrival of women to Detroit, a new set of social
networks began to emerge that juxtaposed the ones men had begun to establish. These
social networks ultimately became the pillars that sustained the transnational community.
As more and more women entered the ﬂow of immigration and the labor force both in
San Ignacio —usually informally and unpaid — and in Detroit — in several industries such
as auto parts and torm'llo factories - they began to challenge traditional gender roles and
to construct new meanings of notions of “womanhood,” “motherhood,” and “femininity.”
I analyze how the politics of citizenship come into play when Mexican immigrants
describe their sense of belonging to a particular space. I revisit the politics of identity
through the immigrant experience and the different representations that Mexicans have

created in relation to immigration to and from Mexico and the United States.

COPyright by
Luz Maria Gordillo
2005

Para mi mama, Titi, Luz Maria de los Cobos Torres,
Para mi abuela, Gangue, Guadalupe Torres Illanes,

Y para toda la gente de San Ignacio que
compartieron un pedacito de sus vidas. ..

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This process has been a long and very enlightening journey. I would like to thank
all San Ignacians-Detroitians who very kindly shared their narratives, their homes, and
their endless generosity with me. I appreciate the lessons they taught me about myself,
and their constant reminders that as a Mexicana immigrant, I have experienced similar
sentiments, which include pain and struggle; and it is all right to recognize and
acknowledge them as part of what we would all consider a successful narrative. Gracias
a Juan Javier Pescador for his guidance and his encouragement to challenge my thinking,
and for his willingness to share his commitment and research on Mexican immigrants.
As my chair and advisor he has overseen my academic development and has helped me
become a compassionate and dedicated historian as well as a better educator. To my
committee members, David Walker, que en paz descanse, who believed in me from the
beginning and spent many hours reminding me that I could actually write. I would also
like to express my gratitude to Lisa Fine, a great feminist labor historian who supported
me throughout my years at Michigan State University and trained me to become not only
a feminist but also a women’s historian. To Dagmar Herzog whom I owe a great deal for
introducing me to the joys of the History of Sexuality, and for constantly reminding me
that it takes a lot of patience and dedication to actually “get it.” Dagmar constantly
pushed me to question and challenge my cultural baggage and I thank her immensely for
that. Leslie Moch, gracias, for supporting my research and creating the Immigration

Seminar in the Department of History.

vi

I am eternally grateﬁil to my compaﬁeras at Washington State University,
Pavithra Narayanan, Desiree Helleger and Laurie Mercier. Muchas gracias a Laurie
Mercier who provided the right atmosphere for my writing and for standing with me in
the trenches and dedicating hours of her time to read and revise this manuscript. I also
thank Candice Goucher who stood by me and provided emotional and ﬁnancial support
for my research. In Lansing, thanks to my sister and spiritual guide J olee Blackbear for
her endless support and her dedication to the editing of this manuscript. I thank her for
the comfort and compassion provided on those difﬁcult times when I doubted my
survival of this process.

I express gratitude to the Graduate School at Michigan State University for the
ﬁnancial support to ALANA students. I received from the Graduate School the
Competitive Doctoral Educational Fellowship, several research enhancement awards,
travel funding, and emergency fellowships that allowed for the completion of this project.
I thank the Department of History at Michigan State University for the conference travel
funding awards and to Janet Roe-Darden for making all these processes easy. I also thank
all the archivists in the Relaciones Exteriores archives in Mexico City, the INS ofﬁce in
Detroit, and the NARA branch in Chicago for sharing with me their knowledge.

Finally, gracias a mi familia, to Gangue whose strength and integrity kept our
family aﬂoat. To my hermano Ricardo for reminding me of the difﬁcult emotional
process of becoming a Mexican immigrant in the United States. And ﬁnally, to my mami
who has as much right as I do to lay claim to this work. I am eternally grateful to her for
the many hours spent working on this project; living with me in San Ignacio and most

importantly for helping me see Mexicanas through a different lens. She has been the best

vii

role model anyone can ask for. Her feminist approach to life — when not even
academicians had decided on the meaning of what feminism meant — has guided me
through my life. Gracias. Dankesho'n to Volker who stuck with me through tough times.
And especially to my nephews, Bruno and Bernardo, in the hope that they grow up as
feminists and share with women a more egalitarian world. And to Eloisa, my niece,
whom I know will ﬁnd the feminist light and discard all the useless cultural baggage she
has been growing up with.

LMG

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ................................................... 1
CHAPTER I

LA FIESTA DE LOS AUSENTES ...................................... 17
CHAPTER II

TRANSNATIONAL SEXUALITIES .................................... 47
CHAPTER III

THE POLITICS OF MOVEMENT ...................................... 88
CHAPTER IV

TRAN SN ATIONAL IDENTITIES ...................................... 123
CONCLUSIONS .................................................... 154
APPENDICES ...................................................... 167
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................... 173

ix

Introduction

“Don’t call me gringo, you fucking beaner

Stay on your side of that god dam river

Don’t call me gringo, you beaner

No me digas beaner, Mr. Puﬁetero

Te sacare un susto por racista y culero

No me llames frijolero, pinche gringo puﬁetero”
Molotovl

(Don’t call me beaner you fuck
I’ll scare you shitless for being a racist and an asshole
Don’t call me beaner you fucking gringo)

As the magniﬁcent pure thoroughbred horses began to align, Alejandro prepared
the Virgin of Guadalupe’s ﬂag which he will proudly hold as he led the immigrant’s
parade riding his father’s beautiful white horse. Alejandro was wearing a grand charro
costume in black adorned with silver coins that ran on both sides of his pants and on the
sleeves of his jacket. His sombrero was embossed with gold and silver thread that
matched perfectly the rest of his attire including the big silver belt buckle and his
immaculate cowboy-style boots. His white thoroughbred horse raised its head while his
gorgeous mane moved carelessly to the rhythm of his footsteps. Behind Alejandro, an
entourage of magniﬁcent multi colored horses followed in perfect synch as if their paws
had been perfectly coordinated, except for a few charros here and there that showed off
their amazing animals by slightly sinking their espuelas into the animals lower back so
that the horse responded by jumping up and down and kicking its hind legs. The endless
line of charms and charras - mostly young girls sitting on female riding saddles that
force both of their legs to dangle onto one side of the horse — was followed by the

meticulously built allegoric trucks that recreated passages of the bible. Most of the

 

‘ (P) & (C) 2003 Surco Records J.V. Manufactured and distributed by Universal Music Latino 420 Lincoln
Road Suite 200, Miami Beach, FL 33139 through Universal Music and Video Distribution. Printed in
U.S.A.

returning immigrants from Detroit had been carefully selected by Father Ignacio Puga to
participate in this highly stylized and perfectly orchestrated procession especially
designed to celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe and the town’s heroes and heroines: the
immigrants.

Right before the elaborate trucks, a group of young girls dressed in exact same
outﬁts holding a plastic ball that matched their attires announced the bible passage the
truck was representing. This group of young girls added a surreal touch to this theatrical
and perfectly choreographed religious and social ritual that celebrated San Ignacio Cerro
Gordo’s ﬁestas patronales (religious festivities) the last week of January. Following the
trucks, a group of antique cars serveed as platforms for the beauty queens that had been
carefully selected to represent San Ignacio in these grandiose celebrations. All around the
streets, San Ignacians stood in awe as they acknowledged the welcoming of their fellow
paisanos that resided in Detroit. A long endless line of returning immigrants followed the
Aztec dancers as they moved to the rhythm of a drum and the jingle bells tied to their
ankles.

The immigrants returning from Detroit waited their turn to walk proudly and
display their success as immigrants through their attires. Children were pristinely dressed
with the latest Detroit fashion styles, adorned with gold bracelets featuring the Virgin of
Guadalupe medals that also embellished their necks with a thin gold chain. Young
women took the opportunity to transgress forbidden spaces by wearing revealing dresses
and blouses while older women looked over their shoulders with disapproval and disdain
since their ﬁnal destination was going to be the church. Father Ignacio along with the

regional bishop prepared a special mass just for 10s hijos ausentes (the absent children:

the immigrants). That year, 2003, they were going to thank the immigrants for their grand
contribution of $14,000 to purchase a gigantic image of Jesus Christ that had already
been placed inside the church next to the main altar and beneath the colossal painting of
the Virgin of Guadalupe.

This vibrant procession symbolized the transnational community constructed in
San Ignacio and in Detroit. In this carnival of success men and women displayed their
understandings of manhood and masculinity, — as charros and heads of the parade —
sexuality and femininity, —- transgressing spaces through revealing outﬁts and posing as
beauty queens —- and older women as keepers of tradition and culture, - supervising both
young men and women. As they entered the church and took their sits, the cholo sat side
by side to a sexy dressed young woman, an older man wearing a Chicago Bulls jacket
with a cowboy-style hat and matching boots, and an older woman wearing a more
conservative attire adorned with religious iconographic jewelry that underlined her
religious afﬁliation to the Catholic Church. It was within this transnational context that I
began my research in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo in the Western part of Mexico and the
midwestern city of Detroit.

When I embarked upon this research, I knew for a fact that something in the
ofﬁcial history about Mexican immigration to the United States was certainly missing.
Scholars of immigration in the past have focused mainly on the ofﬁcial narratives about
immigration policy and its political effects. Recently, scholars have begun to explore the
immigrants’ narratives and the intersections of gender, class, and race. Academicians
within their own disciplines have begun to excavate from under all these misrepresented

ruins the experiences of people who have been conveniently rendered politically,

economically, socially and culturally invisible. These immigrants, while marginalized
have, at the same time, been the center of political and economic discourses throughout
the twentieth century. Despite the fact that in the ﬁrst three decades of the twentieth
century there was an average annual ﬂow of around 46,000 immigrants,2 Mexican
immigrants took center stage with the inception of the Bracero Program in 1942, one of
the ﬁrst ofﬁcial bilateral labor agreements between the United States and Mexico.

Paradoxically, however, Mexican immigrants are conveniently erased and/or
praised depending on the economic, political, social and cultural atmosphere in the
United States. The Mexican immigration discourse has become the property of
politicians, academicians, the media, religious leaders, and political groups. Thus, in as
much as the United States has placed an historical demand on Mexican labor, its
existence has been manipulated to satisfy the “appropriate” constituents. Conveniently,
Mexicans are visible when in demand for cheap labor and rendered invisible when it
comes to the allocation of human rights and access to social and public resources.
Instead, Mexican immigrants, in general, are considered socially invisible and persecuted
for their immigration status despite the continuous aggressive recruitment from the US.
to meet the large demand for low wage labor.

For a socially invisible individual, the Mexican immigrant is talked about a lot.
Since the 19403, with the creation of the Bracero Program, the United States has played a
sadistic game with its ideologies and approaches toward the importation and deportation
of Mexican labor. Hence, the economic atmosphere in the US. has dictated the image of

the Mexican immigrant. A constellation of exploitative agriculturalists, industrialists and

 

2 Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican
Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002), 34.

conservative politicians who capitalize on cheap labor glorify the image of Mexicans as
the “good Mexican worker.” Opposite to this perspective is the Mexican as demonized
and perilous predator who endangers the future of the United States by threatening its
political, economic, social and cultural “integrity.” Mexican immigrants have become the
quintessential scapegoat in times of economic recession or economic depression. They
are converted into ultimate “dementors”3 accused of sucking up economic and natural
resources, and contributing to white racial impurity through miscegenation, and diluting
the cultural “integrity” of the United States. Historically, immigration policies have
reﬂected clearly this sado-schizophrenic behavior against and pro-irnmigration.‘1
Understanding the endemic schizophrenic, xenophobic, racist, and exploitative position
the United States has historically taken when dealing with the “Mexican immigration
problem” is very complex and beyond the scope of this analysis. The intent of this
investigation is to unpack and map out several factors involved in Mexican immigration
to the US. focusing on the dialectics that are involved in the every day lives of Mexican
immigrants as they construct transnational meanings directly linked to the intersections of

gender, sexuality, nationality, and citizenship.

 

3 Creatures in J. K. Rowling’s novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that literally inhale the life
out of humans through their mouth. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Arthur A.
Levine Books: An Imprint of Scholastic Press, 2001).

‘ In the twentieth century, recruitment of Mexican immigrants during World War I and through the 19203
curtailment during the economic crash of the late 19203 and during the Great Depression of the19303 when
thousands of Mexicans, citizens and non-citizens, were indiscriminately deported. Also, In the 19403 the
aggressive recruitment of labor with the Bracero Program and the de-humanized and criminal curtailment
in the 19503 with the launch of Operation Wetback. With all the civil movements in the 19603 the Bracero
Program was killed followed by The Immigration Reform Control Act that encouraged residency by
granting amnesty to Mexican immigrants who could prove prior residency in the United States, but at the
same time IRCA implemented measures to curtail more irnrrrigration by penalizing employers who hired
\mdocumented immigrants and allotting $400 million to the Border Patrol to increase its strength and
power. For more information on immigration policies see: Douglas Massey 8., Jorge Durand, and Nolan J.
Malone. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (New York:
Russell Sage Foundation, 2002); Jana Evans Braziel. “History of Migration and Irmnigration Laws in the
United States,” Comparative Literature Good & Evil (Spring 2000).

My research is a case study of a small town in the Western part of Mexico, San
Ignacio Cerro Gordo,5 in the state of J alisco, and the immigration to and from the large
midwestern city of Detroit, Michigan. It is a microscopic vision of a macroscopic
phenomenon. In a globalized economy we are not exempt from analyzing the
transnational trade of technology, information, culture and communication without
incorporating the importation and exportation of human beings, traditionally referred to
as labor. Labor is usually deﬁned as productive activity remunerated by a fair wage that
allows the worker or producer to provide for herself/himself the basic necessities to
survive in a particular society. As globalization expands, this deﬁnition of labor is no
longer valid; labor has turned into a wholesale exploitation of one portion of the
population of the world over another, unfortunately, the latter being the majority. This
analysis reveals that it is imperative to look at immigration as part of the global
component of trade and that we act to promote and demand change so that transnational
communities ﬂourish and are compensated fairly within this global economy. While we
continue to ignore issues such as immigration or the selling and buying of human beings
as commodities, we are not only supporting this exploitative and dehumanizing system,
we are also forgetting how we can construct our lives with dignity and decency.

In the pages that follow I will attempt to share and interpret the memories of all
the Mexicanos and Mexicanas that gave me their time and patience to help me understand
their discourse and to explain it to myself and to the reader. They risked much in
describing their movement between two contested countries and trusted me in protecting

their legal vulnerability. While traveling to and from San Ignacio and Detroit, San

 

5 From this point forward I will refer to San Ignacio Cerro Gordo as San Ignacio, which is how Mexican
immigrants refer to their sending community.

Ignacians transformed public and private spaces by constructing their understandings of
culture, politics and economics, and through this process have shaped and reshaped their
notions of masculinity, femininity, motherhood, fatherhood, their place in the labor force
and in their families. I will map out the history of Mexican immigration to and from San
Ignacio and Detroit and the construction of transnational communities from the 19403 to
2000. This analysis is focused on gender and Mexican women’s construction of social
networks as they wove a social tapestry that sustained immigration. Through my
investigation I reveal the previously negated historical context in most of the literature
addressing Mexican Immigrants in the U.S., and bring to light the reinterpretation of
social, cultural, political and economic structures. A3 a gender historian, I am interested
in gender relations as a set of social relations negotiated between men and women and
how they affect and are affected by immigration. Moreover, I consider immigration not
only as a social process but also as a subjective conceptualization of living experiences
that include agency and resistance within contested terrains in the United States. I will
focus on women in particular since Mexicanas are the matrix by which the transnational
communities were created and sustained. As I mentioned, previous studies negated the
importance of women’s roles in the immigration process and this study adds to the
literature that looks at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, and citizenship
that constructs new meanings that are ﬂuid and permeable.

I began my research in Patton Park in Detroit by attending the soccer games on
Sundays. The park on Sundays and the importance of leisure in Mexicanas’ lives
provided me with a vital source to begin this work. I found that in this social space,

Mexicanas developed a social network from which their voices traveled transnational

distances between Detroit and their communities of origin. I explored the ways in which
Mexicanas reclaimed a public space where they constructed their social positioning in the
United States. Mexicanas shared collective irmnigrant experiences as a result of
contesting and resisting discriminatory and hostile social, political and economic
practices in the United States. As a result, Mexicanas used this space to shape and
reshape notions of “womanhood,” “motherhood,” and “domesticity.” Moreover, these
spaces became centers where women made important decisions linked to their health,
jobs, family, and their lives both in Detroit and San Ignacio. Being at the park provided
me with an opportunity to observe a piece of their everyday lives. It also gave me an
opportunity to meet Mexicanas from San Ignacio and provided a point of departure to
investigate the process of immigration more deeply.

Mexican immigration is not just a social process as several academicians like
Jorge Durand and his co-writers have stated in their sociological analyses.6 Mexican
immigration is about Mexicanos and Mexicanas constructing culture, politics, and
economics and contributing to the society that we all share in the United States. For over
forty years Chicana historians struggled with deconstructing and reconstructing the
peripheral history of Chicanas/os in the United States and have set the stage for
researchers like myself to approach history through a variety of lenses. Vicky Ruiz,7

Antonia Castai'leda,8 Deena Gonzalez,9 Alicia Gaspar de Alba,10 Gloria Anzaldua,ll que

 

6 Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, Nolan J Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in
an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003)

7 Vicki L Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998).

8 Antonia Castaneda, “Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History: The Discourse, Politics, and
Decolonization of History.” Pacific Historical Review 61:4 (November 1992).

9 Deena J Gonzalez, Reﬁning the Favor: The Spanish-Mexican Women of Santa F e, 1820-1880 (New
York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999).

en paz descanse, Emma Perez,12 and many more, broke from traditional racist and sexist
schemes, and have turned the map upside down as it were, from South to North, and from
the periphery to the center reclaiming academic space from a Mexicana/Chicana’s point
of view.

I am also indebted to the work of extraordinary social scientists that brought
gender to the fore of immigration studies in the United States, Pierrette Hondagneu-
Sotelo,13 Rhacel Salazar Par‘refias,14 Glen Nakano,” Maxine Baca-Zinn,16 and Gloria
Gonzz'rlez-Lc’rpez.17 I am also grateful to the seminal work by Jorge Durand and Douglas
S. Massey who began their own joumey with the study of immigration in the early 19803
and continues to supply us with invaluable statistics and information on Mexican
immigration to the United States. Additionally, I have been heavily inﬂuenced by the
path breaking work of historian Juan Javier Pescador who has focused on the immigrant
experience and has contributed much to the image of immigrants as agents of their own
history rather than passive observers. '8 These are a few of the researchers that have

attempted to redeﬁne the historiography and literature on Mexican immigration. Previous

 

10 Alicia Gaspar dc Alba, Chicano art inside/outside the master ’3 house: cultural politics and the CARA
exhibition (Austin : University of Texas Press, 1998).
H Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands La F rontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987).
12 Emma M. Perez, The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1999).
‘3 Pierrette Hondagneu—Sotelo, ed. Gender and US. Immigration: Contemporary Trends (Berkeley, Los
Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999).
'4 Rhacel Salazar-Parreﬂas, Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work (Stanford,
California: Stanford University Press, 2001).
‘5 Evelyn Nakano Glen, Issei , Nisei, war bride: three generations of Japanese American women in
domestic service (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986).
16 Maxine Baca Zinn, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Michael A. Messner, eds. Gender Through the Prism of
DWrence (Boston : Allyn and Bacon, c2000).
'7 Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, “De madres a hijas: Gendered Lessons on Virginity across Generations of
Mexican Immigrant Women.” In Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette, ed. Gender
‘8 Juan Javier Pescador, The New World Inside a Basque Village: The Oiartzun Valley and Its Atlantic
Emigrants, 1550-1800 (Reno & Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 2004).

academicians failed to analyze more deeply the formation of social networks from an
historical point of view and from the everyday experiences by Mexicanas/cs.19

Even though we have come a long way from ignoring women in the literature, we
need now to understand the basic components of what social networks mean to the people
that construct them. The concept of “social networks” contributes to the understanding of
the construction of transnational communities. We have grown accustomed to reading
about social networks that sustain immigration, but as researchers we have failed
Mexicanas/03 in understanding what meanings they construct within these networks. In
this analysis, I deconstruct these support systems in order to understand how Mexicanas
have built upon the bracero generation’s ﬁrst attempts to initiate the movement of San
Ignacians to Detroit. I contend that Mexicanas are the main protagonists in weaving and
supporting the social networks that are inherent in the construction of transnational
communities.

My work relies primarily on oral histories. Mexican immigrant voices have often
been spoken for, but seldom listened to. Archival documents have also guided me
through my investigation of the history of Mexican immigration. I relied on media and
popular culture such as music, comic strips, poems, and short stories, which I wove into
the narrative. It is my intention that by bringing the histories of Mexican immigrants to
the fore it will inspire a more respectful way of thinking about immigration within a
globalized economy that continues to widen the economic gaps between “developed” and
“underdeveloped” countries. As Urvashi Butalia states in her book The Other Side of

Silence, “ [. . .] But to me, the way people choose to remember an event, a history, is at

 

’9 Manuel Gamio, Mexican Immigration to the United States: A Study of Human Migration and Adjustment
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1930); Paul Taylor, A Spanish-Mexican Peasant Community:
Arandas in Jalisco, Mexico (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1933).

10

least as important as what one might call the ‘facts’ of that history, for after all, these
latter are not self-evident givens; instead, they too are interpretations, as remembered or
recorded by one individual or another.”20

Through anecdotal memories, Mexicanos and Mexicanas lead the story in the course
of a journey into understanding religious beliefs, social and moral modes, transgressions
and ultimately an understanding of what being a San Ignacian/Detroitian means within a
transnational context. The ﬁrst chapter will map out historically the relational changes
and inﬂuences of the religious festivities in San Ignacio. Through the inﬂuence of
immigration, small local pious celebrations transformed into an elaborately
choreographed and orchestrated theatrical production to welcome los hijos ausentes (the
absent children - immigrants). Chapter one carefully analyzes the lives of Mexican
immigrant women and men as protagonists of demographic, social, cultural, economic,
and political changes in their own histories as they constructed their transnational
community in San Ignacio and Detroit. I begin my work by demarcating the beginning of
San Ignacians’ migration with those who migrated as braceros to California working
mostly in agriculture, and their decision to migrate to Detroit and work on industrial jobs
throughout the 19403, 19503 and 19603. Additionally, this chapter traces the important
economic ties that the ﬁrst San Ignacians began to establish in Detroit and their
community of origin; thus, forming limited social networks that created a continuous
economic connection between San Ignacio and Detroit.

Chapter two analyzes notions of sexualities and introduces the concept of

“transnational sexualities.” Transnational sexualities challenges assumed deﬁnitions of

 

20 Urvashi Butalia, The other side of silence: voices from the partition of India (Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2000), 6.

ll

transnationalism that have fragmented immigrants’ experiences into two different sets of
understandings — one in their community of origin and the other in the US. Transnational
sexualities refers to their experiences as one set of constructed notions that are integral to
Mexican immigrants, experiences in San Ignacio and Detroit. I focus on how women and
men see themselves in relation to one another and their gender appropriate behavior
within ideas of courtship and sexual practices. Mexicanas from different generations
narrate how they construct notions of femininity, womanhood, and motherhood as they
question the use of contraceptives versus their religious beliefs that support large
families. This analysis challenges generalized assumptions and ideologies that rely on
differentiations of Mexico - as backward and traditional — versus the United States — as
modern and progressive.

Chapter three maps out how with the arrival of women to Detroit, a new set of
social networks began to emerge that substituted the ones men had begun to establish.
These social networks ultimately became the pillars that sustained the transnational
community. As more and more women entered the ﬂow of immigration and the labor
force both in San Ignacio —usually informally and unpaid — and in Detroit — in several
industries such as auto parts and tornillo factories — they began to challenge traditional
gender roles and to construct new meanings of notions of “womanhood,” “motherhood,”
and “femininity.” Moreover, through these networks San Ignacians continuously
replenished the social and cultural life they formed in Detroit. Mexicanas reveal what
social networks mean to them and how those meanings changed through the creation of

transnational communities.

12

In chapter four, I analyze how the politics of citizenship come into play when
Mexican immigrants describe their sense of belonging to a particular space. I revisit the
politics of identity through the immigrant experience and the different representations
that Mexicans have created in relation to immigration to and from Mexico and the United
States. Since the 19703, San Ignacians have tried to become a municipality in the State of
Jalisco, but it was not until 2003 that they were able to accomplish their goal.
Mexicanas/cs in Detroit and in San Ignacio collaborated in order to accomplish this
ambitious goal thus emphasizing their afﬁliation to their transnational citizenship.
Transnational politics and the active economic participation from Mexicanas/03 in Detroit
helped create this new mimicipality in the state of J alisco, in Mexico. As a very contested
territory, immigration to e! Norte has historically meant different things, and has also
inﬂuenced the minds of both Mexicans and Euroamericans through the creation of
cultural, political, economic and social ideologies. In as much as the United States’
schizophrenic approach to Mexican immigration has affected both Mexicans and
Euroamericans, Mexicans’ sentiments toward immigration to e1 Norte have also
underlined a love-hate relationship affected by hostile practices in the United States and
by immigrants’ romanticized ideas of their homeland. As the controversial Mexican band
Molotov clearly stated at the beginning of this introduction, antagonistic sentiments on
both sides of the border have created hostile sentiments that continue to not only recycle
pernicious stereotypes of Mexican immigrants, but that have also authorized rampant
criminal acts against Mexicanas and Mexicanos through unreasonable immigration

policies.

13

‘ Mexican immigrants, in economic and political discourses, are and have been
“invading” the United States and creating various economic crises that affect all
“American” citizens. Beginning in the early twentieth century, the most popular
arguments were — and continue to be - that Mexican immigrants take jobs from
Euroamericans, they decrease wages, and they are endlessly draining welfare resources.
These arguments have appeared and disappeared in different discourses depending on the
general economic atmosphere in the United States.” Contrary to the previous arguments
of Mexicans being dangerous invaders and active participants in the economic fate of the
country, cultural and social stereotypes of Mexican immigrants include images of being
backward, submissive, apathetic, dirty, defenseless, lazy, and ignorant individuals.

Since the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these binary oppositions and
contradictions are exemplary of the attitudes that Euroamericans have had toward
Mexican immigrants and immigrants from groups that are not European. In other words,
Euroamericans have created an “Other” immigrant. Contrary to the very core of the
ideology that immigrants gave birth to the United States, this “Other” immigrant is a

continuous threat to the country’s well being.22 Ideas of citizenship have been shaped by

 

2' A good example of these economic pitfalls “instigated” by Mexican immigrants is the beginning of the
19303 with the advent of the Great Depression when massive deportations of Mexicans took place,
violating their civil rights and aggressively dispossessing them of human dignity. The Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) initiated Operation Wetback in 1954 under the pretext that undocumented
Mexican irmnigrants were depleting wages and taking jobs from Euroamericans. Thousands of
Mexicanas/03 were deported —ironically, however, they were signed as braceros by the US. Department of
Labor and “sent back to the very ﬁelds where they had been arrested in the ﬁrst place!” Douglas Massey 8.,
Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of
Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002), 37.

22 In the late nineteenth century, 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act curtailed irnrrrigration from Asia, and
later in early twentieth century, 1907 the Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan ended almost all-Asian
immigration. The Immigration Act of 1917 designed to exclude Asian Indians and in 1924 the Immigrant
Act, which ﬁnally excluded Japanese ﬁom immigration and stated that only “whites” could be naturalized
as citizens. In 1934 the Tydings-McDufﬁe Act excluded Filipinos from immigration. These are but a few
immigration policies that discriminated against “Other” immigrants who were non-white in the ﬁrst few
decades of the twentieth century.

14

political climates; who does and does not belong to the nation-state are important
deﬁnitions in understanding national ideologies. Citizenship in the United States has
historically shaped images, ideas, and the mostly hegemonic ideological productions of

Mexican immigrants from heroes to criminals, from reputable serioritas to dirty

greasers.23

Transnational communities such as the one analyzed in this work have moved
spaces along with social, economic and political ideologies to these two distinct locations
in Mexico and in the United States. Detroit has become San Ignacized and San Ignacio
has become Detroiticized therefore constructing a whole new set of understandings that
are imperative and inherent in the way Mexicanos and Mexicanas construct their lives in
both San Ignacio and Detroit. Like Siamese twins these two particular spaces have been
transformed by the immigrant experience and vice a versa, thus creating an innovative
and dynamic culture that expands constructions of gender, femininity, masculinity,
motherhood, fatherhood, laborers, and so on. Notwithstanding, in these processes a series
of contradictions and tension continuously arise challenging Mexicanas and Mexicanos to
constantly recreate, adapt, accommodate, shape, contest, and create new meanings and
understandings of the environment that surrounds them.

The following work will interpret my ﬁndings while excavating remnants of
memories, memories of people, memories of every day lives, simple lives, complex lives,
lives of people who are not invisible and who have, the right to appropriate their own
discourse and challenge, contend, share with you and me, how the history of Mexican

immigration and their experiences as immigrants needs to be told. It is their discourse,

 

23 Arnoldo De Leon. They called them greasers: Anglo attitudes toward Mexicans in Texas, [821-1900
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983).

15

not mine, that I am trying to convey within the pages of this testimony, it is their

memories in their own time that will speak in the following chapters.24

 

24
All of the translations in the text are mine, and the names of San Ignacians have been changed.

16

Chapter I

“Pues alla sale sobrando que digamos esto porque aqui el patrono es San Ignacio de Loyola pero
curiosamente como que no lo queremos la virgen como que le dijo “haste que ahi te voy.” La Virgen de
Guadalupe, entonces ni si quiera el dia 12 nos esforzamos para hacer algo, es como que la virgen dice “yo
me voy a esperar para enero para que me hagan toda la ﬁesta,” y es cuando la peregrinacion es decir las
mananitas y cuetes y lo que se puedan como primeras comuniones y tambien viene el senor obispo para
enero. Y pues tratamos de cumplir porque el dia 12 es ﬁesta nacional, es el dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe y
no podemos quedarnos sin hacer algo. de echo es bonito pero no lo que podria ser. Entonces la Virgen
practicamente es la patrona, llevarla a Detroit no es necesario porque pues en cualquiesr templo esta. 0 sea
que también en eso se gana. Entonces si fuera San Ignacio de Loyola si habia que llevar una replica a
Detroit, pero como es la Virgen de Guadalupe pues no hay necesidad de hacerlo.”

Father Ignacio Ramosl

Well it is not necessary to take a religious image to Detroit because here originally the patron saint is San
Ignacio de Loyola, but curiously it’s like we don’t love him, it’s as if the Virgin of Guadalupe told him “get
out of the way because here I come.” The Virgin of Guadalupe, we don’t even make an effort to celebrate
the 12" of December it’s like the Virgin of Guadalupe said, “I’m going to wait until January so that they
celebrate my day with all the festivities,” and that’s when we have all the peregrinations, and we sing
happy birthday, and we throw ﬁre crackers and we celebrate ﬁrst comrnunions and the bishop comes in
January. And well we try to celebrate at least a little bit on the 12” of December since it is a national
religious holiday, it’s the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, but not how the rest of the country does.
Therefore it is the Virgin of Guadalupe that has become our patron saint so there is no need to take her
image to Detroit because she is already there, in most of the Catholic churches. If it were San Ignacio de
Loyola most likely we would have to take his image to Detroit but since it is the Virgin of Guadalupe there
is no need to do 30.”

La Fiesta de los Ausentes

Gas, Gas, Gas, Omnigas con el gas se vive mejor; the different tunes of the trucks
that sell gas and bottled water, plus the sounds of the bells from the ice cream carts, the
vendors of string beans and the scrubbing sound of women sweeping the streets early in
the morning, along with the strong smell of the cleaners they use woke me up at daybreak
every day in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, J alisco. These morning sounds in sharp contrast
with the nightly bum, bum, burn, the glass shaking from my windows along with my
chest following the bass from the loud combination of musica ranchera and hip hop
music coming from car stereos of young men and women became my everyday jingles.

Sounds, smells, and the cordial salutations from San Ignacians colored my life in

 

1 Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001.

17

San Ignacio Cerro Gordo. Looking out the window every morning and watching women
sweep and mop the sidewalks and the street I could not help but smile (that is when I got
used to being awakened at 5:00 am) and I would imagine a Broadway show having all
these women move to the rhythm of an old Ginger Roger’s tune. However, my morning
anachronistic fantasy helped me cope with everything that had so much contrast to what I
am used to after living in the United States for so many years, and growing up in Mexico
City. Cleanliness in San Ignacio is an obsession, particularly because San Ignacio has
tierra colorada, (red earth) which continuously blows into people’s houses and their
respective sidewalks that have become an essential part of the house. Tiles adorning
houses’ facades or living room ﬂoors, extend onto the sidewalks, so that when one is
walking down the street. to the nearby market or the plaza or the church one is literally
stepping on people’s quarters, a stretch of personalized street; public space with an
intimate private taste to it. La ﬁesta de los Ausentes (the festivities for the immigrants)
has metaphorically undergone the same process of change, from a private, intimate
survival-like experience inside a household to a public, extravagant, luxurious ritual that
has become representative of what immigration to the United States means to the
transnational communities in San Ignacio Cen'o Gordo, Jalisco and Detroit, Michigan.

In a magical cloud of gray smoke, the priest, Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, steps
out in his immaculate white outﬁt on one side of the main avenue in San Ignacio that is
separated by a beautifully landscaped line of trees. The cloud of smoke, however, extends
to both sides of the street and in the background we can hear the rhythm of some
estranged drum along with jingling bells. The atmosphere takes on a surreal quality as the

cloud extends and suddenly without warning (to those of us who are experiencing the

18

festivity for the ﬁrst time) the ﬁrecrackers begin to burst. There are lines of ﬁrecrackers
placed at certain distance ahead of the priest so that every time he steps out of the smoke
the noise is deafening as he continues his foggy path followed by the endless smoke.
Once the noise and the smoke dissipates, the bishop clothed in black with a fuchsia
pileolus on his head steps forward followed by an entourage of six priests all dressed in
white tunics imprinted with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. They all walk very
slowly while shaking people’s hands on their way — San Ignacians are ecstatic to have the
regional bishop visit once a year for the January religious festivities. Followed by the
religious troupe, a group of Aztec dancers move to the rhythm of drums and the jingle
bells they have wrapped around their ankles. This grandiose procession is literally
possessed by the Virgin of Guadalupe who seems to be everywhere in the costumes that
all the participants are wearing, in the ﬂags they hold, the beautifully framed paintings
and posters, and of course more personalized in the relicarios and medals that people
wear around their necks. There is no doubt this is a display of a major ritual to celebrate
on the one hand the patron saint of San Ignacio Cerro Gordo the Virgin of Guadalupe,
and on the other, the more recently venerated heroes and heroines of San Ignacio, los
hijos ausentes (the absent children): the immigrants. Los hijos ausentes is a local
customary term used for those San Ignacians that have left to live in the US. but includes
those who have moved to major cities in Mexico like Guadalajara or Mexico City.
On a sunny morning in 1948, Don Chuy crossed the U.S.-Mexican border for the
first time. He was not alone; Don Chuy was one of the thousands of Mexican men that
were hired under the Bracero Program, initiated in 1942. Little did Don Chuy know,

however, that he would be the ﬁrst San Ignacian who was to travel to Detroit and plant

19

the seed for one of the most dynamic transnational communities in Michigan. Don Chuy
was hired initially to work in California — the stepping-stone for most Mexican
immigrants working under the Bracero Program (or not) — for the picking of tomatoes,
onions, and citrus ﬁ'uits. “We would go from here to Tijuana and from there we would be
hired and they would take us in (the United States)”2 Like many Mexicans, Don Chuy
traveled back and forth between the United States and Mexico for several years.

This chapter historically maps out the relational changes and inﬂuences of the
religious festivities in San Ignacio and how they were transformed by immigration from
small local pious celebrations to an elaborate perfectly choreographed orchestrated
theatrical production to welcome los hijos ausentes (the absent children - immigrants).
Taking a close look at these celebrations one can begin to understand what
transnationalism means to communities. This chapter analyzes the beginning of
immigration from San Ignacio with those who migrated as braceros to Califonria working
mostly in agriculture, and their decision to migrate to Detroit to join the industrial ﬁenzy
of the 19403, 19503 and 19603. This chapter also traces the important incipient economic
ties that the ﬁrst San Ignacians began to establish as they took different industrial jobs in
Detroit and how these new economic advantages began to impact their community of
origin. As a gendered labor program, the Bracero Program provided young male San
Ignacians with a medium to seek better opportunities that allowed many of them better
economic positions when they formed families. Consequently, as they began to form
social networks they not only created a continuous economic connection, but also the

creation of transnational communities. With the arrival of women to Detroit, a new set of

 

2 Don Chuy, interview in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, November 2001. “ [. . .] entonces era cuando nos
ibarnos de aqui a Tijuana y de ahi nos contrataban y nos metian para dentro.” My translation.

20

social networks began to emerge that substituted the already established networks by the
bracero generation thus becoming the pillars that sustained them. As more and more
women entered the ﬂow of immigration and the labor force both in San Ignacio -usually
informally and unpaid -— and in Detroit -— in several industries such as auto parts and
tornillo factories - they began to challenge traditional gender roles and to construct new
meanings of notions of “womanhood,” “motherhood,” and “femininity,” to name but a
few. Moreover, through these networks San Ignacians continuously replenished the social
and cultural life they formed in Detroit.

The Bracero Program was one of the ﬁrst ofﬁcial bilateral labor agreements
between Mexico and the United States, recruiting Mexican labor to work in agricultural
ﬁelds and the railroad temporarily in the United States.3 While the war in Europe
demanded Euroarnerican manpower as well as African American, and Mexican
Americans to help the United States become a world power, the need for social survival
in the United States demanded Mexicanos’ manpower to support and allow the United
States to triumphantly arise as a world power after World War II. But, unlike the soldiers
acclaimed as heroes and martyrs of Democracy that were combating Europeans and
Japanese on the other side of the oceans, Mexicanos were discriminated against and the
stipulations of their contracts constantly violated — those contracted under the Programa
Bracero —- depriving them from civil rights that they were legally entitled to under the

program’s guidelines. Even though the Bracero Program was referred to as a “guest

 

3 There were several labor agreements starting in the nineteenth century with the construction of the
railroad both in Mexico and in the United States. President Taft and President Diaz had a labor agreement
for Mexican labor to work in the US. Also, during WWI, again Mexico and the US. entered into a labor
agreement for Mexican labor to work in the U.S., however neither one of these agreements set out a
systematic structure and/or institutionalized the agreement by assigning speciﬁc governmental branches to
take responsibility in both Mexico and the United States as did the Bracero Program. Moreover, these
agreements were unilateral where the United States delineated the economic and political contours of both

programs.

21

worker” program and the US. as the “host” country, these terms came to signify the
complete opposite by creating an open space where Mexicanos were constantly
humiliated and mistreated, working under deplorable conditions, and earning meager
wages. The Programa Bracero laid the foundation for a self-sustained exploitative and
corrupted mechanism against Mexican labor supported by both the United States and
Mexico.4

Historically the institutionalization of migration and the commoditization of
Mexican labor has had a tremendous impact affecting economic, political, social and
cultural spheres in Mexico and the United States. It is important to analyze some of the
processes by which both governments sanctioned not only the overt exploitation of
Mexican laborers, but also the corruptive measures they encouraged through the different
institutions used to administer and control the operation of the Bracero Program,
especially between the years of 1942 through 1954.5 The ﬁrst 14 years of the program’s
existence was the primary time for both nations to negotiate and shape the outlines of the
international agreement. Both countries received a lot of resistance from Mexican

Nationalists who believed that the progress of Mexico could only be sabotaged by the

 

4 For more on the Programa Bracero see: Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, Nolan J Malone, Beyond
Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage
Foundation, 2003); Manuel Garcia y Griego, “The Importation of Mexican Contract Laborers to the United
States, 1942-1964” in David G. Gutierrez, eds. Between Two Worlds: Mexican Immigrants in the United
States (Wilmington, Delaware: A Scholarly Resources Inc. Imprint, 1996), 45; Erasrno Gamboa, Mexican
labor and the second world war: Braceros in The Union Pacific Northwest [942-194 7 (Austin: The
University of Texas Press, 1990); Richard Craigs, The Bracero Program: Interest Groups and foreign
policy (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971); Ernesto Galarza, Merchants of Labor, The Mexican
Bracero Program Story, An Account of the Managed Migration of Mexican Farm Workers in California
[942-1960 (Santa Barbara: California, McNally & Loftin, Publishers, 1964).
5 Letter from the Viceconsul de Mexico in the Centro de Recepcion de California, “Continued violations to
the worker’s contracts and irregularities that the agents from USES (United States Employment Services)
are the rmin complaints that our Mexican laborers are ﬁling. An example is how our workers are being
forced under threats by a “tyrannical” government representative to sign contracts with speciﬁc companies.
These is a violation of their contracts that stipulates that our workers are free to choose their employers.” 5
June 1952. TM-3-8. ARE Conditional Permit for Mexican Agricultural workers.

22

loss of thousands of laborers both urban and agricultural; they were also well aware of
the recent massive deportations from the US. of Mexican immigrants during the
depression years. Wholesale civil rights violations against Mexican immigrants, Mexican
Americans and of many Chicana/os by US. authorities were rampant. Thus Mexican
politicians, artists and businessmen interceded, albeit in vain, to stop the exportation of
Mexican laborers.6 Paradoxically, most of these same individuals in the US. agreed with
their counterparts in Mexico; however their reasons for opposition were radically
different. Mexican Nationalists were also privy to the constant racist treatment that their
co-nationals were persistently exposed to by US. Nativists who in turn were afraid that
Mexican immigrants would “contaminate cultural life and the social fabric of the US.”7
The Bracero Program also serves as a starting point to outline the schizophrenic behavior
the United States has demonstrated with the constant aggressive recruitment and

curtailment of Mexican immigration from the 19403 to the close of the twentieth century.

 

6 Letter from the Mexican Consul in Detroit to the Mexican Embassy in Washington DC condemning the
deplorable conditions of Mexicans in Detroit due to the paralizacién de la industria automovil (Auto
Industry’s decay). The document underlines how Mexican families have to recur to public services. It also
states that the US. government gives preference and access to public services to US. citizens, and because
of this situation many Mexican families are forced to work in beet ﬁelds where they get paid horrid
salaries. The document asks Relaciones Exteriores to stop the ﬂow of Mexican immigrants to the U.S., 7

March 1930. W-76-3. AHGE

Memorandum written by a group of “concerned citizens” to the President of Mexico, 1945. “[. . .] Hace
algr'm tiempo, deciamos antes, los braceros volvian a Mexico. Hoy e3 comr’m que se alejen del pais y tan
pronto como obtienen algunos recursos, hacen venir a sus familiars y allegados, y lo que fué en un
principio la expatriacion de un hombre, 3e convierte para Mexico en la pérdida de toda una familia. [. . .] En
nuestro caso, en que en lugar de sobrante de poblacion tenemos una gran deﬁciencia aunque parezca

inhumano deberia negarse toda proteccion al que se aleja del pais, poniendo la mayor pare de obstaculos a
esta emigracion creciente.” IV-657-63. AHGE

“How can Mexico fulﬁll the demand for labor in the US. without affecting Mexico’s economy?”
Migratory Labor Conference, Mexico City, 16 July 1951. TM-l-l ARE Fonda de Braceros: Contratacio'n
de Trabajadores A gricolas en EU.

7 “ Institutions of dominant culture further subordinated Mexicans (Midwestern Mexicans in post World
War II) by representing them as foreigners and outsiders, whether they were recent irmnigrants or US.
citizens. Underlying such representations was the continued unequal political and economic relationship
between the US. and Mexico, a legacy of colonialism.” Dionicio Nodin Valdés, Barrios Norteﬁos: St. Paul
and Midwestern Mexican Communities in the Twentieth Century (Austin: University of Texas Press,
2000), 177.

23

In as much as one can use the word “recruit” within the context of the program’s constant
violation of civil rights then one can also set the stage under which to conceptualize and
understand the word “curtailment” that has criminally not only violated civil rights, but
has catapulted sanctioned criminal behavior by the authorities in the United States
particularly the Border Patrol and the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service),
along with the United States Department of Labor, and currently Euroarnerican civil
society (like the presently supported Minuteman program) against Mexican immigrants.
In a document written by a few braceros that came from the states of San Luis
Potosi, Jalisco, Hidalgo, and Mexico City they describe the conditions, which the average
bracero underwent. They were hired to work in a ranch in Arkansas with a contract for 40
days. On the tenth of October of 1951, approximately 400 braceros were singed up in
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. They were lined up in a Military Base and given
assigned numbers and consequently interrogated by US. immigration officials. In a letter
written to the Ofﬁce of Mexican Foreign Relations (Relaciones Exteriores), a group of
braceros expressed the way they were mistreated by ofﬁcials whom they believed some
were of Mexican origin. After questioning, they were sent to the ﬁrst ﬂoor and told to
undress for the medical examination that they described as may riguroso (very rigorous).
They were administered with vaccines, and all of their personal data including their
ﬁngerprints were ﬁled. Consequently, they were taken to a large dining room where they
had dinner ﬁnanced by the U.S._ government: Chilaquiles (pieces of tortilla with tomato
sauce) with beans and piece of bread. The braceros were then transported by bus to the

Campo de Concentracion de Braceros (recruitment camp) of Harlingen, Texas. Upon

24

their arrival, they were told to settle for the night on the ﬂoor without access to blankets
or sleeping mats.

The next day, the braceros realized there were approximately 3,000 more braceros
waiting to be hired by mostly farmers. After breakfast, farmers, supervised by
immigration ofﬁcials, would proceed to pick and choose laborers at their convenience,
therefore leaving until the end the oldest and weakest looking braceros, some of which
had been in the camp for more than eight days, ultimately getting hired because of the
demand for labor. The latter braceros would comment on the mistreatment and methods
of intimidation that the US. authorities would inﬂict upon them, narrating how every
night soldiers with machine guns conducted rounds where they slept. While at the camp,
the braceros that wrote the letter also described how a few braceros were forced to eat
their supper naked as a disciplinary method for some unknown reason.

The document also describes how these braceros were hired under contracts of 40
days and when their contract expired, the employer along with the braceros went to the
Mexican consulate in Memphis to renovate the working contracts. However, one of the
employees in the consulate, according to the letter, asked for a bribe of $100 per contract.
The braceros were sent back to Mexico hardly making $60 to $75 in the forty days of
their contracts, partly because of the low paying wages, but also because when it rained
they would not work and consequently were not paid, yet the employer would charge
them ninety cents per day for food, which he would withhold from their paychecks.8

Despite the fact that most Mexican immigrants were aware of these violations,

Mexicanas continued to travel back and forth between the US. and Mexico under the

 

8 Letter from braceros to Relaciones Exteriores, 19 November 1951, TM-3-1, ARE, A cuerdo Basico
Internacional.

25

Bracero Program, with tourist visas, and as undocumented immi grants. One of these
migrants, Don Antonio, left San Ignacio Cerro Gordo to go north for the ﬁrst time in
1943 with his brother who had been hired as a bracero in Califomia. Don Antonio began
a circular migration that was to last many years before he moved to Detroit. “One time,
after I had crossed through the barbed wire in 1951, (undocumented) I went as a bracero
but they only hired for 40 days and I did not like it.”9 Mexicanos made choices from the
opportunities available to them. The Bracero Program continued to encourage a constant
ﬂow of Mexican labor,lo both documented and undocumented to the United States —
mostly to California — that slowly began to divert to different states, depending on the
needs of Mexicanos and the choices they made mostly based on building better futures
and increasing their incomes. Like Don Antonio, Don Chuy and many more San
Ignacians continued to travel back and forth from San Ignacio to California until one day,
Don Chuy recounts that he was in Laredo, Texas and while chatting informally with a
man, he was advised to go to Detroit. According to this man, he could make twice as
much working in Detroit ($3.00) rather than working in the ﬁelds ($1.25 or less). “So I
thought, I’m already far away from my parents and my family, so I’ll go. And I made the

decision and I went to Detroit.”11 He arrived in Detroit August 18, 1964. The Bracero

 

9 Don Antonio, 78 years of age, interview in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo November 2002. “Una vez tratando
yo despues de haberme ido de alambre en el 51, are fui de bracero pero solo por 4O dias y no me gusto.”
My parenthesis. 2002
0 Immigration between Mexico and the United States has been documented since the Mexican-American

war 1846-48 when the United States colonized more than half of the Mexican territory, into the ﬁrst three
decades of the twentieth century. Jalisco has historically been an immigrant-sending region. For more
information on Jalisco’s immigration see: Manuel Gamio, Mexican Immigration to the United States: A
Study of Human Migration and Adjustment (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1930). Also Paul
Taylor, A Spanish-Mexican Peasant Community: Arandas in Jalisco (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1933).

” Don Chuy, 73 years of age, interview in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, November 2001 . “[. . .] bueno pues de
todos modos estoy lejos de mis padres de mi familia pues me voy de una vez hasta alla, y me anime y me

ﬁri.”

26

Program came to an end in 1964, but it was not until 1965 that most bracero contracts
expired.

The Bracero Program was a controversial bilateral labor agreement that caused
economic, political and cultural turmoil both in Mexico and in the United States. During
the ﬁrst years of the program thousands of Mexicans left their hometowns to travel north
to satisfy the labor demand initially brought on by the war in Europe. However, more
braceros were hired every year after WWII than during the war years. Approximately
168,000 braceros were hired during 1942-45.12 By the end of the war the US. agricultural
economy had already become dependent on Mexican labor. According to some scholars
the numbers after the war varied between 400,000 and 450,000 annually.l3 J esris
Hernandez left San Ignacio in 1953 to work in Salinas, California under the Bracero
Program. After two years he was hired as a cook for the agricultural ﬁelds to feed the
large groups of braceros that worked there. With a couple of years of experience under
his belt, J esﬁs stopped working under the bracero contracts and got a letter of
recommendation from one of his employers and became a legal immigrant. His father
was a well-known Mexican arriero (muleteer) buying and selling manufactured goods
from town to town in the Altos de J alisco region. J esus signed up for the Bracero
Program in an effort to help his father support the family. After seven years of traveling
between Mexico and California, Jesus submitted the documentation necessary to ask for

his brothers’ residencies. The ﬁrst one to join J esr’rs was Don Gabriel who crossed the

 

’2 Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, Nolan J Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration
in an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003), 37-38.

’3 Ibid., 36-37. Furthermore, the authors state that: “Nearly 5 million Mexicans entered the United States
during the program’s twenty-two-year history - a ﬁgure that dwarfs the combined total of legal and
contract labor between 1900 and 1929 - but this massive movement remained out of the public eye.” This
statement questions the politics of immigration during the tenure of the Bracero Program particularly
during Operation Wetback in 1954 when thousands of Mexican immigrants were deported to satisfy
McCarthyism and to ameliorate civil society’s concerns raised by the supporters of such politics.

27

border in May 23, 1960. Don Gabriel worked for ﬁve years with his brother as an
assistant cook in the agricultural ﬁelds cooking for large numbers of braceros. A year
after Don Gabriel arrived to California, his brother Delﬁno joined them and a year later
their younger brother Rubén followed them. Although Delﬁno and Rubén worked in
different ﬁelds they all joined forces and began to run a small business in Salinas. The
brothers bought a car and they would go to the nearest towns to buy everyday necessities
and then they would go back to the ﬁelds and sell them to the braceros that would hardly
ever leave the ﬁelds due to several factors of which transportation, long work hours, and
language barriers were among the most important.”

Braceros have been historically stigmatized and overlooked as individuals, but
they were either lumped as a group of “ignorant,” “defenseless,” and “passive” laborers
or as just mere parts to a giant machinery denying Mexican immigrants any agency.
Recent academic work continues to recycle these pernicious stereotypes of braceros:
“Daily life (for Mexican immigrants) was consumed by making a living, and their
aspirations rarely reached beyond the four walls of their houses. They were gratiﬁed,
however, to have a couple of radio stations play some music they remembered, a
television station that showed programs they had seen in Mexico, and an occasional
market where they could ﬁnd tortillas and pan dulce.”’5 In this analysis, I use concrete

experiences from San Ignacians to dispute these pernicious stereotypes of braceros.

 

’4 Dona Anita, 70 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002. “Cme el (Jesus Hernandez)
estuvo trabajando ganaba mas o rrrenos bien, y este aparte a 61 1e daban chance de vender a los braseros.
Les vendia que rastrillos que cigarros, y cosas que ocupaban ellos, que jabon, ellos (Jesus y sus hermanos)
hiban a1 pueblo a comprar cosas y se ganaban sus centavitos.” My parenthesis.

’5 David E. Hayes-Bautista, La Nueva California: Latinos in the Golden State (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 2004), S3. Hayes-Bautista’s argument, although trying to vindicate the image of
Mexican-Americans including Chicana/os, from pernicious stereotypes in the United States has fallen
victim to the very thing he is trying to get away from: racist images and diminishing images of Mexican
immigrants, particularly braceros and new coming Mexican immigrants.

28

Nevertheless, these negative images and the newly felt pride as industrial workers rather
than agricultural workers permeated the Mexican imagination for many years. These
stereotypes developed a cultural shame of being braceros. Thus, San Ignacians have made
efforts to disassociate themselves from being identiﬁed as braceros and agricultural work
after working in industrial jobs, as in the case of the Hernandez brothers and other San
Ignacians.

Archival documentation and oral history provided a very different image.
Braceros constantly challenged, negotiated and accommodated to the circumstances they
found themselves in. They would write letters not only to the Ofﬁce of Foreign Relations
in Mexico City, but they would also appeal to the Mexican consulates to intercede for
them. The Mexican consulates were assigned to make sure that the braceros’ rights were
not violated and in general to insure their well being.16 Modes of resistance through
ofﬁcial venues were not only limited to demanding fair wages and treatment, better
working and living conditions; many braceros would walk out of the agricultural ﬁelds

and either go back to their sending communities or change ﬁelds to those where

 

’6 The Mexican Consulates in the United States had been designated as the main supervisors and overseers
of the Bracero Program. Their main objective was to make sure that the braceros’ rights were not violated.
However, due to the magnitude of the program, the numbers of braceros, and the pervasive corruption
within the consulates this objective was more often than not inconsequential.

Instructivo Especial No.3 Sobre Aplicacion del Articulo 30 del Acuerdo Intemacional: “El articulo 30 del
Acuerdo Intemacional del 11 de agosto de 1951, celebrado entre Mexico y los Estados Unidos de América,
que corresponde a1 capitulo intitulado “Procedimiento para el cunrplirniento efectivo del contrato de
trabajo”, le asigna a nuestras Oﬁcinas Consulares en los Estados Unidos 1a importante fucion y grave
responsabilidad, de forrnular las quejas y reclamaciones de los trabajadores por violacion de sus contratos
de trabajo; de intervenir en las investgaciones que se practiquen para esclarecer los hechos que se
denuncien, y ﬁnalmente, dictar la resolucion que proeda, cuidando en todo tiempo de obtener 1a
participacioon del correspondiente Representante del Secretario del Trabajo de los Estados Unidos de
América.” TM-1-3, 28. ARE

Memorandum: Personal Consular para la proteccion de braceros en Estados Unidos de América: “La
movilizacibn de aproximadamente 400,000 braceros que anualrnente se trasladan a los E.U.A.; su
distribucién geograﬁca en los lugares de empleo; la renovacion periodica de sus contratos de trabajo y
principalmente la proteccién qe se les imparte con arreglo a las estipulaciones expresas a1 Acuerdo
Intemacional en vigor, requieren constantemente la oportuna y eﬁcaz intervencién de nuestros Consulados
en dicho pais.” 25 February 1956. TM-1-3, 186. ARE

29

employers treated them better.17 Word of mouth was a powerful tool of resistance for
braceros within the context of their restricted menu of opportunities underlined by their
ﬁnancial needs. Mexican co-nationals would also take advantage of these opportunities
and make money by exploiting these limitations. Such was the case of the Hernandez
brothers who sold items to the braceros in the ﬁelds.

While the Hernandez brothers, and many other San Ignacians were traveling to
and from Mexico and the United States in a period of more than ten years, they
established not only economic ties between their community of origin and the United
States, they also created families in San Ignacio who became indelibly tied to the US.
Emotional attachments and the creation of family ties while these men were traveling
back and forth were the beginnings of the now very dynamic transnational communities
in Detroit and San Ignacio. Mexican women in the late 19403, 19503 and 19603 although
not a majority, had already begun to migrate in small numbers, particularly to the

Midwest where farmers in the sugar beet industries preferred to hire families taking

 

’7 Document written to Foreign Relations from Consul Miguel G. Calderon “ [. . .] cancelaciones de
contratos que estan propiciando y tambien adjunto la queja sobre trabaj adores mexicanod que desertaron
por las condiciones de vida de los trabajadores.” My emphasis TM-3-5, ARE Cancelacio'n de Contratos
Letter from a bracero to Office of Foreign Relations followed by documents from that ofﬁce to the
Mexican Embassy in Washington DC. Mexican Ambassador writes, “ Uno de nuestros trabajadores fué
apoyado por un nriembro de la Nacional Agricultural Workers Union que siempre se ha opuesto a la
contratacién de trabajadores agricolas mexicanos solamente interviene para persuadir a nuestros
corrrpatriotas a ingresar en dicho sindicato. Este trabajador, Francisco Cano Hernandez hablaba por tres mil
trabajadores quienes le pagaron los gastos para que viajara a Washington a quejarse ante la embajada. La
queja es que trabajaban para la Royal Parking Company de Salinas, California donde el alojamiento y la
alimentacion eran malas y ademas se les cobran $1.75 diarios. También se quejan de que el trabajo no es
continuo y a veces solo trabajan tres horas y se les cobra el alambre que utilizan para el amarre de las
legumbres a $.65 el millar y a veces no se los dan completo. También 3e les da un cobertor por $6 0 $7 y al
terminar e1 contrato tienen que dejarlo en el campamento; 3e les obliga a cubrir $3 mensuales por servicios
medicos y que estos servicios no existen; que ya se habian quejado con el Consul de Mexico en Fresno y no
habia echo nada. De acuerdo a los trabajadores, al quejarse con autoridades del trabajo y el representante
del contratista en represalia ordenaban su deportacion.” 1952.TM-3-6 ARE Documentos sobre la
alimentacio'n de trabajadores.

30

advantage of female and child labor.18 However, in San Ignacio, aside from a few women
who were remembered to have migrated prior or during these three decades it was not
until the beginning of the 19703 that the ﬁrst San Ignacian families began to arrive in
Detroit. Notwithstanding, Dona Anita, Dona Tere, Doﬁa Ana Maria, and many other
women had initiated the formation of these transnational communities in their town of
origin, San Ignacio.’9

Dona Anita, while her husband J esr’rs Hernandez was following a circular
migration, had thirteen children. During a period of fourteen years, Dona Anita had
already initiated a breaking of translocal borders and a series of transgressions
challenging traditional gender roles and the division of labor in a household along with
the many other women whose families were divided by the 2,000 mile long political
border between Mexico and the U S — ironically the distance between Detroit and San
Ignacio is approximately 2,000 miles as well. Dona Anita, Dona Tere, Dona Ana and
Dona Elodia shared more than the common experience of having their husbands be
circular migrants, they were also sisters-in-law, married to Jesus, Delﬁno, Rubén and
Gabriel Heméndez respectively. Needless to say, in the late 19503 when they married,

their position as wives of immigrants was very precarious, considering that their

 

’8 “(By the late 18903 and early 19003) Initially most Midwestern industrial employers did not recruit

Mexicans to work for them because there was little need to do 30. Better wages, greater job security, and
the lure of the city attracted enough workers from other sources. Most early Mexican immigrants to the
Midwest came as agricultural workers to toil in the beet ﬁelds or as members of railway construction and
maintenance crews.” Juan R. Garcia, Mexicans in the Midwest [900-1932 (Tucson: The University of
Arizona Press, 1996), 4-5. For more on this early migration to the Midwest see: Saragoza Vargas,
Proletarians of the North: A History of Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the Midwest, 1917-1933
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). Also, Dionicio Nodin Valdés, Barrios Norterios: St. Paul
and Midwestern Mexican Communities in the Twentieth Century (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000),
177.

’9 See Appendix A, tables 1.2 and 1.5

31

husbands’ paychecks were not always on time, not sent to begin with, lost in the mail, or
worse, their husbands could abandon them, suffer injuries or even death.

In March 1949 Senor José Santos Galvez died in a truck accident while working
as a bracero for the company Fitzgerald Nad Litrov in California, the place which was
usually the stepping stone for most migrants that ended up in the Midwest. Six months
after his death, his wife Senora Eloisa Ortega Viuda de Galvez asked her daughter to
write a letter to the Mexican Consul asking him to help them get the insurance money as
stipulated in her husband’s individual labor contract and that they were entitled to in case
of accident or death. The Mexican Consul in turn wrote to Relaciones Exteriores (The
Ofﬁce of Foreign Relations) asking for permission to act as an arbiter in the dispute over
beneﬁts braceros’ families were entitled to in case of accident or death. Nine months
later, the Mexican consul wrote a letter to Fitzgerald Nad Litrov petitioning for the
compensation owed to the Galvez’s family according to the company’s insurance
policies. The company, after what seemed to be an eternity for the Galvez family, ﬁnally
“sent” compensation papers for the amount of $3,200, which Senora Galvez had to sign
and return agreeing to the stipulated amount. On June of 1950, Senora Galvez again
wrote to the Mexican Consul letting him know that she had never received the company’s
papers and that now she had received an ultimatum from the company stating that if she
did not return the documentation sent to her the company would no longer be responsible
for the compensation. The last letter ﬁled in the archive was dated January 20, 1951 from
Senora Galvez imploring Relaciones Exteriores in Mexico City to intercede on her behalf
since she was unable to travel to California and her family desperately needed the money

for their survival. Senora Galvez and her family were originally from Arandas, J alisco, a

32

town that is about 15 minutes away from San Ignacio. Arandas is the cabeza municipal
(municipality) that San Ignacio belongs to.

Senora Galvez, Dor’ia Ana, Doiia Tere, Doﬁa Ana Maria and Dor‘ia Elodia and
many other women developed survival strategies with husbands away that allowed them
to support their families and to establish a network of support among family members
that included help with the children while they worked. Senora Galvez’s situation clearly
demonstrated some of the precarious situations that immigrants and their families
underwent as they constructed their lives both in the U S and in Mexico. Moreover, it
also illustrates some of the strategies that women began to develop to exploit all of the
resources available to them, such as the Mexican consulate in California and Relaciones
Exteriores in Mexico City. Despite the fact that the Galvez case was unresolved (or not
ﬁled in the archives), Mexicanas, since the conception of the Bracero Program in 1942,
have continued to shape and reshape their positions vis-a-vis U.S. migration.

One of the most important aspects of this positioning is the intersection between
migration and gender. Dona Ana Maria for example, when her husband Ruben decided to
join his brothers in California, was left with four children and 20 pigs to take care of
while he tried his luck in el Norte. Dona Ana Maria and Ruben ultimately had eight
children. Dofla Ana Maria recalled how she managed:

He would send money almost every month, ﬁrst he sent $40 then it went up to
$80, but in the meantime I took care of raising 20 pigs here. I was pregnant and I did
everything in the house and raising the children, I did laundry, I ironed... I tell you
being young is amazing you don’t get as tired, you rest at night and then you get up

with a lot of energy and ready to take care of the children, so while 1 fed one the others

33

needed clean diapers and back then there were no disposable diapers we had to wash
them and iron them, we were so silly we even ironed the diapers, now young women
complain when they only have two children, if they only knew.20

Dona Ana Maria was not alone in playing the role of the mother and the father as
she took control, not only of the family’s ﬁnances but most importantly of all the
decision-making concerning the well being of her immediate family. Traditionally
referred to as unpaid labor, for most women in San Ignacio who had male family
members in the US. it became a door to cross certain local borders that had to do with
the allocation of traditional gender roles. Taking care of their families and their house
chores, although a traditional female gender role, in this case became more complex since
these women for the most part were the heads of their households. To compound the
complexity of this traditional division of labor was the fact that most of them were left in
charge of whatever form of subsistence their husbands had been providing prior to their
leaving, whether the raising of cattle and pigs, milking cows, or other agricultural work.

Some Mexicanas were left in charge of small businesses that their husbands
ﬁnanced with money earned in the US. Such is the case of Dona Anita who took care of
a tortilleria (tortilla making shop) in San Ignacio while her husband Delﬁno worked in
the US. Some of Dona Anita’s thirteen children began to immigrate to the US. and
joined her husband J esus. Nevertheless, Dona Anita took charge of the small business at

the same time that she took care of the household and its respective necessities. This

 

2° Dona Ana, 62 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Me rrrandaba cheques casi cada
mes, me mandaba primero $40 y después $80 pero nrientras tanto yo criaba 20 puercos aqui embarazada.
Yo hacia todo lo de mi casa, lavaba, planchaba. .. 1e digo no la juventud es herrnosa no te cansas, descansas
en la noche te levantas con nuevos brios y con niflos; a uno le daba e1 brberén y al otro, entonces no habia
pahales desechables era lavar y planchar porque éramos tontas y hasta los paﬁales planchaba, que tonta ﬁri,
ahora se quejan con dos.”

34

situation assigned new roles for local women as the facto household heads in the absence
of the adult males.

Dona Tere took care of a small locksmith shop her husband Luis Mercado opened
just eight years after he began his immigration cycle in 1960. She and her oldest
daughters ran the small business ﬁom its inception in 1968 until 1974 when the whole
family left for Detroit. New economies and familial ties began to gradually develop
within these two transnational spaces, San Ignacio and ﬁrst Califomia and Texas and
later exclusively with Detroit. This everyday border crossing opened social and cultural
spaces that allowed women to contest and negotiate traditional gender roles. More
importantly, the responsibilities that gave women the complete control of decision
making within the family while their spouses, male siblings or parents migrated to the
U.S., would enable them to acquire skills that facilitated their own emigrational
experience. Contrary to most of the literature written on migrant women which argues
that it is the emigrational experience that gives Mexicanas the skills to become more
independent and thus challenge gender roles, I contend that the skills stemmed from their
experience while residing in their communities of origin as heads of households.

In 1965, after he decided to leave Texas for Detroit to seek better wages, Don
Chuy asked his brother Luis to join him. Luis Mercado had been in Texas in 1960 as a
bracero but returned to San Ignacio the same year. In 1965 with a tourist visa he joined
_’ his brother in Detroit. Don Chuy and Luis were the ﬁrst San Ignacians to move to Detroit.
The Mercado brothers had been working as Mariachi musicians in San Ignacio prior to
leaving for the U.S., and after Don Chuy arrived in Detroit he decided to continue his

career as a musician. Later, joined by his brother Luis, they played for two years with a

35

group called El Carretero. Shortly after their arrival in Detroit they met a few other
young Latino men and taught them how to play music. Initially they had very little
business, being the ﬁrst ones to take Mariachi music to Detroit. However, after two years
they were hired to play in cantinas, and people also hired them to play for weddings,
baptisms and later even for burial rituals. The seed had been planted by the Mercado
brothers for numerous other San Ignacian families to begin their journeys to Detroit
where they found better jobs in the auto, steel, construction and meat packing industries.
The Mariachi group did well, but not well enough for the men to be able to support their
families and the businesses already opened in San Ignacio, so they looked for jobs that
would give them better remuneration. They never abandoned the Mariachi group
completely, signifying their commitment to establishing a cultural outpost in the north, as
well as pioneering a new place for work in the Midwest.

Within three years of his arrival, Don Chuy had secured a job in a steel company
and through his employer was able to become a documented immigrant and help his
brother “ﬁx his papers” (arreglar). By 1974 Luis had processed his family’s papers and
was able to take them to Detroit without any risks in crossing the border. In 1967, Don
Chuy and his brother Luis contacted the Hernandez brothers in California and told them
of the higher wages and better working conditions, as well as how they felt in terms of
holding more respectable jobs working in the industry rather than working as agricultural
workers in “back-breaking jobs.” In 1969 Jesus, Ruben, Don Gabriel, and Delﬁno
Hernandez moved to Detroit and lived with the Mercado brothers until one by one they
began to rent or buy their own places of residence. Don Gabriel remembered his ﬁrst

experience as an autoworker in a company that built ambulances and UPS trucks,

36

When I arrived in Detroit and I started working, I thought to myself, here they will
not pay me anything. I felt that I was not doing anything, because over there
[California] so many hours of hard labor, and here [Detroit] only nine hours making
little holes with a drill and putting little wires, son of a bitch I was so comfortable!
[. . .] So, the ﬁrst week I knew that they gave out the checks every week but I did not
expect any money and then this guy started to call out names and I was certain that
they would not call my name because this job is too easy, but he did and I took the
piece of paper and put it in my pocket because I did not want to look at it thinking
that it would be insigniﬁcant. But when I went home I opened it and I was making
the same for half the hours I did then [in California] and not doing anything and a
few days later they gave me a raise, so I stayed in that company for over eight

2
years.

The Hernandez brothers were the ﬁrst ones to live with the Mercado brothers after
their arrival to Detroit, but not the last; this was only the beginning of the construction of
social networks that encouraged many more San Ignacians to move to Detroit. They
made their ﬁrst stop at the Mercado’s where they were provided with much more than
just a place of residence. They also received “ﬁnancial support,” information about
available jobs and the working conditions of these, and of course inclusion in one or two
parrandas (parties) with the Mariachi and one or two partidos de football (soccer game
bouts).

The Mercado brothers provided all these in exchange for monetary remuneration,
in other words, usually when a San Ignacian anived in Detroit, the Mercados would

either lend them money to start them of, or they would wait until they had jobs in order to

get paid. This system became much more accentuated once the social networks began to

 

2’ Don Gabriel and his son Sergio Hernandez, 70 and 46 years of age respectively, interview in San
Ignacio, December 2001. “ Cuando llegue que empece a trabajar yo dije aqui no me van a pagar, no me van
a pagar, sentia que no hacia nada, ay porque alla tantas horas aca nueve horas con un drill haciendo
aujeritos poniéndole alanrbritos, hijo de la mailana! [. . .] 0 sea que la semana primera la dejaba mejor
porque daban cheques a la semana y yo ya sabia, pero ni esperaba, pues enrpezo fulano a decir nombres, y
yo me dije, a mi no me van a llamar pues este trabajo esta regalado y pues ya me hablaron, agarre el papel y
ni lo quise ver, dije sabe a como y me lo eche a la bolsa y cuando llegaba a la casa pues ya lo abri y ganaba
lo rrrismo que alla y sin hacer nada y menos horas y al rato me aumentaron y todo total que me quede mas
de ocho aﬁos ahi.” My parenthesis, 2001.

37

grow, where family members would borrow money for the “journey” — whether
documented to pay for the trip or undocumented to pay for the “coyote” and the trip —
and pay the money back (either with interest or without, depending on the relationship to
the lender). The contours of these social networks began to be visible once some of the
Hernandez brothers brought their families, as well as Luis Mercado who unlike Don
Chuy, did move his family to Detroit.

In as much as their lives changed once they moved to Detroit in the late 19603 and
early 19703, San Ignacians would continue to go back to their sending community once
every year or once every two years. Initially San Ignacians had to get permission from the
factories they were working for in order to go back to Mexico. However, once the
industrial boom of the 19403, 19503 and 19603 began to deteriorate in the 19703 Mexican
workers found jobs primarily in construction work and landscaping. These jobs enabled
them to leave Detroit at the beginning of the winter months October-November and
retum in March-April. Usually during these months they were laid off and most of them
were able to collect unemployment depending on their employers. These dates coincided
with the traditional religious festivities in San Ignacio. When the ﬁrst braceros from San
Ignacio left to the US. these celebrations were local and very small, usually celebrated
by different colonias in the towns. This, however, would change dramatically as the
development of the transnational communities became economically and culturally more
signiﬁcant.

When San Ignacian immigrants returned home in the 19503 and 19603 most of
them hired as braceros, their arrival was a very private, familial and intimate process.

They returned primarily to see their families and to make sure that they were well taken

38

care of. As they continued to return, so their families continued to grow. San Ignacio is a
very Catholic-centered town in the Cristero region22 of the western part of Mexico; and
while women have historically contested religious oppression in several ways, child
bearing in San Ignacio continued to be inﬂuenced by the church’s prohibition of methods
of contraception, and lack of information.

In addition to religious prohibitions on women’s sexual choices, the town had not
been introduced to mass media in the mid-twentieth century. Asides from a few radios
here and there23 people in general were absorbed with strategies for survival, and hence
the church became the primary source of cultural production. The priest as the producer
of knowledge became indispensable in the social, cultural, as well as religious lives of
San Ignacians. Social life revolved around the family and the church-organized activities.
San Ignacio was a small town in the 19403 and 19503. Dona Ana Maria, a nurse assigned
to work in San Ignacio in 1959, remembered, “oh my it was a very small town with about
100 houses that were very small. [. . .] The church has been renovated through time and it

is now much bigger than how it was, but its facade style remains the same.”24

 

22 Los Altos de Jalisco along with Michoacan were the matrix of the Cristero Revolt 1926-1929. Because
of their strong religious beliefs and their attachment to traditional modes of land ownership via the ejido
(community owned land) the western part of Mexico rose in arms when the new centralized government
driven by anticlerical sentiments and the agrarian reform — principally to privatize landownership —
threatened the population’s way of life and their systems of belief. When the Mexican president Manuel
Avila Camacho threatened to dispossess the church ﬁom its land holdings and to ban mass services
aggravated by the conrplete reform of land distribution, Mexicans began a revolt that was to last three
years. For more information on the Cristero Revolt see Jennie Pumell, Popular Movements and State
Formation in Revolutionary Mexico: The Agraristas and Cristeros of Michoacrin (Durham and London:
Duke University Press, 1999).

23 Don Cosme Martinez, 83 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001. “L . .] Un radio traje la
primera vez nada mas de Arkansas. También luego me traje otro. No pues aqui de todos modos en esta
parte fué en el 57 (1957) muy buen radio. Si ese radio 10 vendi yo y le saqué 1,000 pesos que en ese tiernpo

5" Doha Ana, 62 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Uf, era un pueblito chiquitito con
100 casas. [. . .] la iglesia la han ampliado mas, pero e1 estilo de afuera no le han cambiado nada.” 2003

39

in.

la:

C6

the

.....

The church had been a place of worship, but also a place to gather and talk to
friends and families after mass. Socializing through the church activities was embedded
in San Ignacians’ cultural life. The religious celebrations were a good example of such
social activities. During the celebrations bands played and small nomadic carnivals along
with food vendors gathered around the plaza in front of the church, and the celebrations
lasted only a few days. For the immigrants, however, these festivities were religious
celebrations for the Virgin of Guadalupe and social gatherings. During the decades that
followed WWII, contrary to the past ﬁfteen years, Mexican immigrants ﬁ'om San Ignacio
were not publicly recognized as heroes or heroines in these celebrations, they were family
members returning home. In these intimate arrivals, Mexican immigrants and their
families enjoyed each other’s reunion and children awaited impatiently for the things that
their fathers brought with them. Sergio remembered how he felt,

When my dad was hired as a bracero in 1964, I was very young, about eight, I
remember that he would leave and we would stay, [. . .] and we would wait for the
time of the religious celebrations and Christmas for him to come back. He would
bring back a lot of things, a lot of toys and food that was new to us because we had
never seen it before. He would also bring clothes and toys, like those airplanes with
batteries that we did not have here. I remember my favorite was an airplane with
propellers and it would raise itself and it had lights on the wings and everything
moved by itself. It had a small ladder and it had a door that opened in the back, it
was so great.25

Don Chuy, Don Gabriel, Don Ramon and many more men that returned home to visit

their families, privately and more intimately were heroes, heroes to their own families,

 

25 Don Gabriel and his son Sergio Hernandez, 70 and 46 years of age respectively, interview in San
Ignacio, December 2001. “Yo me acuerdo de que se iba y aqui nos quedabamos. [. . .] y nadamas
esperabamos a mas o meno este tiernpo (las ﬁestas de la virgen) a que viniera para navidad. Cuando venia
traia muchas cosas, muchos juguetes y cosas de corner 0 alguna cosa nueva que no hubiera aqui. Traia ropa,
juguetes, aviones con baterias que aqui no habia ni nada de eso. My juguete favorito era un avion dc hélices
que se paraba y tenia sus luces en las alas y todo se paraba solo y tenia una escalerita y abria la cola, 3i muy
bonito.”

4O

especially their children. Don Gabriel’s son Sergio Hernandez remembered how he grew
up with the idea of at some point in his life going north as well. Many years later when
Sergio was 18 years old he would leave San Ignacio to join his father Don Gabriel in
Detroit. Today, however, when Sergio returns for the annual religious festivities in San
Ignacio he stands proudly in the long line of hundreds of immigrants that form behind a
banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe and a big colorful sign that reads: DETROIT. They
are waiting for the procession to begin, and they wait patiently dressed in their best
clothes along with their families carrying the several gifts the priest has instructed them
to bring: candles of a particular size that will ﬁt all the candle holders in the church, wine
of a speciﬁc brand name that is used for mass, ﬂowers of all colors, and of course the one
gift that is not so visible but that its presence is more than obvious: dollars. In 2003, the
immigrants from Detroit gave father Ignacio Ramos Puga $14,000 to purchase an
enormous image of Jesus Christ that would be housed in the church. These religious
celebrations are no longer called “las ﬁestas de la virgen,” they are now called “las
ﬁestas de los hijos ausentes” (the celebrations for the absent children: the immigrants).

As in San Ignacio, the church in Detroit became the center by which the newly
established transnational communities would begin to establish social networks that
would support newcomers as well as provide families with different kinds of
entertainment. Most San Ignacians began to purchase homes in what is now called
Mexican Town in Southwest Detroit where houses were affordable to them. In the
vicinity of the neighborhood there were two churches, the Holy Redeemer and Santa
Ana. Religious iconography and worship was something that San Ignacians could

identify with in Detroit, despite the many barriers they confronted, among them, racist

41

and prejudicial sentiments from native white Detroitians, but also language and culture.
Don Gabriel recalled how in 1972 he wanted to bring all of his family, but when he went
to the INS, they told him that he needed to make more money in order to allow the
residencies for all of his family,
I wanted to ﬁx the papers for all the family from the beginning but they would not
accept my petitions because according to them I did not make enough money to
bring them. So I explained to them that I did not make more because I had to go
back to Mexico twice a year to see my family because I did not want to leave them
without my protection but ﬁnally [. . .] thanks to a priest there he called a lawyer
ﬁiend of his and the lawyer went to immigration and said to them, “you can not
keep this family separate this young man makes enough money and has already
bought a house for his family to join him.” The name of the priest was Father
Francisco Amico.26
Despite the fact that women in San Ignacio raised their children, took care of
household chores, worked on the ﬁelds, tended cattle and pigs, and usually managed a
small business, their husbands still maintained the idea that without them the family
was “unprotected” and vulnerable to economic and emotional doom.

This priest, Francisco Amico, was also mentioned when Dona Tere recounted her
experience when she had just arrived in Detroit in 1969. Dona Tere was the ﬁrst woman
from San Ignacio to arrive in Detroit. Her husband Delﬁno had worked out the petitions
to bring his family and after she had her last child they all moved to Detroit to join their

father. Dona Tere did not know any other women in Detroit, but as soon as she anived

she met a woman from Chihuahua, Mexico, who immediately beﬁiended her and began

 

26 Don Gabriel and Sergio Hernandez, 70 and 46 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio,
December 2001. “Yo les queria arreglar a todos desde un principio, pero no rrre aceptaban, que ganaba
poco, pues era a1 aflo y yo tenia que venir (a Mexico) casi dos veses al afro para ver a mi familia. Yo no
queria desampararlos nunca los desampare. [. . .] Pero luego por medio de un sacerdote alla (Detroit)
agarro un abogado amigo de él bueno, ese abogado hablo con migracion y dijo, “tu no tienes porque tener
separado a esta familia, este muchacho ya tiene casa, tiene en que moverse y quiere a su familia aqui.” The
name of the priest was father Francisco Arrrico. My emphasis and my parenthesis.

42

to inform her about the different schools for the children, the health centers available to
them, and the nearest food market. She also told Doﬁa Tere of the churches that were
near the neighborhood and Doﬁa Tere took her family to the Holy Redeemer church,
which was close to her home. Dona Tere recollected,
She immediately became my friend, and informed me about the school so that my
four children that were of age could go, Héctor, Martin, Gustavo y Graciela and oh
yes and Lorena. And also Father Francisco helped me get them to the Holy
Redeemer school, because there I had to pay and when I got there it was already
time for them to start school and for me to pay the tuition, and I needed help from
someone because I had to come up with the money.27
It is important to mention that even though Dofia Tere was the ﬁrst San Ignacian to arrive
in Detroit, she established cross-Mexican and cross-Latinas afﬁliations that enabled her
to lay the foundation for the support of social networks that women would take over as
the transnational community began to grow.

Most of San Ignacian families arriving in the early 19703 made connections with
the church and chose whether they would go to the Holy Redeemer church or Santa Ana.
Dona Teresa and her husband Luis Mercado preferred Santa Ana at ﬁrst because it was
the ﬁrst church that began to offer mass in Spanish. Later the Holy Redeemer also
acknowledged the growth of the Mexican population in the neighborhood and began to

give mass in Spanish. Nevertheless Dona Teresa remembers when the mass was given in

English: “Well to begin with I did not understand anything but I still went there. Once

 

2’ Doha Tere, 73 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001. “ Ella luego luego se hizo mi
amiga y me did proteccion 0 sea me ayudo para que entraran mis cuatro hijos que llevaba a la escuela,
He'ctor, Martin, Gustavo y Graciela a 3i y Lorena. Me ayudé el padre Francisco porque para que entraran a
la escuela del Holy Redeemer, porque ahi 3e tenia que pagar y ya era tierrrpo de que entraran y yo
necesitaba ayuda de alguién proque tenia que pagar desde antes la colegiatura.”

43

they began to give mass in Spanish, well it was very nice.”28 The Mercado family
changed to the Holy Redeemer because it was close to their home. And so many families
remembered how they began to offer a mass in Spanish at the Holy Redeemer’s
basement, but then the growth of the population overgrew the basement and now both the
Santa Ana and the Holy Redeemer churches deliver three masses each on Sundays in
Spanish to accommodate mostly San Ignacians that live in Mexican Town.

With more women and families arriving in Detroit, this transnational community
began to ﬂourish. From the 19703 on it was the women who began to support, shape,
contest and construct the social networks that facilitated the ﬂow of San Ignacians to
Detroit.29 Taking over the already established social networks that the Mercado brothers
had initiated, Mexicanas took over the responsibility of constructing these social
networks that have historically been the catalysts for the grth of so many transnational
communities in the world. As women from San Ignacio began to form relationships with
one another, they shared information about jobs, schools for their children, English
language courses for themselves, health care available to them and many more important
issues concerning their new lives in Detroit. Like Father Ignacio put it at the beginning of
this chapter, it was as if Mexicanas told their male counterparts what the Virgin of
Guadalupe told San Ignacio de Loyola “haste que hay te voy.”30 Moreover, Mexicanas
from San Ignacio are now an integral part of the grandiose annual one-week long

celebrations in their sending community the last week of January. They stand in line

 

28 Doﬂa Teresa and Luis Mercado, 67 and 71 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio,
December 2001. “Pues de bueno no la entendia pero yo de todos modos iba, ya que la hicieron en Espar‘rol
pues ya mas bonita.”

0See Appendix A, table 1. 1 and 1.2.

0Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, November 2001. “Get out of the way
because here I come.”

waiting for the procession to move forward with their families and friends by their side to
show off proudly their success as immigrants. This common experience as immigrants
shapes women’s conceptualizations of notions of “womanhood”, “femininity”, and
“sexuality,” that are inherent in the way they construct their everyday lives.

It is during these festivities that both immigrants and non-immigrants share their
common experiences as a well-founded and dynamic transnational community. The
celebrations emphasize the mobility and the permeability of San Ignacians’ identities and
the way they perceive their realities. Among the many visible transformations of San
Ignacians’ shared experiences is the way women take advantage of the procession for the
hijos ausentes (absent children) to challenge notions of female appropriate behavior via
their clothing, the courting rituals - that take place during the months when most
immigrants return to San Ignacio - and the way they talk about their sexuality. In 2003
when I witnessed for the ﬁrst time the ﬁesta de los ausentes there were a few women
lined up in the procession that ended up in the church for the mass especially orchestrated
rehearsed and directed toward the immigrants. Some of the immigrant women were
dressed very “provocatively” according to older women. They were wearing tight
dresses, that were “too” short, and “too” revealing - the cleavages on the dresses were
steep - challenging religious and social mores of appropriate feminine behavior. Father
Manuel Ramos Puga, however, did not make any attempt to address this issue, which was
more than obvious, causing many older, and also some younger women to gossip and
criticize them. Furthermore, the regional bishop, who was hosting the mass that day, did
not intercede either, focusing on his sermon for that day and thanking several times the

immigrants for the grand contribution of $14,000 to buy the enormous image of Jesus

45

Christ that was to be revealed and celebrated that day. It is to these challenges to religious

and social mores by women from San Ignacio that I turn to in the following chapter.

46

Chapter II

“Ya esta cerrada con tres candados

y remachada, la puerta negra

Porque tus padres estan celosos

y tienen miedo que yo te quiera

Han de pensar que estando encerrada
vas a dejar pronto de quererme

pero la puerta, ni cien candados

van a poder a mi detenerme.”

Los Tigres del Nortel

(It is already closed, locked with three padlocks,
and secured, the black door

because your parents are jealous,

and they are afraid that I am in love with you.
They may think that since your are locked in
you will stop loving me,

but neither the door, nor one htmdred padlocks
will be able to stop me).

Transnational Sexualities

“My husband and I met when he used to sell milk and I was only 15, so we started
to talk. We used to talk through a hole on the wall.”2 Many women in San Ignacio began
their courtship by sneaking conversations with their boyfriends through holes and cracks
on walls or doors and sometimes in a ﬁesta or going to the serenatas on Sundays. Parents
were very strict about their daughters dating, “Yes, my parents were very strict, I couldn’t
go out with him. No, I had to chat while standing by the door in my house. Every so often
maybe I saw him in a kermes or a serenata in the plaza if we were lucky.”3 Lola was the

third of fourteen siblings of whom ten resided in Detroit. She had nine children of her

 

' Los Tigres del Norte. “La Puerta Negra. " Coleccién de Oro (Mexico, D.F:Ciscos Musart, S.A. DE c.v.,
2000).
2 Tina and Saril, 47 and 52 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Mi esposo y
yo nos conocirnos cuando e1 vendia leche y yo lo veia pasar. Empezamos a platicar, platicabamos por un
hoyito en la pared.”

Lola, 50 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Si eran muy extrictos, no podia salir con 61, no,
tenia que platicar ahi en la puerta de la casa y de repente en alguna kermes o alguna serenata ahi en la plaza
era donde nos veiamos nada més.”

47

A“

own and her oldest daughter had one. Lola began to talk to her daughters about using
contraceptives when they were very young because she thought that despite her Catholic
beliefs, having so many children was a difﬁcult task, particularly when you had to
provide for them in Detroit. She also felt that the lack of information available to her
when she was younger was minimal and the Billings method (the rhythm) that the church
recommended was obsolete. “I was suppose to have only four, but to be honest with you
we used the Billings method and I had ﬁve more.” For this reason she thought prudent to
have a more open conversation with her daughters and her only son as well.

The use of contraceptives was and continues to be a very contested terrain for
Mexicanas; however, younger generations are more open when talking about sexual
practices with their partners. “I think that now that I have my partner and we are stable it
is important that you get to know each other completely. Sex is very important in a
couple, I think that understanding each other in that way is very important. [. . .] I don’t
think it’s that vital to be a virgin when you marry, although many men are still very

.”" Like this younger generation of

sexist, not just San Ignacian men all men in general
Mexicanas, older women also commented on how they never received any information
from their mothers about sexuality and that caused them many tribulations.

In the history of immigration, scholars for the most part have ignored the role of

sexuality in shaping immigrant communities, gender relations, and Mexicanas’ lives. In

this chapter I will analyze how women from San Ignacio have identiﬁed and deﬁned their

 

4 Vivi, 28 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Yo pienso que ahorita que tengo a mi pareja es
todo estable. Yo pienso que tienes que conocerte en todos sentidos y el sexo es bien importante en una
pareja. Yo creo que entenderte err ese sentido es bien importante. Yo si pienso que no es tan irrrportante ser
virgen o no antes del matrimonio. [. . .] muchos hombres son machistas, si porque yo creo que no nada mas
los de San Ignacio, todos son machistas.”

48

notions of sexuality and how they have positioned themselves vis-a-vis discourses on
sexuality that have historically, in a patriarchal social system, remained in the hands of
the state and several institutions such as schools, the family, health clinics and the church.
Moreover, the immigrant experience, I argue, has historically changed and constructed
different patterns of gender “appropriate” behavior that have challenged social
institutions. In turn these institutions have struggled to maintain the power to manage,
regulate and discipline the sexuality of women speciﬁcally in their roles as mothers,
wives, and daughters, and as Mexican immigrant women.5 I will also introduce the
concept “transnational sexualities” by challenging assumed deﬁnitions of
transnationalism that have fragmented immigrant’s experiences into two different sets of
understandings -— one in their community of origin and the other in the US. Transnational
sexualities refer to these experiences as one set of constructed notions that are integral to
Mexican immigrant’s experiences in San Ignacio and Detroit.

The church and local authorities in San Ignacio and Detroit have been
instrumental in the process of regulating and responding to women’s sexuality since the
19403, and have exercised different roles as the primary possessors of discourse on
morality and deﬁnitions of normativity. The motivations driving the church as well as the

local and regional authorities in Mexico have been inﬂuenced by several historical,

 

5 Foucault’s The History of Sexuality Volume 1, stresses that the conﬁguration of sexuality and sexual
practices were socially constructed as discourses. He questions the ownership of such discourses and the
power that many social institutions — medical, political, educational, and religious - had to appropriate and
disseminate these discourses. An irrrportant contribution of Foucault’s analysis is the relationship between
the individual and the state. Foucault’s analysis utilized the image of a grid that has divided power between
several institutions that transformed over the last three centuries through the ownership —or lack thereof - of
such discourses. However, Foucault’s analysis lacks an in depth examination of gender relations which in
turn inspires the development of such discourses by appropriating, challenging, accommodating and
contesting their meanings. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Volume I. (New
York: Vintage Books A Division of Random House, Inc., 1978).

49

economic, cultural and political factors. One signiﬁcant inﬂuence has been the millions
of dollars that immigrants send to the community of origin in the forms of remittances —
10 million annually according to Tito who owns a service for sending remittances to
Mexico from Detroit.6 Since the 19403 the church, as the main producer of culture and as i
the center for social activities as well as the keeper and overseer of moral values, has
continued its effort to dictate women’s reproductive “obligations” through confession and
through the many church activities that target the management and control of women’s
sexuality seen through a patriarchal social lens that focuses on marriage.7

In the last three decades another incentive for the local authorities to intercede
along with the church on discourses on morality and religious mores has been the town’s
efforts since the 19703 to become a municipality.8 One of the many requirements that San

Ignacians had to meet in order to become a municipality was to increase their population

 

6 Trino, 57 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “[. . .] y se rrre ocurrrio poner un envio de dinero a
San Ignacio, entonces yo se lo que entra en San Ignacio diariamente o anualrnente, entonces yo le calculo
que a San Ignacio entra anualrnente 10 rnillones de délares.”

Also, Manuel Garnio began analyzing Mexican migration to the US. in 1927 by looking at remittances sent
from the US. to Mexico. In his seminal work, Garnio looks at remittances sent to the state of Jalisco which
underlines the historical continuity of Jalisco as a major sending state, and at the same time the economic
importance of remittances to the corrrrnunities of origin.

7 Dona Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 10, 2002. “(in 1949) [. . .] El senor
Cura nos tenia que indoctrinar, nos tenia que preguntar el catequismo si 10 sabiamos e1 catequismo, que
hablaba del matrirnonio verdad. Que iba a ser para toda la vida y como te cornprorrretes a educar. Todo eso
preguntas y nos doctrinaba, e1 adentro en la sacristia 0 en su cuartito su despacho lo que ahora la notaria
...” My parenthesis.

Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001. “[. . .] entonces quieren venir (los
migrantes) y en caliente rapido a quererse casar. Entonces algunos ya corno que agarran la onda porque
saben de que alla no son las platicas sino que es todo un aﬂo que tienen sus platicas cada mes o cada quince
dias. Y aqui se supone que estamos en el pueblo hay mas contacto, mas relacion y pues tiene su retiro son
catequistas y otras vienen a1 catequismo 3e conocen més o menos la gente 3e preparan y hacen su retiro de
dos o tres dias. (en esos retiros) 3e les habla de una manera en general sobre ya de la vida matrimonial
inclusive sobre paternidad responsable, sobre el método Billings.”

8 San Ignacio Cerro Gordo belonged to the delegacion Cerro Gordo itself belonging to the

municipio of Arandas in the state of Jalisco in the Mid-Westem part of Mexico. Since the beginning of my
research the community has continued its efforts to become a Municipality and they have accorrrplished the
goal. By 2007 San Ignacio Cerro Gordo will be able to elect a Presidente Municipal and be totally
independent of Arandas.

50

numbers, which Arandas (a town nearby San Ignacio) and the State of Jalisco claimed
were low. San Ignacians appealed to have the immigrants living in Detroit counted in
their Census arguing that they were active economic participants. They were denied.
However, they did meet the population numbers sometime in 2003 to become a
Municipality.’ In 2001, while giving mass, Father Ramiro appealed to the immigrants’
sense of obligation through paternidad responsable (responsible parenthood) by
demanding that they have more children and accusing them of not following the church’s
dictates of relying only on the Billings method, (the rhythm) as a means of birth control.
He reprimanded them for denying their cultural roots of having traditional large families.
Another very strong social motivation from these San Ignacian institutions was
the fear that services focusing on health and sex education in the United States along with
cultural factors might diminish traditional religious control and management of sexuality
and interfere with their efforts to control both morality and sexuality discourses,
particularly issues on reproduction.10 In the United States, efforts to assimilate Mexican

immigrants through state regulated educational campaigns on the one hand and the

 

9 “San Ignacio is being put on the rrrap next year — literally. The steady stream of Detroit money has created
enough hope of an independent economy that the Mexican government will make San Ignacio an official
municipality. “Detroit is very important in getting us to this step,” says José Luis Orozco, the president of
the town delegation to make San Ignacio ofﬁcial.” In “On the Map” Detoit News, Sunday, March 6, 2005.
“Sera benéﬁco para Jalisco la creacién de dos nuevos municipios San Ignacio Cerro Gordo y Capilla de
Guadalupe, a que brindara mayor atencion a los habitantes, aseguraron investigadores de la Universidad de
Guadalajara (UdeG).” Noticias Notimex, 31de mayo del 2005. For more information on San Ignacio’s
municipalisacion see also San Ignacio’s web page: http://www. Sanignaciocg.da.ru/

’0 Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001. “(the immigrants) 3i tambien han
sido inﬂuenciados por esa costumbre de que alla (Detroit) es muy facil muy comodo y si tu quieres hasta
moralmente y hasta se promueve e] “no seas tonta nada rrras ten dos hijos” cuando que sus costumbres sus
tradiciones aca en su pueblo son familias de 10 de 12 y alla pues esa muchachita que pertenece a una
familia de 12 pues pierde todo eso. No necesariamente tienen que ser de 8,9, 0 10 pero tiene que ser lo que
llamamos una paternidad responsable que es de pareja y que es conciencia delante de Dios en cuanto al
tienrpo y las circunstancias que estamos viviendo pues hay que organizarse hay que planiﬁcar su fanrilia
conforme a las normas de la iglesia catolica y ellos alla (Detrotit) pues no se guian por la iglesia catolica.”
My parenthesis and my emphasis.

51

importance of the local Catholic Church on the other have also been instrumental in the
production of discourses on morality and normativity.11 Americanization programs
targeting Latinos were rampant in the United States from the beginning of the twentieth
century, but after World War 11 they intensiﬁed in tandem with a nationalist discourse as
the US. asserted its global hegemony and cold war stance. This national effort to
assimilate Latinos, but Mexicans in particular - depended on regional population growth
of Mexicans in places such as Los Angeles, and in this case Detroit — was intended to
acculturate and “integrate” them into the social fabric. In the Midwest, these
Americanization programs were instituted by several social and religious organizations
such as settlement houses and the Catholic Church.12 Some of the services provided by
these institutions included: “English language training, cooking, sewing, and child care
[which] were less concerned with changing identities than preparing workers for speciﬁc
segments of the job market or performing their domestic roles more effectively.”13 Both
institutionalized religious and state sponsored programs worked under racist and
pernicious stereotypes about Mexicans. The Catholic Church in Detroit, unlike its
counterpart in San Ignacio - which encouraged immigrants to hold on to their traditional

rootsl4 — joined the Americanization frenzy targeted towards Mexicans in particular and

 

it See Vicky Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (NY
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). In her work, Ruiz focuses on state and church-sponsored
Americanization programs that targeted Mexican mothers in hope that their offspring would “integrate”
themselves to the social fabric of, in this particular case, El Paso, Texas, “targeting women and especially
children, the vanguard of Americanization placed their trust in the rising generation,” 33.

’2 Dionicio Nodin Valdez, Barrios Norter'ios: St. Paul and Midwestern Mexican Communities in the
Twentieth Century (Austin: University of Texas, 2000), 114-128. For more information on Americanization
Programs in the Midwest see Juan R. Garcia, Mexicans in the Midwest [900-1932 (Tucson: The University
ofArizona Press, 1996) 141-145, 176-178, 215-221.

‘3 Ibid., 119.

’4 Padre Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001. “Si bueno pues podemos decir de
echo la misa tiene este sentido hacerles ver [a los rnigrantes] que no pierdan sus valores morales cristiano

52

began a series of programs to promote the complete shedding of what they perceived to

be the “Mexican identity,”

“Detroit Archbishop Edward Moody (1937-1958) initiated a conscious and public
effort to repress Mexican culture. Early in his tenure, he presided over the closing of
Nuestra Seriora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), and despite the frequent
pleas he refused to permit parishioners to construct another national church or to
engage in any Mexican religious or cultural functions under church auspices,
claiming that such activities would impede Americanization. Furthermore, the
archbishop demanded that “no racial or nationality distinction be made toward the
Mexican. He absolutely forbids the priests giving any encouragement to the idea of
a church especially for Mexicans, and this applies to other organizations, religious
or otherwise.” Saginaw priest Peter T. F eixa concurred: “churches for Mexicans
would tend to segregate them.”15

Nevertheless, these institutions did provide social services and educational programs,
English lessons in particular, that Mexicans took advantage of revealing their intent to
embrace opportunities within oppressive structures.

In her work on Mexican women in the twentieth-century, Vicky Ruiz introduces
her concept of “cultural coalescence” whereby “[Mexican] Irnmi grants and their children

pick, borrow, retain, and create distinctive cultural forms.”16 In her work, Ruiz begins to

unpack certain understandings of transnationalism. However, her work places Mexican

 

que no pierdan sus tradiciones sus costumbres y eso nos toca a sus rrrismas familias y al sacerdote y a las
personas que estan aqui en el pueblo. Las rnismas autoridades civiles pues hombre una obra de teatro que
instrulle, festivales culturales no le hace que sean modemos pero que llevan un mensaje que entretengan a
los jévenes.”

‘5 Ibid., 152-153.

The church Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (The Lady of Guadalupe Church)was built in 1923 as a response
to the growing Mexican population in Detroit. See Norman Daymond Humphrey “The Migration and
Settlement of Detroit Mexicans,” in Economic Geography, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1943), 358-361. Also see
the other racist articles written and published by the sociologist Norman Daymond Humphrey: “The Detroit
Mexican Irnnrigrant and Naturalization,” in Social Forces, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Man, 1944), 332-335; “The
Education and Language of Detroit Mexicans,” in Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 17, No. 9 (May,
1944), 534-542; “Some dietary and Health Practices of Detroit Mexicans,” in The Journal of American
Folklore, Vol. 58, No. 229 (Jul. — Sep., 1945), 255-258; “The Housing and Household Practices of Detroit
Mexicans,” in Social Forces, Vol. 24, No. 4 (May, 1946), 433-437.

’6 Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows, xvi

53

immigrant women as a backdrop to Chicana history. Chicanas take the center stage,
limiting her analysis of Mexican immigrant women. Nevertheless, Ruiz emphasizes
subjectivity and agency, and she also delineates the contours of how these Euroarnerican
institutions were obsessed with managing and disciplining Mexican immigrants’ lives.
Despite their differing social, cultural, political and religious agendas, the institutions in
Mexico and the US. have been instrumental inﬂuences on Mexican immigrants’
experiences and their constructions of gender relations and notions of sexuality.

San Ignacians have continued to respect and practice their religious beliefs. Most
immigrants that I interviewed identiﬁed closely with the local churches they attended in
Detroit and in San Ignacio. The immigrant experience has shaped and reshaped the
discourses on morality and sexuality as well as redeﬁned the concepts of normativity.
Despite the church’s strong and authoritarian presence, women in San Ignacio and
Detroit have created complex cultural and social processes that informed their notions of
sexuality. These notions did not necessarily adhere to church regulations on sexual
mores. Gradually, women’s interpretations and manifestations of sexuality have become
uncontested both by the church and patriarchal-informed institutions. Authority over
marriage and family revealed an increasing power of women in the transnational process.
However, despite the fact that gender relations, as socially constructed processes,
continued to inﬂuence and be inﬂuenced by immigration, these usually unfold within a
patriarchal social order, thus limiting certain options available to women. Sexuality both
as a discourse and as a set of practices has continuously produced several meanings and
interpretations that are inherent in the way both men and women approach each other,

and how they construct and deﬁne their notions of masculinity and femininity.

54

In the case of Mexican immigrants and the creation of transnational communities,
sexuality has been constantly informed, shaped and reshaped by the immigrant
experience. The relationship that immigrants construct in Detroit with the community of
origin has reorganized and transformed a spatial and geographic distance into an
interstice that gives way to several interpretations of social life and the way people relate
to one another. I am introducing the concept “transnational sexualities” which refers in
particular to this interstice placed within an historical context of how San Ignacians have
enabled, shaped and mediated as well as appropriated constructions of sexuality through
their experience as irnmi grants. Furthermore, transnational sexualities show how some
women have transgressed gendered “forbidden spaces” dictated by patriarchal institutions
- religious, secular and civil - and created their own space informed by a shared
experience as immigrants, by the US. and Mexico’s cultural and social changes, and by
their accommodations and contestations of their everyday life in the United States and in
San Ignacio. Transnational sexualities are constructed by a set of dialectically informed
contradictions that despite what many academicians may think, are not necessarily
affected by a bipolar understanding of “traditional” versus “modem?” Transnational

sexualities, I argue, are not a hybridization of two opposing stereotypes of Mexican —

 

’7 Authors like Anthony Giddens, in The Consequences of Modernity (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1990) and Carlos Monsivais in “(,Tantos millones de hombres no hablaremos ingles? (La cultura
norteramericana en México).” Sinrbiosis de culturas: Los inmigrantes y su cultura en Mexico, edited by
Guillermo Bonﬁl Batalla, (Mexico, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Economics, 1993) who have argued that
changes in cultural attitudes towards sexuality are becoming more “modern” and that eventually
“traditional” values will disappear as modernity re-conceptualizes cultural changes on Mexican sexuality.
This argument permeates literature that refers to any or most cultural change in Mexico not just on
sexuality. The idea that “traditional” means backward and “modem” means progressive is in my opinion
inconsequential.

55

traditional and backward — or Euroarnerican -modem and progressive — sexualities;18

transnational sexualities are a creation - not a hybridization or amalgamation - by
Mexicanos and Mexicanas of the changes in their attitudes and understandings of
femininity and masculinity and how these express themselves in their everyday
understandings of their lives and their relationships with one another.

Unlike most of the literature on Mexican immigration to the United States, this
analysis transcends geographical borders and incorporates immigrant’s experiences both
in their community of origin and in Detroit. Previous research has focused either on
Mexicanas in the US.19 or in Mexico.20 This analysis reinterprets the term
“transnational” by arguing that academicians have fragmented the meaning of the
concept transnational. We can not make assumptions historical or otherwise (sociological

or anthropological) on social constructions of the immigrant experience without taking

 

’8 Even authors like Héctor Carrillo who argue that we can not separate the “traditional from the “modern,”
but consider them part of a hybrid culture in a space where both exist is still falling victim to this limiting
binary opposition in The Night is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the time of A ids, (Chicago and London:
The University of Chicago Press, 2002), 293. He argues, “L . .] Mexicans seemed to strongly favor the
search for ways to adopt contemporary values while at the same time respecting core traditions (or at least
appearing to respect them). This respect translates, in my opinion, into the presence of mixed attitudes that
might appear to contain contradictions but that individuals managed to hold with some coherence within
their own worldview.”

’9 Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo in Gendered transitions: Mexican experiences of immigration (Berkeley &
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994). In her most recent work, Doméstica she again focuses
on Mexicanas and other Latinas in Los Angeles, but makes very limited interrelational connections to their
communities of origin, and usually just as a point of comparison for constructions on notions of
motherhood. Also, sociologist Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez in her essay “De madres a hijas: Gendered Lessons
on Virginity across Generations of Mexican lmrnigrant Women,” in Gender and US. Immigration:
Contemporary Trends, eds, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of
California Press: 1999), 217-240, focuses on Mexicanas in Los Angeles; and although she produced
seminal work that introduced studies of sexuality into academic work on Mexicanas in the U.S., it also
lacks a thread that connects Mexicanas in Los Angeles and Mexicanas in their communities of origin and
the interlocking of this connection that creates, in my opinion, new meanings and understandings on
sexuality.

20 Ofelia Woo Morales in Las Mujeres T ambién nos Vamos al Norte (Universidad de Guadalajara, 2001),
focuses on Mexicanas from Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco. Most Mexican scholars who focus on Mexicanas and
their migration to the United States center their arguments on the communities of origin, leaving behind
their experiences in the United States.

56

into consideration the sending community and its sister in the United States as integral
parts of the whole. One cannot exist without the other. Social constructions on sexuality
are informed by both experiences and these in turn create new meanings and
understandings of not only sexuality but social, cultural, economic and political realities
that apply to Mexicanos’ and Mexicanas’ everyday lives whether in San Ignacio or in
Detroit. I argue that we cannot separate them because these processes are not quantiﬁable
nor are they ﬁxed, on the contrary they are ﬂuid and permeable. The concept
“transnational sexualities” refers precisely to that spatial rupture scholars have neglected
that incorporates the experiences of San Ignacians both in San Ignacio and in Detroit and
how these together recreate and reconstruct new conceptualizations of sexuality and
notions of masculinity and femininity.

The significance of transnational sexualities becomes more apparent in San
Ignacio in the month of January during the religious festivities that celebrate the
immigrant’s return and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Migrants return to San Ignacio and the
success of the immigration experience is ﬂaunted extravagantly throughout the town.
Consumerism is one way of displaying a successful immigrant experience and it becomes
apparent via the way returning women dress; their ownership of businesses, houses, and
cars; and their contributions to the church.21 Since the 19503 the church in the main plaza
has undergone many historical changes due to generous donations from immigrants. The
renovations to the church have been many; Dona Alicia remembered what changed,

[When I got married in 1950] no the Church was very small, it had a yellow ﬂoor
with white ﬂowers and just one tower and it was so much smaller. Later it started to

 

2’ An example would be the $ 14,000 they generously donated to the church in 2003 to purchase the image
of Jesus Christ that I mentioned in chapter I.

57

grow more and now the outside that has the white facade, used to be where el Serior

Cura lived. The atrium on this side [she gestures with her hands] and on the other

side did not exist either, and the house next to it were barns. The house for the

priests was an old decrepitated house where you paid the diezmo, because each year

when people picked up their harvests they would bring boxes of corn and beans that

they would give the diezmo to our Lord. The diezmo, and it would stay there and

later, in that diezmo house, one of my brothers lived there, he died, but he lived

there and there were huge warehouses where they kept the corn.22
Many San Ignacians remembered how the church has changed throughout time, marking
as it were the beginning of an economic dependency between immigrant’s donations in
the forms of remittances to family members - who then donated money to the church - or
direct contributions to the church from Detroit.23

In this procession of success many women grab the opportunity to overtly

challenge traditional expectations of female-acceptable-behavior, demeanor, dress codes
and more importantly notions of femininity and sexuality. During the 2003 festivities in
the procession of los hijos ausentes, a few women were wearing dresses that according to
other San Ignacians were inappropriate especially since the procession ended in the

church for a grandiose and well-orchestrated mass that involved several priests and the

bishop. Older women tended to blame this religious and social transgression on the social

 

22 Dona Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002. “ [Cuando yo are case en el 50]
no e1 templo era mas chiquito, tenia un piso Amarillo con ﬂores blancas y este una pura torre y era mucho
mas chiquito, depués fué arnpliando més y ahora mas. La parte de afuera era blanca de la iglesia era el
curato, no estaba el atrio de este lado y el atrio del otro lado no existia, ahi era la casa y eran las cocheras.
La notaria la casa de los padres ahi habia una casa vieja que era e1 diezmo, que se decia e1 diezmo. Porque
cada ailo la gente cuando recogia sus cosechas llevaba sus cajas de mazorcas de maiz de frijol que le daban
a1 diezmo qaue 1e daban a nuestro Seﬁor su diezmo verdad. Y ahi se conservaba eso y despues en esa casa
de diezmo, hubo un tiempo en que vivid un hermano nrio que ya murio tambien, ahi vivieron y habia unas
bodegas grandes en donde guardaban el maiz.”

23 Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001. “Si hay Buena voluntad, de echo
comenzamos a la construccién pues yo dije era mucho dinero y si yo me hubiera puesto a pensar lo que iba
a gastar pues nunca me hubiera atrevido a hacerlo pero cerre los ojos y dije bueno. .. Y pues arrancamos
con kermeses con riﬁtas de una camioneta y de un carro que se llevan a Detroit bloques de boletos para la
construccién de la parroquia, para esto para las casa pastorals para la capilla y para el campo dc football.”

58

evils of immigration while younger women challenged these ideas by asserting that some
women from the town had always dressed in such fashion whether they were immigrants
or not. However, these younger women also pointed out that dressing styles are
distinguishable immediately between those who live in San Ignacio and those who live in
Detroit: “ I think that immigrants are more open because they don’t care so much; like for
example a tattoo, here people would talk and criticize whereas in Detroit you put it on
and that’s it. Also when women migrate to Detroit, there you can wear shorts [when it’s
hot] and it’s normal, but when they come here people ahnost die.”24 These young women
also associated dressing more “revealing” or “comfortable” with class, ‘yvell, we can tell
that they don’t live here, [. . .] it’s gente mds popis (people from a higher social status)?25
These associations with moral values and class are paradoxically contradicted by
local older women who felt that recent consumer fashion from Detroit and Mexico was
not only too “revealing” and vulgar but it also denoted a lower class, thus denying the
immigrants of the upward mobility they have earned through their immigrant experience
and the ownership of material goods. Dona Alicia commented, “Well you see I am very
puritan, I think that this particular fashion (more revealing), I don’t like it, not at all. I

think that in order to look pretty and decent (in Spanish decente is associated with class

and morality), a young woman has to dress better, because the attire you wear says a lot

 

24 Reyna, 15 years of age, Monica, 15 years of age, Bianca, 13 years of age and Elena, 14 years of age,
interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. Elena commented, “Pienso que si que son mas abiertos alla como
que, no les interesa como aqui; por ejerrrplo un tatuaje y ya, ya trae un tatuaje y alla te lo pones, andas con
shorts y como 3i nada. Y aqui te pones algo asi y ay ya son esto y lo otro y como, bueno las muchachas se
van alla y vienen aqui y pus alla sierrrpre andan normal con sus shorts y todo y llegan aqui y la gente casi se
muere.”

25 Ibid. Monica, “Pues se distingue la gente, porque son como mas frescos, rms aca, es gente mas popis.”

59

about you. If you look elegantly well dressed, not necessarily following these new
fashions, you need to look for a fashion that becomes you, a style that is more you.” 26

Despite the comments made by Dona Alicia, she and most San Ignacians
recognized that while dress codes break certain religious and social protocols, they also
pointed to the fact that being an immigrant, especially a successful immigrant, allowed
them some “liberation” from local cultural constraints and upper social mobility. And
with this mobility they had access to a wider social space where women both in San
Ignacio and Detroit explored and transgressed certain parameters related to their sexuality
and their notions of femininity. Although young women in San Ignacio felt that they had
less social mobility, during the nine days of festivities -and less obvious but also during
the few months that the immigrants stay - they enjoyed a temporary protective and
collective strength that they would not during the months when the immigrants go back to
Detroit.

One area where they explored these temporary parameters was courting. Within
this context dressing codes became symbols representative of how courting rituals have
historically changed (or not) in San Ignacio. How women were supposed to dress in ﬂoat
of men was a social, religious and a familial concern, emphasizing the fact that women
were to be tantalizing but not too coquette as to look or behave like a puta (whore), but

enough to attract possible mates. Courting rituals became a manifestation of

interpretations of sexuality and appropriate social mores particularly when women chose

 

26 Dona Alicia, 69 years of age, interviews in San Ignacio, November 2002. “Yo pienso pues mira yo soy
muy puritans, yo pienso que a mi esa moda (de enseﬁar mucho) no me gusta nada nada. Y yo pienso que
para que se vea bonita una muchacha y se vea mas decente, 3i de veras quiere ser decente, tiene que vestir
mejor, porque el vestuario tiene que decir mucho porque te ves muy elegante, bien vestida, no con modas
que note vienen armque scan modas, note vienen, hay que ver una la rrroda que te acomode verdad. . .”

60

between either enticing a possible immigrant mate for marriage or enticing him for
temporary pleasure since they knew that eventually he would have to go back to Detroit.
Courting rituals in general undergo historical changes depending on the social and

cultural contexts. These rituals are not ﬁxed in time; on the contrary they are ﬂuid and
constantly changing.27 Doﬁa Alicia remembered her ﬁrst “dates” with Jesr’rs,

[When we were boyfriend and girlfriend in 1949] we would give each other letters

very quickly in a bus stop when he worked as a bus driver. When we could talk

either because he had a day off or for any other reason where he would stay here

[San Ignacio] with his parents, we would talk through the door, with the door

closed. We would talk with the door closed and through a hole or a crack on the

wooden door, we would look at each other like this [makes a sign with her ﬁngers

surrounding one eye] with one eye and the other and that’s how we saw each

other. 8
Several couples and widows from different generations discussed that their courting
involved communicating through a “small gap on the door” or “though a small crack on
the door or a wall.” It seemed that somehow women and men managed to ﬁnd either

holes or cracks or doors semi-open by a parent, usually a mother, to engage in

conversations. Women mostly emphasized the secrecy of their encounters outlining

 

27 There is not a lot of historiography on courting rituals in the twentieth century, however see
anthropologist Jennifer S, Hirsch, A Courtship After Marriage: Sexuality and Love in Mexican
Transnational Families (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2003). Also
Katherine Elaine Bliss, “The Sexual Revolution in Mexican Studies: New Perspectives on Gender,
Sexuality, and Culture in Modern Mexico,” in Latin American Research Review, Vol. 36, No. 1 (2002),
247-268. The historiography on courting rituals during the Colonial Period is much more abundant:
Asuncion Lavrin, ed. Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America (Lincolanniversity of Nebraska,
1989); Noemi Quezada, Sexualidad, Amory Erotismo: México Prehispdnico y México Colonial (Mexico
City: Plaza y Valdes Editores and Universidad Nacional Auténoma de México,1996); Silvia Arrom, The
Women of Mexico City, 1790-185 7 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985); Juan Javier
Pescador, De bautizados a ﬁeles diﬁmtos: Famjilia y mentalidades en una parroquia urbana, Santa
Catarina de Mexico, 1568-1820 (Mexico City: Colegio de Mexico and Centro para Estudios de Demograf'ra
yde Desarrollo Urbano, 1992).

8 Dona Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, 2002 “L . .] (Cuando éramos novios en 1949) con
puras cartas y cuando platicaba que se quedaba aqui que le tocaba descansar por algo 3e quedaba aqui con
sus papas teniamos que platicar con la puerta cerrada, con la puerta cerrada y por una hendidurita de la
madera de la puerta nos veiamos asi (hace la rnimica) un ojo y el otro y asi no veiamos.” My parenthesis.

61

physical separation between the possible mates and themselves. However, every Sunday
in the main Plaza right in front of the church a traditional ritual of courting, la serenata
was displayed. This was and still is a ritual where men lined themselves up in a large
circle facing each other leaving a space in between them, while women walked (usually
in pairs or small groups) in the middle of the circle. Men did not move while women
would go around the circle several times. Throughout this elaborate ritual, men would
throw confetti at the women and chat informally with them. Presently, some young
women complain that men touch their hair and sometimes their buttocks.29 Apparently as
the tradition has it, once a man or a woman chooses a partner, the man offers the woman
a rose and they break away from the circle to stroll in the park and the plaza.

When I asked women ﬁom a previous generation as well as younger women if
this ritual had been there when they were young and they all agreed. Moreover, they all
recalled their mothers also talking about it as an experience prior to marriage.30 It is
understood that all the participants both male and female are unmarried and available for
a possible match. The contradiction between making sure that I understood that they had
no close contacts with men and the physical proximity by which male and females were
exposed in these Sunday courting rituals became apparent with many older women.
Ironically, in their narratives, the private space of the household where they would talk

“through a crack on the door” became the forbidden space for physical contact, whereas

 

29 “[La serenata] a mi no me gusta porque ahora no nomas te agarran e1 pelo sino una pompi tu sabes todo
eso, pero eso viene de uf muchos aﬂos y no se porque. . .” Ana, 18 years of age, interview in San Ignacio
2003.

30 Ibid. “[...] si y a las 5:00 o 6:00 de la tarde me metia mi mama y ya él 3e iba a su casa, y asi, asi fue
nuestro noviazgo no habia que un baile, que habia la serenata pero no siempre nos dejaban, la serenata que
habia en la plaza para dar la vuelta. .. Desde mi mama existia la serenata.”

Ana, 18 years of age, interview in San Ignacio 2003. “Uf, desde mi mama [es la tradicién de la serenata],
pero mi mama dice que, ya vez que avientan papelitos, confeti se llama, a mi mama le aventaban unas
cosas serpentines que se las embonaban en todo el cuerpo . . .”

62

the public space of the plaza became an acceptable open space to explore their sexuality,
under the supervision of most of the town and the overseeing and all-powerﬁrl image of
the church lurking from every angle in the plaza. Church and parental supervision was
instrumental in the construction of virtue or “purity” whether this supervision was real or
not.

On the one hand women tended to invoke respect by telling the “hole on the door”
story, but on the other they enjoyed talking about these Sunday serenatas. Older
women’s notions about sexuality and courting were grounded in strong religious
ideologies about the absence of premarital sex -whether they engaged in it or not - and
the respect that purity elicited from future husbands. Within this context, parental
supervision also represented the daughter’s “virtue,” and the mother’s respectability by
“raising her daughters right” -in the case of mothers whose husbands were in Detroit. The
pressures on women to fulﬁll various gender roles were emphasized in parenting because
they were supposed to play the role of “father” as well as mother. Moreover, the
townspeople became a mechanism by which these women were “supervised” and judged
based on how well they managed these local border crossings into “male contested
arenas.” Sergio 46, and Sonia 43, remembered how their mothers managed to cross these
traditional male arenas, particularly when it came to the discipline of the family,

[For my mother to educate the ten of us while my father was in the US] was very
difﬁcult. I saw my mother struggle with all of us because of the many
responsibilities she had as a mother and also as a father at the same time. She had to
dress all of us to go to school every monring, and ﬁx breakfast. We all tried to help

her with the cleaning of the house before we left for school. When we returned she
already had dinner for us very punctual at 2:00 pm always.3 ’

 

3’ Sergio, 46 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001. “[para educamos a todos los diez] era
diﬁcil, yo veia a mi mama que batallaba con nosotros por la responsabilidad que tenia como mama y papa a

63

My mother was the one that was there, my father was always here (Detroit) because
we stayed in San Ignacio and he would work here and would go see us for only one
or two months and then go back (to Detroit). [...] But my mother was very strict
with us, she always said that she did not want us to do something wrong because
since she was alone, my father left her the responsibility and he would not want to
know that we were misbehaving. Actually we had to respect her and adhere to her
curfews.32
Ironically, Sergio chose in his narration to emphasize the domestic responsibilities his
mother had only within the context of female traditional roles such as cooking, and taking
care of the children, despite mentioning her taking on the role of the “father” as well.
Sonia, on the other hand, illustrated a more vivid image of what it meant for women to
assume traditional male gender roles like disciplining children and issues associated with
limiting youngster’s mobility, such as curfews.
However, at the same time, women used this familial management of sexuality to
avoid close encounters with undesirable suitors. As one narrator recalled, “I was very
embarrassed that people saw me with him because he is much older than I am, so we

would talk, me in the window of my house and him on the street. He wanted me to come

to the door and talk to him but I told him that my parents would not let me, but they

 

la vez y tener que arreglamos una maﬁana para irnos a la escuela todos a desayunar pero siempre 1e
ayudabamos aqui a1 aseo de la casa antes de irnos a la escuela y cuando llegabamos ella ya tenia la comida
lista para todos puntual a las 2:00 de la tarde siempre.”

32 Sonia y Francisco, 43 and 44 years of age respectively, interview in Detroit 2004. “Si, si mi mama era la
que estaba alla (San Ignacio), mi papa siempre estaba aqui (Detroit), porque nos quedabamos nosotros alla
y él se venia a trabajar e iba simplerrrente un mes o dos meses y otra vez 3e regresaba. [. . .] Pero mi mama
fue bien estricta con nosotros, ella decia todo el tiempo que ella no queria que fue'ramos hacer alguna cosa
porque como esta sola, mi papa fue duro siempre con ella. Le dej aba la responsabilidad y 61 no queria saber
de que anduviera uno mal, incluso pues no maltratados pero responsabilidades que teniamos que
respetarlas. Si ella nos ponia un horario y nosotros teniamos que estar en ese horario.”

64

did.”33 Despite the fact that many older women emphasized abstinence until marriage and
parental supervision as a discourse of virtue, contradictions within these discourses show
that it was not so much that they did not have sexual encounters or that they did not talk
about sex; it was more about how much they talked about not talking about sex or having
sexual encounters.

Women have challenged and altered the meanings of courting within the
immigrant experience. Courting rituals are now centered around the time the immigrants
return to their communities of origin to celebrate the religious festivities in January
(although, they begin to arrive in the months of October and November). These dates also
accommodate most male irnmi grants who are unemployed in the winter months due to
jobs in construction and/or landscaping unlike their predecessors who worked mostly in
industrial jobs during the 19503 and 19603. This schedule makes it easier for most “single
males” and families to travel to San Ignacio and celebrate Christmas and the January
religious festivities with their families. Women, on the other hand, usually work in
factories, yet still get time off for the Christmas Holidays to return to Mexico.

During these festivities, young male and female San Ignacians (migrants and non-
migrants) took the opportunity to select their potential partners for pleasure and possible
marriage. Women’s sexualities were constantly redeﬁned as they were faced with the
idea of emigrating (those who had not) or of meeting un hombre decente, (those who
had). Female San Ignacians become both tantalizing and seductive but at the same time

many also appealed to traditional ideas of parental discipline and supervision for their

 

33 Mari and Goyo, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “A mi me daba vergiienza que me vieran con el
porque estaba muy Viejo y yo platicaba con el de la ventan y el queria que platicara con el en la puerta y
yo 1e decia que no me dejaban, pero si me dejaban,”

65

own needs. Young women talked about men not respecting them if they thought that they
were “loose,” thus redeﬁning their own sexual parameters inﬂuenced by Mexico’s social
ideologies about sexual practices, religious gendered oppression, unequal gender
relations, but most importantly positioning themselves as “valuable” emotional and
trustworthy partners.

When I asked a group of young female San Ignacians what they thought about
premarital sex, they all agreed that it was best to wait until marriage for sexual relations.
However, most of their responses had no relation to religious mores or parental
prohibitions, most were based on preoccupations about the respect a man would or would
not allot them if they were or were not virgins"4 Some of these young women challenged
the traditional assumption that virginity equals value and virtue by questioning their
position once they were married. Do women then lose all value and virtue after marriage
once they have had sex with their husbands? Nevertheless all young women still agreed
that virginity was a valuable bargaining tool that left their husbands no argument to
question their integrity. The oppressive religious commoditization of sexual practices
relegated exclusively to procreation, triggered a sense of guilt in Mexicanas. However,
most of their practical concerns with premarital sexual practices were directly linked to
patriarchal and sexist fears. In other words, social marginalization and resentment from
husbands if they had engaged in premarital sex seemed to inﬂuence young Mexicanas’

sexual ideologies.

 

34 Reyna, 15 years of age, Monica, 15 years of age, Bianca, 13 years of age and Elena, 14 years of age,
interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. All of them said unanimously, “We all want to be virgins when we
get married!” Elena, “no me gustaria que despues de que estuviera casada mi esposo me dijera, o que
tuviera problemas, “no ya no eres virgen, y quién sabe con cuantos anduviste.” Ménica, “Pues como mujer
supuestamente, dicen que bueno es algo que nunca me ha quedado claro, que una muj er vale nada mas por
ser virgen, pero yo digo que no, a veces si pero yo digo, ya despue's que no eres virgen, ya que te casas que?

66

Yet young Mexicanas are engaging more in premarital sex partly because of
cultural transformations in Mexican sexual ideologies, and also the inﬂuence by mass
media both in Mexico and in the US. Mass media is a disseminator of sexual culture and
various images promoting certain practices and body images that constantly bombard
Mexicanas. Due to their experience with immigration both in San Ignacio and Detroit,
Mexicanas are creating “transnational sexualities” where they afﬁnn and politicize their
sexual identities and these in turn interlock with their social, economic, and cultural
realities. Several young women that I interviewed were pregnant before they were
married, and despite the religious and social “taboos” inﬂicted on births out of wedlock,
Mexicanas have carved a space where their decision-making has transgressed these
taboos.

In 2003, Lily l7, and Cam 23, got pregnant out of wedlock, and I knew it because
pretty much the entire town already knew. However, Gaby, Cam’s sister and a good
friend of mine, invited me to their wedding. She wanted me to experience a wedding in
the town before I left. I also agreed to take photos for them. When I asked what time the
wedding would begin she said at 7:00 in the morning. Mostly disappointed by the fact
that there could hardly be a great parranda after the wedding, I asked why it was so
early. Her response both shocked me and gave me a morbid kind of pleasure because it
just so happens that mostly to my disbelief, Father Ignacio was going to marry them in a
religious ceremony (I thought we were going to attend a civil ceremony!) at 7:00 am,
because that is how he disciplines religious transgressions such as engaging in premarital
sex. My morbid pleasure stemmed ﬁom the realization that Father Ignacio had not only

been indifferent to the recent events of women breaking away from rigorous dressing

67

codes that symbolize either purity and social class or “putarity” and lower class, but he
now was tolerating a much more serious religious prohibition, premarital sex. Needless to
say, Cam is an immigrant who has been going back and forth between Mexico and the
US. since the early 19903.35 Lily looked beautiful in her white dress and despite the fact
that we all had to wake up pretty early the ceremony was beautiful and the bride and
groom seemed happy. Her white dress, however, became a contentious symbol, which for
many would have signiﬁed a lack of respect. In recent social, religious and cultural
codes, white in a bride represents purity, which in turn symbolizes female virginity.
Lily’s and Cam’s social and religious transgression informs how transnational sexualities
have not only challenged religious and social norms and values, but have also claimed
and constructed particular spaces where they can reclaim in this case their social virtue.
Women and dress codes give us a panorarrric view of the historical changes in creations
and constructions of notions of femininity and womanhood ﬁrmly rooted in sexual
identities and how these are expressed.

Dona Alicia criticized on the one hand that the priest would discipline them in
such fashion by marrying them in the morning, but on the other she also criticized the
idea of women marrying in white when it was obvious that they were pregnant — either
because it showed or because the whole town already knew. This suggested that older
women were very attached to certain ideologies inﬂuenced by oppressive measures both
civil and secular such as relationships between femininity and virtue.

Oh well I feel sorry because they must feel really bad, because our Lord should be
the only one that punishes us. I wish the priest didn’t humiliate them like that. [. . .]

 

35 Maria, 49 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “[. . .] en seguida se fue Cam, he left
right after his father died. He was about 17 or 18 years old when he left. He is now 28.”

68

The only thing though is that marriage is something pure and one should be pure

and should wear white when one marries. White signiﬁes purity and virtue so all I

would say is that they shouldn’t marry in white but at whatever time of the day they

would prefer. They [women] should by themselves say, “Well I will pick my dress

in a different color like in pink or an off-white ivory tone;” if everyone already

knows that she was living with him or whatever, she should say, “Well I won’t wear

white, I am not pure in entering this sacred institution” so I think it’s not nice to

marry them on a Saturday at 7. 00 1n the morning.36

Obviously Dona Alicia’s deﬁnitions on purity and virtue solely refer to women.

Interestingly, however, all these notions of purity and virtue are, as I mentioned before,
directly linked not only to constructions of sexual identities and femininity, but also to
class. In the case of Dona Alicia, ironically, her wedding ceremony in 1950 was at 5:00
in the morning, because she did not have any money to buy a white wedding dress. She
said that she had to buy other things necessary to her wardrobe and a white dress that
would only be worn once was not a wise thing to purchase. So, “[. . .] I was married at
5:00 in the moming. This early mass was for the poor because those who were rich would
be married at noon with a beautiful white dress and everything. I was very sad and all

during the ceremony I cried because I wanted my white dress ...”37 Not having a white

dress which is a symbol of purity, and apparently of class as well, in this case created a

 

36 Dona Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2002. “Ay dios pues que mal se han de
sentir, a mi me da tristeza por esa discriminacion que si nuestro Senor es el unico que nos tiene que castigar
y yo no quisiera que el Senor cura, no me gusta, yo opino eso, digo yo que comprendiendo que al
matrirrronio se va puro y con vestido blanco signiﬁca verdad, la pureza y todo, yo lo unico que diria es que
no se casaran de blanco, pero a la hora que quisieran y cuando quisieran. Si ellas mismas deben decir,
“pues agarro mi vestido un color hueso, un Rosita que la fregada, si ya toda la gente sabia que vivia con el
otro 0 con lo que sea, pues no me pongo blanco, ya no voy pura al sacrarrrento.’ ’Pero que las casen a la
hora que quieran se me hace nnry feo que tienen que ser en sabado a las 7: 00 de la maﬁana.”

7Ibid. “L. .] no tuve para comprar vestido blando, dije si me pongo un vestido blanco, no se usaba que
trajera uno vestido blanco en la calle se lo ponia uno el dia que se casaba y lo guardaba y a mi me hacian
falta otras cosas.”
“Y asi a1 otro dia a las cinco de la mailana, era misa de pobres porque los que eran ricos se casaban a las
12:00 con vestido blanco de cola y todo pero a mi me dio mucha tristeza y toda la misa lloré porque yo
queria mi vestido blanco y se me hizo muy triste .. .”

69

shameful situation that deﬁned Doﬁa Alicia’s social position as well as questioned her
attachment to religious and social mores. Nevertheless, in her reasoning although the
early morning wedding was humiliating, being poor was an acceptable transgression to
the white wedding dress tradition that did not questioned her “purity.” But known pre-
marital sexual relations represented by Lily’s pregnancy and her transgression by wearing
the white wedding dress was not only unacceptable but also highly disrespectful to the
community’s religious and cultural beliefs.

Dona Alicia never questioned the priest’s religious transgression by breaking a
very strict Catholic more and marrying pregnant couples. In Catholicism pre-marital sex
is sinful behavior, but it is the women’s sexuality that is judged not the man’s. However,
the rise of transnational sexualities demonstrates that the religious borders are capable of
being broken and have also altered the priest’s actions and challenged the community’s
ideologies on sexual practices. Exemplifying this is the priest’s choice of “punishment”
for the couple in the same manner that class was punished in previous years.

Transnational sexualities create new meanings to understanding different social,
cultural, economic, and religious mores. What was “traditionally” and religiously
understood as sinful behavior takes new meanings, as several institutions both secular
and religious rearrange their structures to accommodate these transnational sexualities.
Mexicanas are informed by a set of complex social dynamics whereby choices of sexual
practices and sexual mores become paramount to their experiential life cycles. On a
Sunday moming during the 2003 religious festivities, I attended mass and Father Romulo
was literally scolding the immigrants for not having enough children. He alluded to the

fact that young couples married in San Ignacio left for Detroit, and when they came back

70

after a few years they would only have two children. Father Ignacio corroborated the
same argument by adding that,
[. . .] Yes the immigrants have been inﬂuenced by those customs in the US. that it is
easier and much more comfortable and [Euroamericans] even morally encourage
women by saying “don’t be foolish only have two children at the most” when their
traditions and customs here in their town have been large families of ten or twelve.
And in Detroit that young woman who belongs to a large family of say twelve will
lose those values. And I am not saying that she has to have eight, nine or ten but it
has to be what we call “paternidad responsable” (responsible parenthood) that
means the couple has to be mindful of God’s teachings when it comes to the timing
and circumstances that we are living nowadays, because they have to organize and
plan their families but adhering to the Catholic Church’s norms. And the immigrants
in Detroit do not guide themselves under the Catholic Church’s norms and values.38
Father Ignacio and his counterpart were both blaming immigrants for being
exposed to and adopting U.S. “immoral” customs of “irresponsible parenthood” through
the use of contraceptives and women’s overt challenges to these and the Church’s
commands. The average number of child rearing of the women that I interviewed from
the 19503 generation was thirteen. For example, Dona Luna was born in 1929 and
married Don Andres when she was 15 and had 17 children of whom only eight lived.
Don Andres worked as a bracero since 1945 in Texas and later in California until he
moved to Detroit in 1978. All the years that Don Andrés worked in the US. he tried to go

back to Mexico at least once or twice a year to see his family. Despite the many deaths of

her children, Dona Luna continued to get pregnant. Now, she and Don Andres travel back

 

38 Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001. “(103 inmigrantes) 3i tambien
han sido inﬂuenciados por esa costumbre de que alla (Detroit) es muy facil muy comodo y si tu quieres
hasta moralrnente y hasta se promueve e1 “no seas tonta nada mas ten dos hijos” cuando que sus
costumbres sus tradiciones aca en su pueblo son farrrilias de 10 de 12 y alla pues esa muchachita que
pertenece a una familia de 12 pues pierde todo eso. No necesariamente tienen que ser de 8,9, 0 10 pero
tiene que ser lo que llamamos una paternidad responsable que es de pareja y que es conciencia delante de
Dios en cuanto a1 tiempo y las circunstancias que estamos viviendo pues hay que organizarse hay que
planiﬁcar su familia conforme a las normas de la iglesia catolica y ellos alla (Detroit) pues no se guian por
la iglesia catélica.” My parenthesis and my emphasis.

71

and forth between Mexico and Detroit, and all of her children, now adults, live in Detroit.
When I asked Doﬁa Luna if she agreed with the priest’s attitude toward “responsible
parenthood” (which means not using contraceptives because according to church mores
this is indicative of sexual relations as a form of pleasure and not purely for reproductive
means) she responded that, “Now there are ways to avoid getting pregnant; in my times
there was nothing, no information: that’s why I had 17 children.” She went on to say that
despite the priest’s attitude, she advised her daughters and daughters-in-law to take care
of themselves and use contraceptives even when, “oh my, if el Serior Cura (a formal way
to address a priest) would see me he would get angry.”39 She also acknowledged the
availability of information on the use of contraceptives in Detroit emphasizing the
importance of anonymity versus in San Ignacio where most people know each other. I
asked her if she thought that her ideas about reproduction had changed with her
immigrant experience and she felt that they did. She underlined the importance of taking
care of one’s body and one’s sexuality as a woman and at the same time she emphasized
the importance of economic survival in Detroit and the expenses that raising children
demanded.”

The use of contraceptives for Mexicanas both in San Ignacio and in Detroit has
been a topic of contention. Aside from the religious belief that contraception is morally

wrong and that it is sinful to artiﬁcially stop reproduction, women from San Ignacio born

 

39 Dona Luna and Don Andres, 72 and 74 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, November
2001. “Pues ahora como estan los tiempos, 3e ponen a pensar y ya hay muchos medics de que se pueden
evitar eso (embarazo). En mis tiempos no se uso eso, yo tuve 17 hijos.”

“Fijese si me viera e1 Senor Cura se enoja.” My parenthesis.

40 Ibid. “Yo aprendi sobre eso (anticonceptivos) en Detroit, con mis amigas y mis hijas. Yo les platico a
mis hijas y a mis nueras tambien para que quieren tantos hijos, horita ya por lo diﬁcil que es, por la
rnanutencibn y la educacién. Yo les digo que se cuiden.”

72

in the 19303, 19403 and even some in the 19503 also felt that having children was an
important manifestation of womanhood and motherhood. In other words, some women
felt pride in their stories about how much they “tolerated” without complaining the
several partos (births) of their children. Despite this pride or sense of obligation many of
these women feared consequences of multiple births. Dona Ana told me how she started
to use contraceptives after she had six children and why:

I started taking contraceptives by prescription because there was no other way. Here

they would die giving birth and they would say morir en la raya [die in the

trenches] and I would think, “ I don’t want to die” so I went to see a male

gynecologist in Guadalajara and he said, “you are going to take this and no more

children!” and I still had two more! My mother-in-law used to say that she did not
even complain when she was giving birth. I did, I yelled and kicked while it came
out."1

Women had to consider several factors before they even thought about stopping

their multiple births. The church and its strict rules about contraception, and their social
and cultural understandings of womanhood and motherhood weighed heavily in their
decision. It seemed apparent that women’s pregnancies were ideologically internalized as
part of their duties and requisites of being women and good mothers at the same time.
The politics of contraception then for women of the mid-twentieth century in San Ignacio

became a very tenuous path, despite their knowledge (or lack thereof) that multiple births

could be detrimental to their health.

 

4’ Dom Ana, 62 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Yo los empecé a usar por
prescripcibn médica, porque de otro modo no, aqui 3e morian de parto y decian, “morir en la raya”, yo
decia, “yo no me quiero morir y fui con un ginecologo en Guadalajara y me dijo, “me vas a tomar esto y ya
no mas hijos,” 3y todavia rrre eche dos! Mi suegra decia que ella ni siquiera 3e quejaba cuando nacian, yo 3i
grito y pataleo nrientras sale.”

73

Cultural prescriptions and expectations inﬂuenced men and women, but the lack
of education, too, affected the choices that they made. Another couple dealing with these
issues in the 19503 was Doi'ra Toﬁa, 61 and Don J acinto, 70 who had eighteen children
and after the tenth, Dofla Toﬁa remembered listening to women talking about
contraceptives. However, when she tried the “pill” she said that the medicamento
“medication” made her very nervous and affected her head."2 This argument I heard
many times among older and younger women as well, where they agreed that the pill
made them very nervous and affected them emotionally and physically. I started to think
that the creation of a myth was in the making, whereby word of mouth via the Catholic
Church, medical institutions, mothers and daughters, or from friends to ﬁiends would
pass on an idea that demonized the pill - and contraception in general - so that women
would not use it. Doﬁa Alicia illustrated this ideology when she advised,

Well, if they [younger women] want to take care of themselves, as long as they do it
according to the church’s norms [the rhythm] so that they don’t get ill, because you
know that those “pills” are detrimental to their health right? Well, when I was going
to a psychiatrist because I was very nervous, I saw many women locked up in there,
and they told me that all of them were ill because they had taken contraceptive pills
and that they were bad for them. That’s why they were trastornadas [this word

literally means crazy] of the mind. So I tell my daughters that the pill is detrimental

to their health and they have followed the natural way the Billings (rhythm) method
and it has worked for them."3

 

42 Dona Toﬁa y Don Jacinto, 61 and 70 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, November
2002. “[. . .] Cuando yo tenia diez yo empecé a saber a oir “nrira que cuidate que esto y que lo otro,” pero y
no a mi no me valia no podia tomar medicamento porque me hacia dailo para la cabeza, me ponia muy
nerviosa y no habia otra cosa.”

43 Dona Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002. “Mientras que se cuiden, que no
vayan en contra de la iglesia y que no les haga dafro a su salud verdad? Yo cuando estuve llendo con un
siquiatra porque estuve llendo a la de los nervios, vi muchas seﬂoras encerradas y me dijeron que asi todas
eran porque habian tomado pastillas de anticonceptivas y que les caia mal y se ponian medio trastornadas
de la mente. Y les dije yo eso, les hace daﬁo mijas ustedes sabran, pero ahora hay métodos que les han
servido muchisimo, el método natural, Billings.”

74

In her statement, Dona Alicia conﬁrmed that whatever information she had about
contraceptives came from the church — that insisted on using the Billings method — and
medical institutions. One can understand the creation of such a myth when we analyze
carefully the ideological baggage that women from San Ignacio carry with them.
Religious and social sexist oppression was inherent in this myth making as was the
intervention from local health services. Moreover this myth has transcended generations
and has become integral in the formation of transnational sexualities. In 2004, I attended
a birthday party in Detroit where a lot of San Ignacians both young and old attended. At
some point there were about nine women talking about contraceptives. Before I could ask
anything they had all started to complain about different methods of contraception and
their availability at the local clinic. When I mentioned the pill as an option, they
unanimously agreed that it was bad and that their experiences with it whether they had
tried it or just heard about it were very bad and that it affected you body as well as your
mind, and it made you terribly nervous. Gel, 25, commented on her experience with
contraceptives,

[I started to use] the Depro injection every three months, but since I am very
nervous and not well it did not work for me, I got very sick. I had my neck very
tense and I was very nervous constantly so the Doctor here in Detroit told me that I
could not use contraceptives not even the pill because I was sick. I had a problem

with being nervous and that everything would affect me including getting very bad
headaches.“

 

44 Gel, 25 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Con la injeccion Depro cada tres meses pero
como estoy mala de los nervios a mi me cayo mal y tenia bien tenso e1 cuello y bien nerviosa que me puse.
Enotnces e1 Doctor aqui me dijo que yo no podia cuidarrne con nada porque pues tenia un problema de los
nervios pues todo me iba a afectar y el dolo de cabeza y eso.”

75

Due to this myth-making many San Ignacian women both in San Ignacio and in Detroit
have allowed their partners to take “charge” and “take care of them?” despite the
inefficiency of this method. Nan, 25, got pregnant in San Ignacio immigrated to Detroit
and then married her partner. She commented, “I didn’t want to have another child, but I
am two months pregnant. Mi viejo me estaba cuidando, (my husband was taking care of
me) according to him, but apparently not. I used pills before but I was getting very
nervous I didn’t feel well. I used them for a year and I stopped last October and now after
seven months I’m pregnant.”46
Despite the access to more information for younger women in Detroit unwanted
pregnancies continued, most of which happen while their viejos las cuidan (their partners
take care of them), emphasizing the ideological oppressive baggage about contraceptives.
In contrast to these younger women in Detroit, older women who had their children in
San Ignacio continued to mention multiple pregnancies due to the lack of information
available in the 19503 and 19603. Dona Tofia 61, and her husband Don J acinto 70, agreed
with her, “No, in those times we didn’t know anything so we would have one after the
next. We didn’t even know how we were going to educate them or support them for that

matter. We didn’t think about that at all, we only believed in God and life and moving

forward.”47 Dona Tofia also admitted that the lack of mass media inﬂuenced their lack of

 

45 By this, Mexicanas meant that their partners ejaculated outside to “protect” them from getting pregnant.

46 Nan, 26 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Yo no queria tener otro pero estoy embarazada de
dos meses. Mi Viejo me estaba cuidando segt'rn e1 pero no. Use pastillas pero me estaban cayendo mal y ya
no, me sentia mal, las use por un aﬁo, las estaba tomando y las deje como en octubre pasado y pues ya
ppsaron como siete nreses y sali embarazada.”

Dona Toﬁa y Don Jacinto, 61 and 70 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, November
2002. “No menos en aquellos tiempos no sabiamos uno atras del otro, ni siquiera sabiamos como los vamos
a educar ni como los vamos a mantener. No pensabamos en nada de eso, solo Dios dc vivir para delante.”

76

knowledge.48 Despite the fact that historically the church has so blatantly been against
contraceptives, many San Ignacians had either heard of them or used them or asked about
them.49 The fact is that there was very little access to health education in the 19503 and
19603 in San Ignacio. In 1959, Doﬁa Ana, a nurse educated in Guadalajara arrived in San
Ignacio to work at the “clinic” and she remembered,
The clinic was improvised back then; it was just a large room that we separated to
make small examining rooms and a waiting room. [. . .] It was very hard for me
because I had to educate people. There were a lot of ﬂies back then, a lot of
unhygienic settings. There were no bathrooms; we had to teach people how to make
latrines. We would visit houses to tell them how to boil water and how to treat
stomach parasites. We were engaged on a campaign against diarrhea and giving
people medication and conducting tests.50
Despite her education and access to information, Doila Ana did not take contraceptives
until after her sixth child, and she had to go to Guadalajara to get a prescription from a
gynecologistsl Moreover, she had two more children after she had been prescribed the
contraceptives.
Younger women talked more freely about talking about sex and how they
perceived their sexuality. Although older women disclosed signiﬁcant amounts of

information about their intimate courting rituals and their notions about sexuality,

especially around the issue of motherhood and reproduction, they tended to repeat during

 

48 Ibid. Dona Toila, “No habia medics de comunicacién con trabajos y habian unos radios de esos que
pgniamos ahora como grabadora una que otra persona tenia porque no todas las personas podian tener.”
See Appendix B, tables 2.1 and 2.2.
50 Doﬁa Ana, 62 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, 2003. “La clinica que habia aqui en San Ignacio,
entonces, improvisada, era sirrrplernente un cuarto grande, una galera, y ya hicieron separaciones como para
consultorios, sala de espera y eso, eso era todo. Fue duro porque tuve que educar a la gente se puede decir,
aqui habia mucha mosca, mucha insalubridad. No habia baﬂos, tuvirnos que enseﬁarlos a hacer las letrinas.
Y 10 de aconsejarles casa por casa sobre como hirvieran el agua como se trataba a los parasitos porque todo
el mundo tenia parasitos. Y era una campaﬁa contra la diarrea, les dabamos medicina y les haciamos
analisis.”
5’ Ibid. See footnote 41.

77

the interviews how much they did not know about sex and how much they were not
supposed to talk about sex. Information about sex according to Mexicanas that I
interviewed was very restricted, especially in San Ignacio, since it was such a Catholic
community and its residents followed an old tradition of not talking about sex. As I have
noted above with Mexicanas of different age groups, age was almost inconsequential in
terms of how much information men and women had or had not received about sexual
practices and about contraception. As one woman noted,

No, as a matter of fact sometimes my sister tells my mother, “ay how come you

never told us that we were going to suffer so much to have children and everything

else [she refers here to her menses]” and my mother just tells us, “pues quién las

manda [well why did you do it?]. But she never told us anything and neither did my

father. We usually ﬁgure it out by ourselves, solo.”
This statement was signiﬁcant in that it delineated the parameters of silences about
reproduction by constructing these silences as natural. The Church’s oppressive and
sexist ideologies affected the construction of transnational sexualities, but at the same
time the experience of Detroitians became integral in these constructions. Therefore,
access to more information and the changing sexual cultures of both Mexico and the US.
were important components in the constructions of sexual identities, in this case
transnational sexualities.

When I asked older women how much they knew from their mothers about their

sexuality they would all agree that it was close to nothing. Moreover, when I asked them

if they had talked to their daughters about it most of them said no. The discourse on sex

 

52 Nan, 26 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004, “No, de echo en veces 1e dice mi hermana a mi
rrrama, “ay ustedes porque nunca dijeron que ubamos a sufrir tanto para tener hijos y todo, para no haberse
metido,” mi mama nomas nos dice, “pues quién las rrranda,” pero nunca nos platicaba, mi papa tampoco,
nadie sola te diste cuenta, sola, sola.” My parenthesis and my emphasis.

78

was therefore invisible, but yet it was ever present in the lives of Mexicanas both in San
Ignacio and in Detroit. So, even though they repeatedly told me that they never talked
about these issues, at that speciﬁc moment we were usually engaged in a conversation
about not talking about sexuality. These obvious contradictions are inherent in the
politics of any identity whether it is sexual, personal, or national, etc. Identities are not
ﬁxed; they are ﬂuid and mutable, and sexuality is not an exception. These contradictions,
however, help us understand what in this case Mexicanas thought it would be important
to emphasize in ﬁont of me, in front of other women, their husbands or boyfriends.

Discourses on sexuality are not easily expressed because there is always a lurking
threat among women who talk about sex as being perceived as promiscuous, “loose” or
una mujer de la calle (prostitute). However, Mexicanas have found ways to describe
their sexuality and at the same time appropriate the discourse on sexual practices by
describing Euroarnerican women’s sexuality as “different” (implying loose), therefore
protecting their respectability and at the same time constructing a discourse on moral
superiority vis-it-vis Euroarnerican women —and sometimes other Mexicanas who are de
la calle. By appropriating it as a discourse of moral superiority, Mexicanas opened a
space where they could “safely” talk about sex, if and only if they had that point of
comparison at hand and when needed. So, if the situation arose where they needed to
appeal to the “looseness” and libertinaje of Euroamericans, Mexicanas would play the
card and carry on with their conversation.

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Yen Le Espiritu have in their research with
Latina immigrant women, the former, and Filipina women, the latter, underlined

immigrant women’s defense mechanisms when positioned with hostile environments in

79

the United States. They both argue that as a consequence of racism and hostile
environments in the U.S., Mexicanas and F ilipinas will claim moral superiority both
within notions of motherhood and womanhood. Hondagneu-Sotelo underlines that Latina
nannies in Los Angeles criticized their employers of not being “good mothers” because
of their absence in their children’s lives.53 And on a similar note, Filipina women contest
Euroarnerican women’s sexuality by claiming that F ilipinas have superior moral values
and respectability when it comes to relationships with men. Espiritu gives as an example
the way parents discipline and manage their teenage daughter’s sexuality. “In doing so,”
she argues, “they are not acting out some scripted cultural legacy, bur rather reacting to
the experience of colonialism, the Americanization of their nation, and their experience
of racism in the United States.”54 Dona Luna’s and Don Andrés’ reaction to their
youngest son dating a Euroarnerican young woman also points to the fact that mothers
managed and disciplined their son’s sexuality by claiming or appealing to family
closeness and therefore superior moral values as well,

Dona Luna, “Yes, I was wonied about our youngest son (who is dating a

Euroarnerican) because he is enredado (literally “wrapped up” as in not being able

to move) with an Americana so when she calls on the phone I hang up, and she calls

again and tries to talk, but I hang up, [they both laugh] well, I don’t understand.
Don Andrés, “She knows it’s her, just by listening to her voice, just her voice, [he
laughs]”

Dona Luna, “Then my son says “mom who called me now?” and I tell him “I don’t
understand anything and I don’t know anything,” so he says, “Ay mom answer the
phone, besides she just told me that she called,” so I told him, “well tell her to speak
so that I can understand,” and yes I think that they are seeing each other. They have

 

53 Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Ernestine Avila, “I’m Here but I’m There”:The Meanings of Latina
Transnational Motherhood,” in in Gender and US. Immigration: Contemporary Trends, eds by Pierrette
Hondagneu-Sotelo (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press: 1999), 334.

54 Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, “Gender and Immigration: A Retrospective and Introduction,” in Gender
and US. Immigration: Contemporary Trends, eds by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (Berkeley, Los Angeles,
London: University of California Press: 1999), 16.

80

been dating for a little while, maybe six months or so, and I don’t want them to

date.” [. . .] I’m afraid that a woman that is not from our culture would

desbaratarnos (literally to undo) because our family is so close.”55
I argue, however, that more than just a defense mechanism against hostile practices in the
U.S., Mexicanas both in San Ignacio and in Detroit create spaces where they can talk
about sexual practices without necessarily accusing overtly Euroamericans of being
morally inferior. This is a collective understanding that is usually not articulated directly
unless one probes further. San Ignacian women are usually very kind in describing
Euroarnerican culture in general, but although they don’t necessarily call their
counterparts in the US. loose, they do imply that their sexuality is “different”. Moreover,
they also imply that Euroarnerican families are not as united as Mexican families are and
therefore, their moral values are “different”.

In her book A Courtship after Marriage: Sexuality and Love in Mexican
Transnational Families, Jennifer S. Hirsch argues that Mexicanas have changed their
perceptions about marriage with age and their experiences in the US. Hirsch suggests
that older generations were looking for marriages more as a convenient and appropriate
institution and that younger generations are now looking for companionate marriages.
Through this analysis she identiﬁes younger couples that are using contraceptives in

order to enjoy their mate’s companionship before beginning a family. Her research is

 

55 Doﬂa Luna and Don Andres, 72 and 74 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, November
2001.

Dona Luna, “Si, porque el mas chico se anda enredando con una (Estadounidense) y habla por teléfono pus
1e cuelgo, y vuelve a hablar pos le cuelgo, pos no entiendo (3e rien los dos)”

Don Andres, “La conoce en la pura voz, la conoce en la pura voz (se rie)

Dona Luna, “Luego me dice, “Lama quién me hablo ahora?” yo no entiendo nada yo no se nada, “Ay ama
pero conteste, pero ya se ya me dijeron que si hablaron, me iba a hablar una muchacha,” 1e dije, “a pos dile
que hable que le entienda porque ya sabes que yo no entiendo. Si, si anda si creo y tiene poquito tiempo pa
ca, como medio aﬁo, como que anda con él, y yo no quiere. [. . .] Como 1e vamos a hacer, si somos todos
tan unidos y luego va a desbaratarnos como estamos todos.”

81

founded on a social context that implies that socio-economic factors inﬂuence the way
Mexicanas construct notions of sexuality and understandings of gender relations. Her
seminal work, however, separates Mexicanas’ experiences in their sending communities
and in the US. Furthermore, she makes assumptions about their notions of sexuality
based solely on her interviews leaving out the variable of how women talk about
sexuality and sexual practices or how they talk about not talking about these issues.56
On the one hand this analysis implies that the older generations did not enjoy sex,

and on the other Hirsch is bringing to the table the argument of “traditional,” Mexican
versus “modem,” Euroarnerican. This argument leaves out older women’s
acknowledgment —or lack thereof — of enjoying sexual practices and of constructing their
own sexual identities. Mexicanas in my research have contested these “traditional” versus
“modern” arguments by accommodating both religious and social mores to their own
needs and in the process have created and constructed new meanings of those
understandings. When I interviewed Doﬁa Toﬁa and Don J acinto, who had 18 children,
they told me of how the births happened. Both were joking and laughing when they
narrated their experience,

Don Jacinto, “Well I didn’t [get scared when she was giving birth] once she started

going to the doctor [they both laugh] but before when we lived in the rancho, well,

men had it bad.”

Dona Toﬁa, “Then later when I had the doctor they would take me in and he would
lay down in the living room and sleep [they keep laughing].

 

56 “Seen this way, the insistent efforts of these men and women to convince me that they have modern

bodies, modern loves, and modem sex could be understood as their response to a conversation they did not
start and in which they perceive themselves, perhaps rightly, to be at a permanent disadvantage. Laying
claim to modern intimacy and modem gender identity is a strategy to claim citizenship in a global
community that may be otherwise inaccessible to them; cell phones and beepers are expensive, but hugs
and kisses are free.” Jennifer S, Hirsch, A Courtship after Marriage: Sexuality 'and Love in Mexican
Transnational Families (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2003), 280.

82

Don Jacinto, “They didn’t let me in. I only saw the birth of four or ﬁve of my
children, and it was the ﬁrst time I saw a woman giving birth, [he goes on to give
me the names of the children]”
Doﬁa Tor‘ia, “They would take me on horseback.”
Don Jacinto, “It was always at night [he laughs].
Dona Toﬁa, “Yes, yes it was always at night, because en la noche se hacen. .. [you
make them at night].
Don Jacinto, “Well yes, yes that is the way, don’t they say that lo que en la noche se
hace, en el dia aparece, [this is a Mexican saying that means whatever you do at
night it appears in the day. This saying has a particular sexual connotation that
refers to sexual activity, and they both continue to laugh]?7
Many Mexican :sayings such as the one about lo que en la noche se hace, en el dia
aparece have sexual connotations. The dialogue between Doﬁa Toﬁa and Don Jacinto
illustrated how older couples did “talk” about sex. But it also emphasized the importance
of the humor shared by both in front of me, and the underlining excitement of the
interplay of sexual jokes about sexual practices.

Ahistorical general assumptions about Mexicanos’ and Mexicanas’ constructions
of notions of sexuality and how they express sexual practices are limiting and one-
dirnensional. Despite the socio-economic circumstances that transnational communities
navigate, Mexicanas and Mexicanos are continuously producing culture and ideologies

inﬂuenced by the many variables that affect their lives - cultural, social, political and

economic. Generational differences emerge, but as we dissect the narratives that

 

57 Dona Tofra and Don Jacinto 61 and 70 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, November
2002.

Don Jacinto, “Pues no ya cuando ibamos al médico ya no (me asustaba), pero antes en el rancho los seﬂores
si se la pasaban mal (se rien).

Dona Toﬁa, “Ya despues cuando el médico rrre metian y el se acostaba en la sala a dorrrrir (3e siguen riendo
los dos).

Don Jacinto, “No me dejaban entrar, pero 3i vi el parto de los primeros de cuatro o cinco (continua a dando
los nombres de sus hijos)?

Dona Toila, “Me llevaban a caballo”

Don Jacinto, “Sierrrpre era en la noche si (se rie)

Dona Toila, “Si asi era en la noche, como en la noche se hacen. . .

Don Jacinto, “Pues 3i asi era dicen que lo que en la noche se hace en el dia aparece. .. (los dos se rien)?

83

Mexicanas choose when talking about issues on sexuality and sexual practices, the
emphasis questioning these differences, I propose, is more on how they choose to narrate
them rather than the narrative per se. Underlining discourses are always lurking in these
narratives and one has to stop and listen to what Mexicanas both young and old are
formulating and how they choose to do it.

Even though younger Mexicanas are more explicit about their sexualities, both
older and younger Mexicanas underlined similar circumstances about their knowledge or
lack thereof about issues on sexuality and sex and courtship rituals. These in turn were
affected by their experience as immigrants and by changing cultural and social
circumstances in Mexico and in the US. Mexicanas experienced circumstances
differently in relation to what they perceived around them and therefore assumptions
based on dichotomies such as “modem” versus “traditional” were not applicable. For
example, Nan had sex with her husband before she got married and before she migrated
to Detroit. She remembered,

[I knew about sex] because I had friends and everything and some had already had
sex and they would say, ”you are missing out.” And I think that you really had an
idea of what it was but I was embarrassed to talk about it. But I had sex with my
husband [before they were married] and it was about ﬁve years ago, I was only 20,
so for me it was something new, it was great!58

Mexicanas are having more pre-marital sex, and these “transgressions” sometimes lead to

pregnancy. And pregnancy out of wedlock leads sometimes — not always — to

 

58 (yo sabia del sexo) si porque yo tenia amigas y todo de que pues a lo mejor ya habian tenido sexo, o

algo, namas te decian, “ay de lo que te pierdes mensa,” y tu pues, tenias una idea no pero no sabia que
onda, pero a mi me daba pena andar platicando de eso o pues asi, y yo tuve sexo con mi esposo (antes de
casarse) ahora que pues hace unos cinco afro, tenia 20 aﬁos, asi que para mi ﬁre algo Nuevo, ay padre!
Nan, 26 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. My parenthesis.

84

immigration. As Gel commented, “[Laughing] Well I was pregnant with Galan, my
oldest son and Polo [her husband now, boyfriend back then] was going to come [to
Detroit] so I told him ﬁne leave but I’m pregnant. So he said, “no we will leave together
then.” And that’s why we decided to come here together because I was pregnant and I
could not stay in my house and he wanted to leave.” 59
Therefore, even though the general narrative constantly denied knowledge of
sexual practices in interviews with both older and younger Mexicanas, the fact remained
that they Were and are engaging in sexual activities. Moreover, whether young or old,
many enjoyed their sexual experiences. When we compare these experiences by
separating ﬁrst, Mexicanas nationally — those who reside in Mexico and those who reside
in the US. - and secondly, by using “modern” versus “traditional” as a backdrop we are
denying Mexicanas’ ﬂuidity in the constructions of notions on sexuality and sexual
practices. Moreover, we are supporting traditional patriarchal assumptions on female
sexual identities that use as a starting point the argument that women don’t like to have
sex. Transnational sexualities can not be separated by useless dichotomies based on
Westem’s ideologies about the “other’s” constructions of sexualities, transnational
sexualities speak to a particular circumstance that inhabits transnational communities,

taking into consideration Mexicanas’ ideologies formulated by both their experiences in

their sending communities and in the US. These ideologies permeate Mexicanas’

 

59 Most of the young women that I interviewed acknowledged their engagement in premarital sex both in
San Ignacio and in Detroit. Despite the fact that many of them got pregnant, they nevertheless articulated
their pleasure when engaging in sexual activities with their husbands or boyfriends. “Estaba yo embarazada
dc Galan, del niflo més grande, entonces Polo (su esposo) se iba a venir y yo lc dije que pos que se viniera y
yo 1e dije que estaba embarazada y dijo no pues nos vamos juntos y por eso decidirnos por estar
embarazada, no me podia estar en mi casa, el se iba a venir.” Gel, 25 years of age, interview in Detroit,
June 2004.

85

consciousness, I argue, whether they decide to migrate to the US. or stay in San Ignacio.
It is precisely the connection between these two that deﬁnes transnational sexualities. The
creation of these transnational sexualities allows us to reconsider conceptualizations of
gender, womanhood and femininity by acknowledging their transparency and ﬂuidity
when these are shaped, reshaped, contested, and constructed by the immigrant
experience. Furthermore, concepts of femininity and masculinity are expanding through
the process of migration and the creation of transnational communities.

Courting rituals for Mexicanas have come a long way from “we talked through a

1”"0 to the very elaborated serenatas and processions during the ﬁestas de

hole on the wal
los ausentes where a few young Mexicanos displayed their cars as symbols of their
success as immigrants. Both young women and men in San Ignacio enjoyed days of
courting via different ways, of which one was to show their assets. Young women in San
Ignacio, however, agreed that despite the luxurious and extravagant cars males displayed,
they were aware of the young men’s economic situations. They knew that most of these
young men owed the money for the cars and furthermore, they were aware of the hard
labor that led to acquiring a few material possessions.“ Since most of the young women
in San Ignacio had relatives in the US. and were constantly exposed to the immigrant
experience in the town, they recognized that “money doesn’t grow on trees,” and knew

that most likely they would have to join the labor force in order to contribute to the

household. For example Ana, 18 years old, got married in 2004 with an immigrant whose

 

60 Tina y Saul, 47 and 52 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003.

6] Reyna, 15 years of age, M6nica, 15 years of age, Bianca, 13 years of age and Elena, 14 years of age,
interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. Elena comenta, “Si la rmyon'a tienen su carro, dicen “ay me voy a
ir para comprarme un carro y traerlo,” [esto signiﬁca que] fue porque no se fue a andar de vago y que le
echo ganas y fue y lo trajo.” Reyna agrega, “[que compro el carro] se me hace normal, que junto su dinerito
y se conrpro su carro.”

86

family owns a restaurant in Detroit. She commented that, “At ﬁrst yes I will work in the
restaurant, but it is not my great aspiration to be a waitress, I want to succeed. No, I want
something more in time. I know that I have to learn English and everything and later I

b.”62 Young women were also aware of the hardships that immigration

can have a good jo
brought about such as family dislocations. Thus, their experience with migration living in
San Ignacio had not only informed them of the reality of immigration but it had also
opened up venues where their choices for a prospective mate and a better economic
future empowered them and allowed them to plan and strategize on how best the
emigrational experience would suit them. Nonetheless, this process of selection, mostly
based on a successful future as migrants, was also inﬂuenced by several other factors
such as their relationships with their families, their sense of adventure -or lack thereof -
their ﬁnancial situations; and most importantly it relied on the kind of social networks
they could count on to facilitate their migration. It is to these networks that I turn to on

the next chapter, emphasizing the gender contradictions and tensions that are inherent in

the constructions of these networks.

 

62 . . . . . . .

Ana, 18 years of age, intervrew in San Ignacro, 2003. “Voy a trabajar en el restaurant de la farmlra de rm
novio] de primera si, no es mi gran aspiracion trabajar de rnesera en el restaurant. No, yo quisiera algo mas
con el tiempo. Yo se que tengo que aprender ingles y todo ya despues agarrar un buen trabajo.”

87

Chapter III

[. . .] No crea que me gusto mucho [Detroit cuando llegue en el 1970], no me gusto y la casita no me gusto
tampoco pero yo estaba contenta porque yo tenia toda mi familia y mi esposo alla, entonces uno es feliz
porque tiene a su familia. [. . .] Mi esposo me llevo a mi, pues no se a la mejor porque me queria mucho (se
rie) porque a las demas (esposas) no, bueno no se. . .Cuando llegue empece a ir a templo de Santa Ana
porque ellos [su esposo Delﬁno y sus hermanos] ya habian empezado a ir al Santa Ana. El templo es mas
acogedor [que el Holy Redeemer] ademas tambien uno se reune, hay un café, 0 sea hay un lugar donde
hacen café, ahi la gente hace, da dinero y hay una persona que hace café y pan dulce y entonces la gente se
va a1 café y al pan y entonces cada quién se hace bolitas a platicar con sus familiares 0 con sus amigos 0 de
todo eso, 0 sea es como muy familiar mas que los otros templos. Ahi habia de todo no habia gente de San
Ignacio cuando yo llegue pero habia gente de Santiaguito [un pueblo cerca de San Ignacio] habia gente
Puertorriqueﬁa, habia de Cuba. Yo me hice amistades de todo, como yo tenia muchos hijos ya grandes y
luego no estan tan feos, muy vanidosa yo entonces yo me hice de muchas amistades porque las personas
aquellas les gustaban mis hijos para sus hijas entonces a mi me hacian amistades. Tengo diez hijos y tres
hijas.

Dona Terel

Well I didn’t like it too much [when I arrived in Detroit in 1970], no I didn’t like it and nor did I like the
small house but I was happy because I had all my family and my husband there, so one feels happy because
you have your family. [. . .] My husband took me, well I don’t know why perhaps because he loved me very
much [she laughs] because the other ones stayed here [wives of other immigrants], well I don’t

know. . .When I arrived I started to go to Santa Ana church because they [her husband Delﬁno and his
brothers] had already started to go there. The church is very cozy [more than Holy Redeemer] besides one
visits with other people, there is coffee, like a coffee shop where people give money and there is someone
making coffee and pan dulce [sweet bread], so people go there and have coffee and bread and they form
groups of people and you can talk with your family or ﬁiends, you know all that, is more family oriented
than other churches. There were a lot of people [when I got there] not from San Ignacio at ﬁrst but from
Santiaguito [a town very close to San Ignacio], there were Puerto Ricans and people from Cuba. I made a
lot of friends, partly because I had a lot of older sons, and they are not that ugly, I’m so vain [she laughs] so
then I made a lot of friends because some people liked my sons for their daughters so they became my
friends. I have ten sons and three daughters.

The Politics of Movement

On one of my visits to Mexican Town in the summer of 2004, my ﬁiend Gaby
volunteered to give me a tour of the neighborhood. We started out with the Holy
Redeemer church and from there we moved on to Santa Ana’s church. Gaby thought the
tour would be far more interesting when I saw these two beautiful churches. She was

right, they were stunning, but what made them so beautiﬁrl was all the people that were

 

l Doﬂa Tere, 73 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001. My parenthesis. Doﬁa Tere was
the ﬁrst woman from San Ignacio to arrive in Detroit. Her husband Delﬁno Hernandez applied for her
residency as well as all of his children’s and Doﬂa Tere arrived in 1970.

88

gathered around to chat informally after mass. I recognized almost everyone, many of
whom I had seen just a year before at the ﬁestas patronales in San Ignacio. Doﬁa Alicia
remembered how she perceived her community,
I like being in Detroit because there are so many people from here [San Ignacio]
there. We see each other with a lot of joy when we meet in the stores, in the church
everywhere and we help each other a lot. Besides my children are there and I enjoy
doing things for them, I know that they love me and I do them as well and they like
it when I’m there, there are so many of them! But now I’m older and I get sick, my
heart is weak and I can’t handle bad news or work too much because I already had
minor heart attacks.”2
Doria Alicia’s recollection painted a vivid illustration of how their transnational
community had developed over the years. Considering the hostile environment that
Mexican immigrants had and still have to endure when they cross the border north, they
have considerably turned a small part of Detroit into a second home. Her statement
underlined the ambiguities that inhabit Mexicanas’ decisions toward choosing between
staying in Detroit with most of their families or going back to San Ignacio as they get
older. This contradiction was just one of the many that permeated the San Ignacian
imagination as they constructed their lives both in Detroit and in San Ignacio. Older
women struggled with these serious ambiguities about temporal or permanent residency
in Detroit caused by several factors of which one was their historical efforts to carve

spaces —private and social — within hostile, racist and patriarchal systems. Younger

women, although not exempted from these vicissitudes, have developed various ways to

 

2 Doha Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002. “Me gusta estar alla [Detroit] y
que las personas de alla que son de aqui, nos vemos tambien con mucho gusto. Cuando nos encontramos
en las tiendas en la misa en donde quiera nos prestamos algun servicio, alguna cosa y se hace muy bonito
estarles dando alla a mi hijos tambien. Yo se que me quieren mucho y yo a ellos y donde quiera me ocupan
pues son tantos! Sucede que ya estoy tan enferma de reumatismo del corazon y todo eso, que no puedo
soportar penas grandes ni trabajar mucho porque ya me dieron infartos y todo eso.”

89

navigate within these very limited parameters, thus making the politics of movement
more ﬂexible and ﬁnding ruptures where they can challenge and shape the contours of
patriarchal gender relations and hostile environments in Detroit.

Once in Detroit, Mexicanas began a process of constructing a sense of community
building the intricate foundations of immigrant social networks. Within this context,
gender relations became the matrix where all other factors such as class, sexuality,
economic and social forces, as well as racialized institutions in Detroit, intersected. And
nothing as the immigrants’ sense of obligation toward their family members and friends
demonstrated these everyday struggles and negotiations to facilitate the movement from
San Ignacio to Detroit. Immigrants created alternate understandings of morality, ethics
and family obligations based on their immigrant experience. Moreover, these new
understandings have restructured the meanings of kinship and friendship in San Ignacio
and in Detroit.

The creation of social networks which involve kinship and friendship support
have historically sustained immigration as mentioned by Massey, Alarcon, Durand and
Gonzalez in their path breaking study in 1987.3 However, this study like many others,
focused only on male immigrants, and left Mexicanas in the background only mentioned
in relation to their roles as wives and mothers that accompanied their male partners.

Recently, academic studies on Mexican immigration to the US. have begun to place

 

3 “L . .] The second principle is that, once begun, this migration (international) eventually develops a social

infrastructure that enables movement on a mass basis. Over time, ties between sending and receiving areas
grows, creating a social network that progressively reduces the costs of international movement. People
from the same community are enmeshed in a web of reciprocal obligations upon which new migrants draw
to enter and ﬁnd work in the receiving society.”

“L . .] Kinship forms one of the most important bases of migrant social organization, and family
connections are the most secure bonds within the networks. The strongest relationships are between male
migrants interacting as fathers and sons. . .” Douglas Massey, Rafael Alarcon, Jorge Durand, Humberto
Gonzalez, Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International Migration from Western Mexico
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1987), 5, 140-41.

90

gender as a category of analysis, contributing a rich and informed analysis on Mexicanas
that migrate to the United States.

However, these studies for the most part, have been using the term “social
networks” all too indiscriminately without focusing on what these social networks entail
in the lives of Mexicanas. Thus missing the cultural and social constructions of gender
that come about in everyday experiences. Even in recent feminist literature on
immigration, these social networks are taken for granted without a deep understanding of
how these are constructed and therefore negating the intersection of class, gender,
sexuality and nationality.4

In this chapter I deconstruct San Ignacian social networks and analyze more
deeply how Mexicanas weave the social fabric that supports and sustains the migratory
ﬂow to and from San Ignacio and Detroit. Even though the ﬁrst generation of immigrants
to Detroit were mostly men - primarily due to a gendered demand for labor such as the
Bracero Program — once the women started to arrive, they built on the ﬁrst social
networks initiated by Don Chuy in August 18, 1964. Contrary to most literature on
immigration and transnational communities that credit men for creating these social
networks, I contend that it is San Ignacian women who have continued to maintain and
support these systems of relationships. They have created a community by being exposed

and participating in US. social structures such as schools and hospitals, by performing

 

4 See for example: Rhacel Salazar Parreﬁas, Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic
Work (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2001); Roger Rouse, “Mexican Migration and the
Social Space of Postmodernism” in Between Two Worlds: Mexican Immigrants in the United States, ed.
David G. Gutierrez (Wilmington, Delaware: A Scholarly Resources Inc. Imprint, 1996); Jennifer S. Hirsch
in A Courtship After Marriage: Sexuality and Love in Mexican Transnational Families (Berkeley, Los
Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2003); Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo in Gendered
transitions: Mexican experiences of immigration (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1994); Ofelia Woo Morales in Las Mujeres También nos Vamos al Norte (Universidad de Guadalajara,
2001).

91

reproductive and productive labor, through church related activities, and lastly but most
importantly through kinship.

The immigrant experience challenged kinship systems in San Ignacio and in
Detroit creating new relationships that reassessed San Ignacian ethics, morals, and
familial obligations. Transnational families restructured and accommodated new
deﬁnitions of hierarchical and emotional family ties, which challenged “traditional”
kinship systems along the lines of immigration. Within all these social, religious, and
familial processes, however, a series of contradictions, tensions, conﬂicts and
dislocations are dialectically constructed, and these in turn shape and reshape the
contours of the social networks. Moreover, they also open spaces where women navigate
within gender relations heavily inﬂuenced by patriarchal mores that can be “liberating” or
can also be very oppressive.

Academics have debated whether the experience of immigration for women
changes traditional gender roles and provides them with more decision-making power
within the family. The problem with this focus is that ﬁrst, it uses as a backdrop of
comparison Mexicanas that live in the sending communities. This makes an inherent
assumption that they are more “traditional” — backward -— and supposes that the
experience of Mexicanas who live in the US. makes them more “liberal” — modern. I
suggest that this mode of inquiry is ineffective when studying transnational communities,
because gender relations are constantly changing and readapting to the particular
circumstances —social, economic, cultural - that surround Mexicanas. Additionally, my
point of departure recognizes that the women in San Ignacio have mostly crossed

translocal borders by experiencing the migration of family members, - in the 1940s and

92

19503 usually by husbands, and in the 1960s husbands, daughters, and sons - by adopting
male-traditional roles in the sending community and becoming heads of households.
Finally, we need to be cautious when we are dealing with different systems that involve
social participation, familial dislocations, and most importantly emotional relationships,
therefore, making it much more complex to make general assumptions.

As gender academicians, we are often so focused on ﬁnding challenges to
patriarchy that we sometimes miss the variety of ways women negotiate and contest
oppressive and patriarchal systems. As feminist historians we need to listen to our
subjects because patriarchal systems are not monolithic. Being particularly cautious and
listening to Mexicanas’ narratives of their own histories and experiences for the past six
decades this analysis focuses on historical processes that affect and are affected by
immigration. I also acknowledge the limitations of this inquiry since women in general
have to navigate within patriarchal systems. Therefore, my point of departure is not how
much more “liberated” Mexicanas are through the immigrant experience, but rather how
Mexicanas maneuver within the contested spaces they create despite lurking oppressive
and patriarchal systems.

Sociologists such as Rhacel Salazar-Patteﬁas have documented the dislocations of
family separation, downward (or upward) social mobility, and the dehumanization or
commoditization of labor by a systematic globalized economy that immigration creates.
In her seminal work, Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration and Domestic Work,

argues that, “the experience of migration is embodied in dislocations.”5 Her work focuses

 

5 Rhacel Salazar-Patteﬁas in her book Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work
brings to the fore the fact that many Filipina immigrants in Los Angeles and Rome have had a formal
education yet they 1have to work as domestics. Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic
Work (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2001), 3.

93

on four institutions, the nation-state, the family, the labor force and the migrant
community. Pierrette Hondagneu—Sotelo, and Saskia Sassen have also contributed to the
literature on immigration, the former focusing on gender and Latinas who do domestic
work, and the latter offering a socio-economic and political analysis on how capitalism
and the global economy have triggered and supported large diasporas by interlocking
transnational corporations and labor forces in underdeveloped countries. Moreover, they
all suggest that globalized economies create low-wage labor that for the past three
decades is ﬁlled mostly by women.6 They also supported the original idea that Massey,
Alarcon, Durand and Gonzalez put forth about the creation of social networks; however,
they integrated gender as an analytic category. In as much as I agree with all of them, I
also recognize there has been a general oversight of important everyday processes that
directly affect the social networks and the gender struggles and tensions that derive from
them. These tensions in turn affect notions of “femininity” and “masculinity,”
“motherhood” and “fatherhood,” domesticity, and workers’ identities.

Once the bracero generation of San Ignacians was established in Detroit, they
were confronted with the dilemma of whether to bring their families to live with them or
not. This decision-making process had to do with several factors such as their uncertainty
of whether they would stay permanently in Detroit or go back to San Ignacio once they

saved enough money. Also, some Mexicanos felt that their family’s journey north would

 

6 In her article “Strategic Instantiations of Gendering in the Global Economy,” Saskia Sassen points to the
creation of global cities as a consequence of “today’s global economy” she adds that, “[. . .] we are seeing
the return in all the global cities around the world of the so-called serving classes, made up largely of
immigrant and migrant women.” In Gender and US. Immigration: Contemporary Trends ed. Pierrette
Hondagneu—Sotelo (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1999), 45. See also,
Saskia Sassen, “US. Immigration Policy toward Mexico in a Global Economy,” in Between Two Worlds:
Mexican Immigrants in the United States, ed. David G. Gutierrez (Wilmington, Delaware: A Scholarly
Resources Inc. Imprint, 1996), 213-227; Roger Rouse, “Mexican Migration and the Social Space of
Postmodernism” Ibid, 247-263.

94

erode their patriarchal power and challenge their identities as men and heads of
households. A year after the Hernandez brothers arrived in Detroit in 1969, Delﬁno
brought his wife Doﬁa Tere and his children. Like most men who migrated to the US.
during the Bracero Program, the Hernandez brothers processed their residency status and
were able to petition for their families without complications. Although they all had the
opportunity to petition their families Rubén Hernandez decided not to. Unlike his
brothers, Rubén believed that taking his family to Detroit would erode familial
“traditional” values and to him this meant the diminishment of the ability to control the
family, in particular his children. What he identiﬁed as the inability to control his family
demonstrates a loss of patriarchal power and is exempliﬁed by Rubén’s view of his
brother’s family’s experience in the US. His wife Ana Maria shared this as an example
of what Rubén would refer to as an erosion of “traditional values,”
Yes, Delﬁno took his whole family, he began to process his eldest son’s papers [for
the residency] and then his wife and the youngest ones. But after a while his sons
began to rebel against him and that served as an example and a warning for Rubén
who said, “No if that were my son I would beat him up, look at how he [one of
Delﬁno’s sons] talks to my brother. That’s why I’m not taking my children,” and
since I had a sister in California and she also told me, “no, don’t even think about
coming here [the US] to live, life here is so routine-like and very enfadosa [angry-
like literally, however, in this context it would mean very uncomfortable].7
Rubén along with other Mexicanos created an image of life in the US. that challenged

his male domination over the family while avoiding having his wife and the family

nearby. Thus, the US. in as much as it became an economic heaven for some, also

 

7 Ana, 62 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Si, Delﬁno se llevo a toda la familia para
alla pero eso nos sirvié de experiencia, porque los hijos como que se le revelaron. Delfmo les arreglo a los
hijos mas grandesitos y luego a la Senora y a todos tambien. Fueron 13 de familia pero como que los hijos
se le ernpezaron a rebelar a Delﬁno y eso nos sirvio de experiencia, para Rubén que dijo, “no, yo por eso
los mios no” y como yo tenia una hermana alla que me decia, “no, no ni se to ocurra venirte a vivir aca es
una vida rutinaria, enfadosa.”

95

became a threatening symbol of what men perceived as a more “liberal” society that in
essence would allow the rest of the family to gain some power within the family structure
challenging his parental authority. Greater control for him ironically meant separation,
which allowed women and children left in San Ignacio more autonomy. Don Chuy agreed
with Rubén as well, however Don Chuy expressed his decision not to take the family in
the context of women’s transgressions of gender appropriate behavior. Don Chuy recalled
his neighbor Salvador and his daughters who were approximately 16 and 18 years old. In
the early 1970s they went out with their boyﬁiends one night and came home very late.
According to Don Chuy, they had been drinking so much that they could hardly stand up.
Don Chuy remembered that Salvador was incredibly angry and he gave the young
women una mala (a very bad beating) so bad that his wife called the police. Salvador was
jailed and Don Chuy posted bail for him. Don Chuy recalled that Salvador took all the
passports and documentation of his family and burned it all in the park. The next day,

Salvador took his family back to Mexico and never returned to Detroit.8

 

8 Don Chuy, 73 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001. “A mi esposa a ella nunca la
lleve, me los iba a llevar por eso compre la casa pero me paso un caso tan chistoso, usted sabe como somos
de machistas nosotros. Me hice amigo de un vecino, se llamaba Salvador, era de aqui del pueblo. [. ..]
Tenia dos muchachitas una de 16 y otra de 18 y un dia me dice, “Don Jesus venga a platicarme, no hayo
con quién cabrones, me siento rnuy solo. En eso estabamos platicando cuando llego un chaval, “oiga no
esta (no me acuerdo como se llamaba la muchachita) Lesta fulana?” “si si esté” “venia por ella,” a (,venias
por ella? (,porque?” “porque vamos a it al cine yo ando con ella” a entonces 1e hablo a la muchacha.
“Fulana te hablan aqui” ya salio y le pregunta “(,pa que te quiere ese carbon?” ella dijo, “papa pues es que
es mi novio” a es tu novio uy chingados yo ni siquiera me puedo agarrar una chucha por ahi en la calle y
ustedes luego luego agarran novio cabron.” “LMe dejas papa? Nomas no vengas noche, saliendo del cine”
que estaba por la Vernon. “No papa namas salimos del cine y nos venimos.” Llego otro por la otra chica y
salio igual, estuvirnos ahi sentados en el porche de esa casa hasta las dos de la mafiana y no llegaban las
chavalillas y me dice, “Ay ya me esta agarrando e1 pendiente, pues que pasaria, si siempre salen a las 11 o
12 cuando mucho.” Cuando a1 rato como a las 2:30am yo 1e dije “sabe que yo ya me voy a dormir ya es
muy noche y yo tengo que trabajar maﬁana domingo,” “ay esperese tantito Don Jesus” yo creo que ya
presentia algo. [. . .] Cuando en eso llegan las muchachas con los novios las traian bien borrachas, que no se
podian ni parar y luego dijo el “este hijo de la chingada. .. me esta viendo y con ella bien abrazada que
chistoso.” Se enojo el Senor [. . .] y se fué pa dentro y les puso una mula (paliza) que quién sabe si han'an
caso o no. Y luego salio y queria pegarles a los muchachos pero se escaparon. Yo creo que tanto les pego a
las chavalitas que la Seﬁora hablo por teléfono y se lo llevo 1a policia. [..] En la maﬁana pague la multa.

[. ..] Llego con su esposa y le dijo, “ﬁjate que me dijeron alla en la corte que tenia que llevar los

96

Don Chuy’s and Ruben’s fears were very real and serious to them, and offered a
panoramic view of how some Mexicanos perceived the US. in terms of building a
community and raising a family. They also underscored how Mexicanos “protected” their
sense of manhood and their power as heads of their families. Even though young sons’
rebellions were a serious threat to Mexicanos’ power within the family structure,
daughters’ transgressions were more serious and with that, one can also assume that
women’s movement within the US. was perceived by men as less manageable than in
San Ignacio. Mexicanos were absent for long periods of time, and left their wives in
charge of family disciplining and survival. It is important to take into consideration the
men’s fears within the context of migration. Their concerns were not only about moving
from one country to another, but also included the movement from the country to the city
- rural life versus urban life. Many of these concerns were shared by collective ideas of
how life in the country and its values contrasted to life in a city. These collective ideas
were not nostalgic or romanticized; they were based on Mexicanos’ experiences in San
Ignacio and in Detroit.9 Mexicanos knew that in the town the presence of the church as
well as immediate family and the townspeople in general were acknowledged as informal
social supervisors and familial disciplinarians. Perceptions of dissimilarities between life

in Detroit and life in San Ignacio were not always considered threatening, but they

 

pasaportes” [. . .] Salirnos de ahi a1 parque los echo ahi en un bote y les prendio fuego, me dijo, “que
chingen a su madre me las llevo para México y jamas vuelvo.” A mi no me gusto eso y por eso no me lleve
a mi familia.”

9 “On the country has gathered the idea of a natural way of life: of peace, innocence, and simple virtue. On
the city has gathered the idea of an achieved centre: of learning, communication, light. Powerful hostile
associations have also developed: on the city as a place of noise, worldliness and ambition; on the country
as a place of backwardness, ignorance, limitation. A contrast between country and city, as fundamental
ways of life, reaches back into classical times.” Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1973), l.

97

permeated San Ignacians’ lives, beliefs, and feelings in Detroit and in San Ignacio
throughout the next three decades.

Recollections of how women perceived Detroit also reﬂected the myriad
sentiments that Mexicanas had when building transnational communities. Although
contradictory perceptions saturated the oral history interviews, most Mexicanas who
moved to Detroit in the early 1970s concluded that they preferred their lives in Detroit to
former lives in San Ignacio. Older women who resided in San Ignacio repeatedly
commented on how much they would rather be living in Detroit. While they had several
reasons for staying in San Ignacio, often it was the deterioration of their health that was
the primary reason. They had grown old and some were not physically able to make their
sojoums back and forth. Others humored their husbands who liked to go back to San
Ignacio during the winter and returned to Detroit when the weather was less harsh. Dona
Luna and Don Andres were a good example. While Don Andres was alive, he and Doﬁa
Luna went back and forth between Detroit and San Ignacio, but once Don Andrés passed
away, Doﬁa Luna moved to Detroit permanently to be taken care of by her sons and
daughters. The case of Tina and her husband Luis Mercado exempliﬁed this point as
well,

Luis, “Well right now I don’t work anymore [in Detroit] so we feel content being
here in San Ignacio, when we go back I do odd jobs here and there, but I don’t work
anymore.”

Tina, “W611 yeah we go back and forth and spent time here and there. I come here
[to San Ignacio] with pesar (sorrow) because of my children [who are in Detroit].”‘0

 

‘0 Tina y Luis Mercado, 67 and 71 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001.
Luis, “Pues ahorita ya no trabajo ya estamos agusto aqui por alla solo hago algun remiendo eso hago pero
ya no trabajo.”

Tina, “No pues alla vamos y venimos duramos un tiempo alla y aca. Pues a donde quiera pero yo me vengo
con pesar, por los hijos.”

98

These women demonstrated contradictory feelings about where they wanted to be and
how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives. It seemed that older women struggled
between staying in their community of origin and Detroit where most of their families
resided permanently.

In what is called Mexican Town in southwest Detroit, a thriving community of
San Ignacians contradicts recent literature on the impact of the deindustrialization of
Detroit. In the 19705 the dismantling of the auto industry and as domino effect closures of
the steel industry and meat packing industries led to the abrupt loss of thousands of jobs
that devastated the city. 11 There is no doubt that there was an unprecedented fall in the
economy of Detroit in general, however, the literature that points to this historical period,
generally, overlooks marginal groups such as Mexican immigrants and their
establishment of a new, albeit informal and less grandiose, economy that has been
ﬂourishing for the past three decades in Detroit and consequently in San Ignacio — with
business investments in the town’s economy that come from dollars earned by both men

and women in Detroit.12 As one reporter noted,

 

11 Richard Freeman, “Death of Detroit: Harbinger of Collapse of Deindustrialized America,” in Executive
Intelligence Review, April 23, 2004. “Observing the death of Detroit, as it shrinks into oblivion and its
citizens are ravaged, one is struck by a fundamental transformation: In the period 1940 through 1963,
Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city in the world, unmatched in real physical productivity. But
during the period 1964—2004, Detroit became synonymous with blight and decay beyond imagination.”

2 Dionicio Valdés, in Barrios Norteﬁos points out that Mexicans in Detroit according to the 1990 census
were only 13% of Mexicans in Michigan and that “by the late 19905 Mexicans were only 3% of Detroit’s
population...” (223). Granted that Mexicans are a small minority within the population of Detroit,
nevertheless urban studies of Detroit such as Thomas J. Sugrue’s seminal work, The Origins of the Urban
Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) focus
only on African Americans and leave out informal economies and experiences of smaller groups such as
Mexicans. It is important to pay attention to all these urban changes triggered by, in this case, a small
population of Mexican immigrants, without underestimating the economic realities that Detroit underwent
during deindustrialization and all the consequences this brought upon the population of Detroit such as
rampant unemployment, housing discrimination and segregation, the changes from manufacturing
enterprises to an economic focus on the service sector, etc.

99

San Ignacio depends on Detroit, but at least one part of Detroit depends on San
Ignacio. Many of the estimated 15,000 San Ignacio immigrants in Metro Detroit live
in southwest Detroit, the state’s oldest and largest Latino neighborhood, and have
helped make it one of the few city neighborhoods gaining population and
businesses. [. . .] San Ignacio natives joined dozens of Mexican immigrants who
Opened restaurants, grocery stores, record shops and other businesses in the past
decade.”
This thriving community, was started by Chuy Mercado and the bracero generation, and
later was supported and encouraged by Doﬁa Tere and the women who pioneered its
creation, by housing thousands of San Ignacians. These circmnstances are more often
than not neglected by the historiography that focuses on urbanization and marginal
groups.

The social networks that the Mercado brothers created ﬁrst, by bringing the
Hernandez brothers and followed by a few more men, were only the beginning of what
was to become a dynamic transnational community. The men who initiated these
networks does not even begin to compare with the large number of San Ignacians who
began to arrive in Detroit starting in the 1970s when the ﬁrst Mexicanas began to
delineate and create this transnational community. The bracero generation would have
had no impact on the creation of this transnational community had it not been by the
women who arrived shortly after. The women who moved to Detroit with their families
and contributed with their reproductive and productive labor, opened their homes to
welcome large numbers of San Ignacians. Dona Tere moved to Detroit in 1970 and her
thirteen children and their respective families joined her and Delﬁno shortly after. She,

like other immigrant women, played a critical role in supporting the arrival of extended

kin and townspeople. Doﬂa Tere recalled cooking for large numbers of San Ignacians, of

__

l3 . . . .
Louis Aguilar, “Mexrcans bolster a comer of Detrort,” The Detroit News, Sunday, March 6, 2005.

100

which many were not related to her but were ﬁiends of either her husband or her sons and

daughters,

I cooked soup and salad and came al homo, and by the time they came home from
work everything was set up because I had prepared everything in advance. I used to
get up very early and I made lunches for everyone. Could you imagine that I had up
to seventeen peOple in my house! Because los muchachas would bring their ﬁiends
[from San Ignacio] and they all slept in the basement crowded until I had to say, “I
can’t have so many people in my house anymore.” But my husband and my sons
didn’t say anything, and we had fun because we would have parties and we all sang.
We would celebrate different birthdays in my house, and I had to accommodate,
besides my house was big and I was not very delicada (strict) about cleanliness.
Also, I would think to myself, if I do not welcome mi gente (my own people) and let
them feel comfortable then they would not feel at home.14

This sense of obligation for mi gente became the pillar for the foundation of social

15 in a period of

networks that allowed the mobilization of thousands of San Ignacians
three decades. Reproductive and productive labor by Mexicanas served as the thread to
weave and shape this new social fabric informed by transnational ties between San
Ignacio and Detroit.

Mexicanas carved spaces both private — the home — and public— the shop ﬂoor as

well as the church, clinics and hospitals, schools, and commercial stores — where they

 

1‘ Doﬁa Tere, 73 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001. “ Yo les hacia sopa, ensalada y
came a1 homo y ya cuando venian de trabajar ya estaba todo porque lo hacia antes. Me levantaba temprano
y les hacia lunches, ﬁjese nomas y llegaron a estar 17 personas en mi casa. Porque los muchachos llevaban
mas amigos de San Ignacio. Dormian en el basement apilados hasta que les dije ya no puedo tenerlos. . .
Pero mis muchachas y mi esposo no decian nada, 0 sea no decian nada, ahi se hacian muchos relajos
cantaban y haciamos ﬁestas. Curnpleaﬁos haciamos de todo en mi casa porque era grande. Y yo no era
delicada. .. Porque decia yo si no recibo a mi gente para andar ay que no me pisen aqui que no me pisen
alla, pues las personas no se sienten agusto, como si estuvieran en su casa.”

According to The Detroit News approximately 15,000 San Ignacians live in Metro Detroit. Louis
Aguilar, “Mexicans bolster a comer of Detroit,” The Detroit News, Sunday, March 6, 2005. In 1970 the
US. Census reported 27,038 “people of Spanish Language.” By 2000 the US. Census reported 47,167
“peOple of Spanish Language,” of which 33,143 were Mexicans. US. Department of Commerce, Bureau of
the Census, United States Census of Population, 1970—2000 (Washington, DC: US. Government Printing
Ofﬁce). For the 1970 and 1980 Census information, Mexicans were not classiﬁed; the census has them
listed as part of “General Characteristics of Persons of Spanish Language for Areas and Places.” These
numbers are not accurate considering the thousands of Mexicans that are rendered socially invisible due to
their immigration status.

101

connected a pipeline of information important to the development of transnational social
networks. In these spaces Mexicanas shared information related to their health, jobs,
families and their new lives in Detroit. These voices traveled transnationally to San
Ignacio, where other women planned and experienced immigration if not personally then
vicariously. San Ignacio became an integral part of Detroit and vice a versa in
Mexicanas’ everyday lives.

Women’s entry into paid work opened up additional spaces for Mexicanas to
expand the development of transnational communities. The shop ﬂoor became one more
contested arena where women experienced and revisited their cultural and social
constructions of gender roles as well as their creations of social networks that would
enable other women to enter the labor force.“5 Dofia Tere’s daughter-in-law, Carmen
arrived in Detroit in 1972 shortly after she was married to Javier Hernandez, Dofia Tere’s
oldest son, in San Ignacio. After being separated for about a year, Carmen joined her
husband and his family in Detroit. While most of the males in the family worked in steel
factories, women joined the labor force in auto-parts factories. Carmen worked in a
factory sewing auto covers for cars. She remembered how kinship networks created
economic and social spaces for Mexicanas,

I didn’t like the job at the beginning; it was very difﬁcult so when I got pregnant
with F abiola, my ﬁrst daughter, I quit. But, after I had Araceli my second, I started
to work there again and I learned better, we sewed car covers with industrial sewing
machines. I started working there because my comadre recommended me. Right
after I started, my friend Aurora, que en paz descanse (may she rest in peace)
entered the factory and she worked there for almost 27 years. [. . .] So, at ﬁrst we

were a small group from San Ignacio, only Lola and Aurora, then Elia started after I
did and then more people arrived. We would get together after work and visit each

 

‘6 See Appendix C, table 3.1

102

other all the time. I would run to my aunt Lola’s house in the evenings so that I

wouldn’t be alone.17
Carmen’s labor at the factory gave her an opportunity to meet other women and share
information about the work, and at the same time, her reproductive labor at home allowed
more San Ignacians to move to Detroit. When Carmen moved to Detroit, Doﬁa Tere went
back to San Ignacio to bring her youngest children to Detroit. Doﬁa Tere stayed in San
Ignacio for a year before she went back to Detroit. In that year, Carmen cooked and cared
for 14 family members and friends and also worked in the auto plant. Her husband Javier
was the ﬁrst to marry, placing the responsibility on her to provide and care for others. She
recalled learning how to cook in Detroit thanks to her comadre, but although the
workload was very heavy, she commented, “I felt good here [her house now, back then
her in-law’s] with all of them because I was not alone; 31 years ago there was almost no
one from San Ignacio, as there are now.”18

The complexity of gender relations made it much more difﬁcult to identify

whether the effects of women’s entry into the labor force was more “liberating” in terms
of challenging tiaditional gender roles. The case of Gel illustrated this plurality of
experiences by Mexicans and their ambivalence in terms of deﬁning their position as

wage eamers vis-a-vis their male peers. Gel commented on her contribution to the

household’s ﬁnances, “Well yes we could deﬁnitely support ourselves with what Polo

 

17 Carmen, 50 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “No me gusto el trabajo primero era bien
trabajoso y cuando sali embarazada de Fabiola me sali. Pero despues volvi a entrar cuando tuve a mi hija
Araceli. Cocia lonas con maquinas industriales. Empecé a trabajar ahi proque mi comadre fué la que me
metio. Entonces entre yo y luego despues entro Aurora que en paz descance, ella duro muchos aﬁos como
27 aﬂos. Después luego empezo a llegar mas gente. Primero eramos muy poquitas, nada mas Lola y
Aurora, Elia llego despues que yo. Nos juntabamos, nos visitabamos mucho porque eramos las unicas. Yo
corria para alla con Lola, que viene siendo mi tia, en las tardes para no estar sola.”

1 Ibid., “Yo me sentia bien aqui con todos porque no estaba sola, hace 31 afros no habia gente de San
Ignacio como ahora.”

103

[her husband] makes. So, what I make I use for things that are not necessary, like for
clothing, going out, or to put away. So, what I make is for whatever I want to do with
it.”19 Gel’s perception of her contribution to the household was that of a supplemental
income, however Gel had been working since she arrived in Detroit in 1995. Her
comment underlined her effort to defend and support her husband’s sense of manhood
and masculinity as the breadwinner, thus considering her contribution as minor and
supplemental. It was clear that her ﬁnancial contribution was necessary to the survival of
the household since her wages covered family’s necessities such as clothing, food, and
money for their trips to Mexico. Gel’s view of her productive labor underlined how
women had to constantly navigate within patriarchal assumptions surrounding women’s
paid work. Most of the women that I interviewed had worked and are currently working
in Detroit. Due to their immigration status in Detroit many have had several low paying
jobs including: working in auto parts industries, service and food sectors, and other
diverse manufacturing enterprises. Women’s ambivalence about recognizing their
economic contribution to the household also emphasized their efforts to create spaces
within racist, hostile and oppressive patriarchal systems.

Some women overtly challenged gender roles by using their entry into the labor
force as leverage to reprimand their partners for not being able to support them and their
families as traditional gender roles ascribed. Such was the case of Tina who commented,
“If men take care of their obligations better [make enough money to support the family]
then I don’t think women should work, they should care for their families. But if they can

not then it is better there [Detroit] because here [San Ignacio] there are no jobs for

 

'9 Gel, 25 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Si, si nos podn’amos mantener con lo que 6] [su
esposo] gana. Per has dc cuenta con lo que yo gano lo uso como para cosas que no son... para vestimos,
para salir para guardar has de cuenta que lo que yo gano es para lo que yo quiera.”

104

women.”20 Tina’s comment reﬂected her views on traditional gender roles, however,
when I asked her if she enjoyed working she replied, “Yes I did, at ﬁrst it was hard but
now I really like it, it’s very nice. You don’t have to worry about anything.”21 Tina was
laid off and the company offered two years of English lessons, which she was taking and
she was eager to look for another job as soon as the lessons were ﬁnished. Tina’s
resentment toward her husband for not “fulﬁlling his obligations” as breadwinner stem
from the fact that she felt guilty that she had not spent much time with her children rather
than the fact that she had to work. As a matter of fact she recollected how much fun she
had with her friends at work, “I had many friends, it’s only been a year that the factory
closed, but we still keep in touch and we see each other when we go for our English
lessons.”22 These ambiguities about productive labor emphasized the multiplicity of
experiences that Mexicanas had as they juggled with socially assigned repressive gender
roles and their feelings of control and power as they joined the labor force. Tina’s
challenging of gender roles became very clear when she complained about her husband’s
lack of fulﬁllment of his ascribed gender role as breadwinner in front of me.

Through their labors women gave birth to their transnational community. Even
though reproductive labor within a patriarchal system and in most traditional literature on

immigrant communities23 was not considered labor, in immigration studies we can no

 

20 Tina y Saul de la Torre, 47 and 52 years of age respectively, interview in San Igancio, January 2003. “Si
el hombre atiende a sus obligaciones mejor, que las mujeres ni trabajen, que atiendan a su familia, pero si
no cumplen si estan mejor alla [Detroit] porque aqui no hay mucho trabajo para las mujeres.”
21 . ,, . . . . . ,,

Ibid. S1, pnmero fue drﬁcrl pero ahora me gusta, agusto no tienes nada de que preocuparte.
22 Ibid. “Si tengo muchas amigas apenas tiene una afro que cerro [1a fabrica] todavia nos hablamos y ahora
estamos llendo a las classes de Inglés.”
23 Douglas Massey, Rafael Alarcon, Jorge Durand, Humberto Gonzalez, Return to Aztlan: The Social
Process of International Migration ﬁom Western Mexico (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of
California Press, 1987). In their seminal work, immigrant women are only an appendix of Mexicanos’
immigrant experiences without taking into consideration women’s labor; not even reproductive labor.

105

longer ignore the importance of it. It was women’s reproductive labor — and of course
other factors such as the migration of the braceros in the 1940s - that allowed for the
formation of transnational communities. However, even feminist approaches to the topic
of migration downplayed reproductive labor in order to emphasize women’s challenges
of traditional gender roles when joining the labor force. Nevertheless, it is important to
look at reproductive labor as an inherent factor in the formation of transnational
communities. Further, the feeling of owning their domestic space gave women some
power to make decisions that concerned the well being of not only their family but also
the rest of the residents in the household. San Ignacian men like most men in general did
not acknowledge reproductive labor as “work”, but by listening to their narratives we can
dissect and analyze some of the challenges, albeit minor, to traditional gender roles that
the immigrant experience triggered.

Don Antonio took his family to Detroit in 1972 and when I asked if his wife
worked he said, “no, she was only a housewife, I supported her.” Don Antonio and his
wife Imelda had nine children. He later added that his wife started to learn English when
she moved to Detroit and she also, “worked with a neighbor that fed retired older people,
and it was not until she applied for a job in a factory that we realized she had diabetes.”24
Don Gabriel and his son Sergio corroborated the same argument. When I asked about
whether their wife/mother worked in Detroit, Don Gabriel very adamantly replied, “no

over there she never worked not one minute!” Don Gabriel and his wife Lupe had ten

children, which she had to care for prior and after she migrated to Detroit. I asked Don

 

24 Don Antonio, 78 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002. “N o ella se dedicaba a la casa,
yo la mantenia.” “T rabajaba con una vecina que les daba de comer a unos viejitos pensionados y ahi estuvo
y después cuando quizo trabajar en una fabrica, la metio mi hija 1e hicieron un examen medico y salio que
tenia diabetis.”

106

Gabriel and Sergio one more time if she worked in the house and Sergio responded, “Oh
yes she did work in the house, she was a very active woman and even though it was
different from San Ignacio because houses in Detroit are different she still had to do the
housework. But in Detroit the house had rugs so she didn’t have to mop so much, so I
think her house work load was less in Detroit.”25
Don Antonio, Don Gabriel and Sergio did not acknowledge their wife’s/mother’s
reproductive labor and during the interview Sergio also mentioned very matter of fact
that at some point there were more than eighteen people living in their house, including
his wife and the wives and husbands of his ten siblings.

The case of Don Rail] and his wife Eli illustrated how some women struggled to
negotiate their roles as reproductive laborers. Don Rt’rl arrived in Detroit in 1970 and like
other pioneer San Ignacians lived with the Mercado brothers until he was able to rent his
own apartment. In 1972 be processed his family’s residencies and they joined him in
Detroit. According to her son Benjamin, Eli loved Detroit because, “Well over there she
had all of us her family and she did not have to work so hard, over there [Detroit] she
only had to pick up the house because we helped her vacuum the rug and she was happy
to have all of us with her.” Don Raul, however, added that, “we had to buy a house
[which was my idea] because the apartment was very small and my wife started to

become very delicada (touchy) because a lot of people arrived in the apartment and I had

them there to help them. So I thought, “let’s buy a house” because I wanted to stay there

 

25 Don Gabriel and Sergio, 70 and 46 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001.
“No ella nunca trabajo ni un minuto!” “A trabajar en la casa pues ella era una mujer muy activa 0 sea yo
creo que lo mismo, bueno diferente porque las casas alla no son tan grandes y no trapeaba todos los dias
proque teniamos alfornbra, yo creo que era mas liviano.”

107

for a long time. It occurred to me to buy the house and then I bought another one four
years later that I turned into small apartments to rent.”26

Eli not only rebelled against having so many tenants in the apartment, she also
used this as a leverage to get her husband to buy a house. She was not the only one that
complained about having so many people in her house, Doﬁa Alicia also had her husband
purchase a house when she complained about the crowded conditions they were living in
and all the extra work she had to perform.27 Tensions and conﬂicts arose out of these
situations where some women were able to negotiate with their husbands for better living
conditions on the one hand and on the other hand these negotiations led to settling more
permanently in Detroit by purchasing homes, thus, initiating the creation of a
transnational community.

As women’s social networks expanded through their labor supporting new
arrivals, the ﬂow of San Ignacians to Detroit grew more and more from the 19703
through the 19908. Due in large part to housing segregation in Detroit and also to
families’ desire to live close to each other, San Ignacians along with other Latinos began

to build what is now called Mexican Town. As Louis Aguilar reported, “Some 60.000

people live in the area commonly called Mexicantown, roughly bordered by the old Tiger

 

26 Don Rain] and Benjamin, 78 and 58 years of age respectively. Interview in San Ignacio, December 2001.
“Pues es que alla estabamos toda su familia y nbo trabajaba tanto en la casa como aqui. Alla, solo una
recogidita a la casa'toda 1a alfombra nosotros se la lirnpiabamos y le ayudabamos. Alla estabamos todos y
pues estaba contenta.” “Compramos una casa porque e1 apartamento era muy chiquillo luego la mujer [su
esposa] empezo era medio deicadona porque llegaban otras gentes ahi de San Ignacio y yo los tenia a ellos
para ayudarlos. Y les dije pues mejor vamos a comprar una casa, yo pensaba durar mas aﬁos verdad, porque
en realidad si me gustaba, entonces me did la idea de cornprarrne una casa y a los cuatro aﬁos compre otra
ye puse muchos apartamentos para rentar.”

Doha Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002. “Si se vinieron todos sus
hermanos [de mi esposo] ya habian arreglado tambien a algunos de sus hijos, Pero Vivian todos en una
casa, viviamos todos bien apilados y mi Viejo [su esposo] todo el que llegaba iba a dar ahi hasta que
encontraba trabajo y no le cobraba cornida, no les cobraba nada. [. . .] Todos me ayudaban a hacer el
quehacer yo con mis chiquillos ahi revueltos con todos, se me hacia re feo a mi pues yo no estaba impuesta
a eso. Al poco tiempo compramos una casa.”

108

Stadium, East Dearbom and the Detroit River. More than 4,000 people have moved there
since 1990.”28 The area was surrounded by small businesses that catered to the population
of Mexican Town.29

However, after the 19608 and early 19703 generation of bracero families the
inﬂux of Mexican immigrants into Detroit was largely undocumented. Along with the
new migrant stream of San Ignacians a professional, well-organized, exploitative, and
clandestine network of smugglers known as coyotes developed. Although coyotes have
been well established since the beginning of the nineteenth century their roles have
signiﬁcantly changed over the years.30 In the past three decades, smuggling
undocumented people and fabricating papeles chuecos (forging social security cards and
green cards) has been their main focus. They have established a sophisticated network
that expands to most of the United States. Consequently, most men and women that
migrated after the 1970s and had no family relationships with the bracero generation had
to depend on these coyotes for their journey to el Norte. Due to immigration policy
restrictions and growing anti-immigrant nativist rhetoric in the U.S., many San Ignacians
migrated with the idea of settling permanently in Detroit to avoid the hardships of
crossing the border undocumented. This precarious situation created a new set of gender

tensions and rearranged kinship or familial obligations toward newcomers. Despite the

 

28 Louis Aguilar, “Mexicans bolster a comer of Detroit,” The Detroit News, Sunday, March 6, 2005.
29 See Appendix A, tables 1.1 and 1.2.

30 For more information on coyotes in the early twentieth century, look at Manuel Garnio’s path breaking
work on Mexican immigrants in 1926-27. “The real forces which move illegal immigration are, ﬁrst of all,
the smugglers or “coyotes” who facilitate illegal entrance to Mexican innnigrants, and the contractors or
enganchistas who provide them with jobs. The smuggler and the contractor are an intimate and powerful
alliance from Calexico to Brownsville.” Manuel Gamio, Mexican Immigration to the United States: A
Study of Human Migration and Adjustment, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930), ll. Coyotes in
the earlier part of the twentieth century provided different services of which smuggling Mexicans was the
ﬁrst and foremost but also they would work in conjunction with contractors or enganchistas who hired
Mexicans and sent them to the ﬁelds directly. These two entities in essence worked as a labor recruitment
agency.

109

social networks that have been well established over the years - and these included
connections with speciﬁc coyotes as well — the sense of ethics and obligations toward
family and townspeople have become much more serious. In the past two decades,
having a vulnerable sense of social invisibility created a more serious position that forced
many women and men to tolerate difﬁcult situations. These included taking responsibility
for many other San Ignacians outside traditional extended family boundaries. As in
previous decades, the meanings of social networks and transnational citizenship evolved
to consider these new challenges to anti-immigrant, racist, and hostile environments in
the US.

One of the many effects of having a precarious immigration status were the
numbers of San Ignacians arriving in Detroit and needing help from their co-nationals.
These situations led to gendered family dislocations that were for many San Ignacians
difﬁcult and unstable. Women who had family members and friends staying in their
homes carried the brunt of these dislocations and tensions. It is understandable that young
women were not having as many children as their elders did, and it was not due to
“traditional religious betrayal” (using contraceptives to enjoy sex for pleasure rather than
for reproduction), as Father Ignacio put it when he commented on the issue. Also it was
not because of some “sexual liberation” that came with the use of contraceptives.31 The
approach to contraceptives, the family’s economic situation, and the acculturation to
contemporary US. and Mexican ideologies about small families, all brought about the

downsizing of large families. I contend that it was also because most women became

 

31 See chapter two for how Mexicanas approach the issue of the use of contraceptives. Despite more
information and availability, most of them do not. Most of them relied on the mi vieja me cuida (my
boyfriend or husband takes care of me) argument, which as I discussed is most of the time ineffective, yet
Mexicanas keep relying on it.

110

surrogate mothers, sisters and daughters of large numbers of San Ignacians, whether they
were family members, compadres or comadres and/or their children, or friends.32

As women took on different surrogate roles, many lived with a series of moral
contradictions about how much they should or should not tolerate when taking care of
extended family and/or other San Ignacians. While doing my research both in San
Ignacio and in Detroit I had the opportunity to spent time with Gaby 22, her husband
Gabriel 28, and their son Leo 6. Leo was born with a muscular disease that debilitated his
muscles and impeded his ability to walk. Gaby was advised by a ﬁiend to seek
accountability from the Ford Hospital in Detroit where her son was born and to ﬁle a
lawsuit. Gaby didn’t speak English and the lawyer that someone recommended did not
speak Spanish so they used a ﬁend as an interpreter. Gaby asked me if I could help her
ﬁll out the thick questionnaire her lawyer sent her in order to begin the lawsuit. While we
were working on the questionnaire, Gaby received a phone call from her oldest brother.
In an instant I saw Gaby’s attitude change, with that including her tone of voice. She
began to complain about her younger brother who had just recently anived to Detroit
ﬁ'om San Ignacio and was living with her and her family. Most of her complaints had to
do with the fact that Cam was not paying for his long distance phone calls to Mexico, nor
was he contributing for the food that he was consuming and his lack of consideration
when he left all his clothes everywhere and she had to pick them up and put them away.

In that instant Gaby appealed to family hierarchies, based on patriarchal social
structures in order to discipline her younger brother, by Babis her oldest brother. I asked

Gaby why she didn’t ask Cam herself and she said, “no, I can’t, he’s my brother.” Yet

 

32 See Appendix B, tables 2.1 and 2.2.

111

while she honored one tradition, as “mother” to her brother picking up after him and
enduring his demands on her domestic roles, she asserted her sense of equality through
appeals to the family patriarch to impose fairer family roles. So, on the one hand, she was
undertaking a huge lawsuit that caused her great insecurity including completing the
daunting 300-page questionnaire with limited English skills; and on the other hand she
was not able to tell her brother to get his caca together. It was this new sense of
obligation and caretaking of extended family and ﬁiends that supported the continued
large ﬂow of San Ignacians into Detroit and which in turn supported transnational social
networks.

Tensions from greater burdens on women caused a great deal of insecurity and
conﬂicts within the family. The sense of obligation toward extended family, immediate
family and ﬁiends provoked gender conﬂicts that directly affected the females in the
household. For example Vivi, Gaby’s sister, was married and had two little girls. While
interviewing Vivi in her living room in Detroit, another woman came down the stairs
with two other little girls. I later found out that Vivi’s husband’s brother, his wife, and
their two daughters were living with them. They had arrived two months earlier from San
Ignacio and were planning to reside in Detroit joining most of their family. While Vivi
was telling me this, she and Gaby began to whisper so that the other woman who had
gone into the kitchen with her daughters could not hear us. Vivi was on the verge of
desperation because her sister-in—law never cleaned the top ﬂoor, which was completely
taken over by the woman’s family. On top of that, she never helped her cook or do
dishes, and her husband was only working three times a week, which meant it would take

them forever to move out and make it on their own. So the list went on and on until we

112

were interrupted by the woman’s return to the living room. On another occasion, when
we were on our way to visit Vivi again, Gaby stopped at McDonalds to get a kid’s meal
for her son Leo, and while we were waiting in the take out order line she said, “oh, we
should get one for my niece. She continued, “well should I get two more for the woman’s
little girls?” and immediately concluded, “no, hell no I’m not responsible for the other
two girls, right?” Her commentary revealed resentrnents about imposed obligations
outside the immediate extended family and also it brought to light the difﬁcult tensions
and contradictions that women undergo in their everyday lives as they tried to construct
their own spaces.

Vivi’s frustrations culminated a week later when Gaby got a very distressed call.
Vivi was crying uncontrollably and asked Gaby to pick her up. Vivi had repeatedly asked
her husband to give his brother a time frame to leave and rent an apartment of his own for
himself and his family. Her husband had continuously criticized her about making a big
deal out of nothing and remarked adamantly that he could not tell his brother to leave
until his brother decided to leave on his own. Vivi’s husband allegedly could not ask his
brother to leave because it would be an insult. Therefore, Vivi as his wife, had to put up
with it. Nevertheless, Genaro, Vivi’s husband, was hardly ever home. He and his brother
would leave early in the morning and not come back until later in the evening ostensibly
to work. Leaving Vivi to deal with the everyday conﬂicts and tensions that her situation
endured. Ultimately Vivi was able to negotiate with her husband a time frame for his
brother to leave. This was possible because on the one hand Vivi continued to stand her
ground, and on the other because Genaro had more siblings in Detroit with whom his

brother could stay. Nevertheless, for four months Vivi and Genaro argued continuously

113

causing turmoil within the household. Despite this very contested and unfair situation,
Vivi commented,

I don’t know how to tell you, but there are many people who have extended their

help to us, it is very important that when you come here there are people that help

you. I know a lot of people here that don’t have where to stay when they come

because they don’t know many people and they don’t have anything to eat until they

ﬁnd a job. Thank God that I was lucky because I had my sister here and she helped

me. It is so nice when you have someone to care for you because here life is not

easy you have to work hard. This way, if you want to come here then thank God as I

was telling you, how do I put it, well that I can help other people because I know

what is like because I went through the same thing, todos venimos a los mismo,

todos (we all come here to do the same and experience the same).33
Vivi’s comment pointed to the many contradictions that the construction of transnational
social networks brought to women’s lives. Even though she was having problems with
her husband because of his family staying with them, she also felt obligated to do what
Gaby had done for her. It is these everyday contradictions and conﬂicts that I want to
draw attention to. Gender relations have been and continue to be shaped and reshaped by
the immigrant experience and this in turn makes it hard to locate when and where or how
Mexicanas challenge traditional gender relations. I contend that they do, albeit in short
strides, as they construct their lives and their transnational communities. Women see
themselves as the creators of their transnational communities even though they have to

continuously claim contested spaces that are racialized and repressive, and where the

division of power is unequal and unfair.

 

33 Vivi, 28 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Como te quisiera decir, habemos muchas
personas que, hay personas que nos dan la mano, eso es lo importante que llegues y haya una persona que
te de la mano. Yo conozco muchas personas que no tienen a donde llegar, que no conocen a nadie, que no
tienen un lugar ni siguiera para dormir que hasta que tengas trabajo no tienes que comer. Yo gracias a Dios
a mi me toco la suerte que yo tenia aqui a mi hermana, [. . .] pues es bien bonito, asi to da mas animo
poderte venir cuando tienes asi un lugar en donde llegar que tu sabes que no es tan facil aqui la vida. Si no
trabajas pues esta mas duro, pero asi esta bien que tengas familia y gracias a Dios como te digo que uno
pueda ayudar a otra gente porque tu ya sabes porque tu veniste lo que tu pasaste, todos venimos a lo
mismo, todos.”

114

Unlike the generation of Mexicanas that settled in the 19705 younger women had,
to their advantage, the fact that newcomers whether members of their extended family or
friends had more options in terms of places of residency. The transnational community in
Detroit offered San Ignacians that had recently migrated, more than a handful of places
where they could stay. Mexicanas in the 19705 had limited options in terms of accepting
the ﬂux of San Ignacians that arrived at the time in Detroit. They were left with a more
difﬁcult moral choice of giving their relatives or their townspeople a place to live or have
them fend for themselves without a generous hand to help them out while they got on
their feet. Recent circumstances, as the transnational community continued to grow,
opened up spaces for younger Mexicanas to negotiate and challenge patriarchal
dominance by appealing to numbers of San Ignacians and other members of the family
already residing in Detroit. Gender relations and patriarchal systems are not monolithic
or stable; similarly, negotiations and challenges by women are constantly ﬂuctuating.
Women negotiated with their male counterparts issues that affected them and their
family’s well being. Younger Mexicanas were also inﬂuenced by cultural expressions of
feminism, individualism and more liberal understandings of relationships than their
elders had. This allowed the younger generation to express discontent and to act upon it.

These situations barely begin to touch upon the hardships and struggles that
Mexicanas had to contend with while at the same time they supported the very social
networks that sustained immigration. Gender tensions and family adjustments caused
immigrants to readjust and accommodate new systems of kinship based on the immigrant
experience. However, I argue, the brunt of everyday sustainability fell on Mexicanas who

in general were the home caretakers even when they worked full-time. Many led the

115

double-day routine as they worked full-time and performed reproductive labor that
included taking care not only of their immediate family but also of the “guests” who
might be staying with her family. The deconstruction of the immigrant’s social networks
underlines and emphasizes the several tensions that develop within the immigrant
experience. Moreover they bring to the fore how Mexicanas negotiate and contest the
everyday gender struggles that in turn give way to the creation of transnational
communities. In as much as migration can bring about ﬁnancial gain, upward social
mobility, and some challenges to gender roles, it also promotes conﬂict and tension in the
family and familial separations that can be very painful.

Some of these challenges were reﬂected in border crossings. In 1976 Saul left San
Ignacio to ﬁnd work in Detroit. He and his wife Tina had four children and in 1978 when
Saul asked Tina to join him they had a seven-month baby as well. They decided that
being together would be best for the family, and also Tina could join the labor force in
Detroit and help the family’s economic situation. Tina and Saul hired a coyote to smuggle
them into the US. Tina remembered, “I took my youngest with me he was only seven
months and I left my other four with my family?“ Tina and Saul paid $1,100 each and
they crossed the border through Tijuana into Chula Vista, San Diego. Although the
crossing was very difﬁcult especially carrying the baby, they crossed safely. Saul
borrowed the money to pay the coyote from family members who were in Detroit and
who were waiting for them to arrive. Tina remembered the anguish she and Saul went

through not being able to see their other four children for 6 months until they saved

 

34 Tina y Saul, 47 and 52 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Me fui yo con
él, me lleve a1 mas chiquito tenia 7 meses y deje a los otros cuatro con mi familia.”

116

enough money to pay for them to cross the border. She described how she struggled to
make this happen,

Within three months I started to work in a hotel doing house keeping and saving

every penny to bring my other four children, and once we had the money we could

not ﬁnd anyone that would take them ﬁom San Ignacio to Tijuana. So my relatives

that are retired and live in San Ignacio agreed to take the children. They crossed

with a coyote safely but we did not see them for six months. I was going mad, oh

my god! I kept telling Saul, if we don’t bring them soon I will leave. At nights I

could not sleep, I would go outside and weep for hours until we came up with the

idea of who could bring them to us. As soon as they got there [Detroit] I enrolled

them in school and we began our new life.35
During the several interviews that I conducted, many women’s narratives tended to focus
more on their success and downplay their struggles. Border crossing in and of itself is a
very hard and dangerous undertaking, however, usually the narrators would either
recollect this experience as a kind of Nancy Drew adventure - except when mothers
residing in San Ignacio would tell the border crossing stories of their children — or they
would not talk about it at all.36 These narratives illustrated women’s priorities of being
reunited with their families. It also showed how building a community was a difﬁcult
undertaking when women’s resources were limited and severely dangerous within
contested social oppressive spaces.

As one more dislocation, familial separation is one of the most difﬁcult for San

Ignacians who go months and sometimes years at a time without seeing their immediate

 

35 Ibid. “A 105 tres meses que llegue enrpece a trabajar en un hotel de house keeping y juntando dinero para
traer a los otros cuatro niﬁos. Y ya teniamos e1 dinero y no hayabamos quién nos los llevara de san Ignacio
a Tijuana. Entonces mis parientes que estan retirados, les paganros e1 boleto para San Ignacio para que nos
llevara a los niﬁos de San Ignacio a Tijuana. Con coyote pasasron, pero duramos 6 meses sin verlos. Yo ya
me estaba volviendo loca, dios mio yo 1e decia a Salvador si no nos los traemos yo me voy. En las noches
sin dormir yo me salia a chillar. Y hasta que pensamos quién nos los trajera. En cuanto llegaron los inscribi
en la escuela y empezamos a hacer una vida.”

36 This space, border crossing, needs more attention, considering the hundreds of Mexican immigrants that
die trying to get across. Due to the focus of my investigation I am not able to provide a detailed analysis of
the consequences that crossing the border as an undocumented irmnigrant might have.

117

family. Crossing the border for many was a horrible experience and its implications go
beyond the scope of this investigation. However, Mexicanas downplayed the seriousness
and the dangers of their “crossings” and mostly expressed the emotional anguish that
family separation caused. This transnational familial separation also contributed to the
constant shaping and reshaping of migrant families in Detroit and in San Ignacio.
On a bright San Ignacian sunny morning in 1988, Goyo and Lola decided that

Goyo needed to go back to Detroit to improve the household ﬁnances. He had gone to
Detroit a few times, but he never stayed longer than a year at a time. The day after Goyo
arrived in Detroit he called Lola to let her know that he had made the journey safely and
he now was in Detroit with his sister. At that moment Lola turned to her young daughter
who was 16 and said, “your father just called to let us know that he is in Detroit so with
the money he left we are going to the doctor to run some tests to see why you have not
gotten your period yet.”37 Lola was already suspicious of her daughter’s pregnancy so
Lily opened up and conﬁrmed that she was in fact pregnant and this was her ﬁfth month.
Lily had been going to a clinic in Arandas (a town very near San Ignacio) and knew that
she was carrying a girl. Even though Lola suspected the pregnancy she was very
distressed when she found out that it was in fact true. Lola remembered how she felt,

I told my daughter, “Why did you have to wait until your father left?” so I started to

pray to God to give me the words to tell him and also I prayed that nobody would

tell him until I talked to him. So eight days later Goyo called and I said to him,

“You know the van broke down.” He was very angry because I was unable to pick

up the van from where it broke down and he said, “how can you not make

arrangements to pick up the van, some of the kids are going to break the windows!”
So, I said, “Uy mzjo I wish all our problems stopped with the breaking down of the

 

37 Goyo y Lola, 39 and 51 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio January 2003. “Ya hablo tu
papa que esta bien, con ese dinero voy a ir a hacerte unos analisis para ver porque no te viene tu regla.”

118

van,” but let me tell you, our daughter is pregnant. My husband started to cry and to

hit the wall.38
Goyo did not speak to his daughter for more than eight months and his ﬁrst reaction was
to blame the father of the child and ostracize his daughter. Months after the child was
born, Lily and her older sister announced that they wanted to go to Detroit. Lola advised
Lily not to take the little girl until she found a job and felt more stable. Both of the
daughters moved into their aunt’s house in Detroit and they have been residing there for
four years. This situation illustrated the family separations that migration can bring about,
but it also emphasized women’s support for one another. Despite Goyo’s reluctance to
speak to his daughter and later his objection to her migrating to Detroit, Lola intervened
and, challenging patriarchal authority, supported the emigration of both of her daughters.
Women constantly maneuvered difficult situations in order to support the changing
positioning of transnational families, which in turn supported their intricate social
networks. At the same time they also relied on their social networks to facilitate the
movement of female relatives. Lola’s family members in Detroit welcomed the young
women, alleviating their parents’ anxiety about having their young daughters move to
Detroit. In this case the mother allowed her daughter to escape her maternal obligations
despite the father’s discontent. Furthermore, the mother’s support gave way to the
repositioning of the family roles whereby the grandparents became the parents of the

little girl and the older siblings became authority ﬁgures vis-a-vis the small child. Family

 

38 Ibid. “Yo 1e dije, “Ay que barabara porque te esperaste a que tu padre se fuera porque no nos dijiste
ahora que el estaba aqui.” Yo 1e pedi a Dios que me ponga las palabras. El hablo y le dije, “sabes que se me
descompuso la camioneta, se me quebro un ﬁerro, entonces e1 se enojo mucho porque no la habia recogido
de donde se me descompuso y ya me dice, “pero como que no la han recogido que por ahi los vagos que le
van a quebrar los vidrios,” y que quién sabe que. Y yo 1e dije, “uy rnijo si todo parara en ﬁerros que bueno
seria,” y ya fué donde 1e dije que Lily estaba embarazada. El se agarro llorando y golpeaba en la pared.”

119

readj ustments were not the only phenomenon caused by the politics of movement;
familial cultural hybridizations were also common among transnational families.

When I was conducting research in Detroit in 2004, I was invited to Alex’s
birthday party; she was going to be nine years old. Alex was the youngest of 10 siblings
of which all reside now in Detroit. I drove to Gaby’s house and from there she, Gabriel,
Leo and I walked to Gabriel’s sister’s house where they were having the party. It was
great; Gabriel’s sister Mayra had adomed her backyard with a multitude of colored
ribbons and a huge sign that read, “F eliz Cumplearios Alex.” They had prepared a big
container with carne en adobo on a barbecue, arroz and frijoles and the piece de
resistance a table full of desserts including an enormous chocolate cake and my favorite
arroz con leche. There must have been about 30 people of whom many were immediate
family and some extended family and friends. Mayra’s husband along with Gabriel had
thrown a long cuerda from one side of the backyard to the other where they hung the
pinata in the shape of a pink heart with Mini Mouse carrying a present. We all sang as
the children took turns breaking the pii‘lata and when it busted open, tons of candies went
ﬂying in the air, and the children all struggled to get as many as their hands could
possibly carry.

Alex was born a year after her mother moved to Detroit in 1995, along with her
older ﬁve siblings. Her father had left San Ignacio in 1994 and taken the four eldest
children, leaving Sandra, her mother, with the youngest ﬁve. The two oldest siblings
were able to get a couple of years of schooling since they had to help their father in San
Ignacio prior to moving to Detroit. Now, the youngest siblings, Teresita 18, Armando 19,

and Juan Pablo 20, are enrolled at Michigan State University, Wayne State University

120

and University of Michigan respectively. Alex was the only one born in Detroit and she
wants to become a doctor when she grows up. The ﬁrst four children do not speak
English and neither does Sandra their mother or Antonio, their father. However, this
transnational family continued to construct new meanings of what it means to be a San
Ignacian and a Mexican-Detroitian at the same time. As Doiia Tere put it at the beginning
of this chapter, “ I was happy because I had all my family and my husband in Detroit, 50
one feels happy because you have your family.” These families are creating new
meanings of kinship systems that are a consequence of the immigrant experience. Second
generation San Ignacians have made Detroit their home despite their desire to return
every year to San Ignacio for the ﬁestas patronales.

As women continue to create and sustain transnational communities, they develop
strategies to navigate contested patriarchal and repressive spaces in order to maintain a
sense of identity and dignity. The bracero generation would have had little impact had it
not been for the women who ventured north and began to get involved in community
formation. Contradicting sentiments reﬂect these vicissitudes as women conquer little by
little public and privates spaces. The creation of these transnational communities allows
us to reconsider conceptualizations of gender, familial structures, notions of borders -
geographical or political - acknowledging their transparency and ﬂuidity when these are
shaped, reshaped, contested, and constructed by transnational families. Furthermore,
concepts of identity are expanded through the process of migration and the creation of
transnational communities. Narratives of identity and citizenship are imperative in the
development of transnational communities and their creations of meanings that are

embedded in their everyday lives as they navigate two different, albeit integral,

121

experiences in San Ignacio and Detroit. It is to these constructions of identity and

citizenship that I focus on the next chapter.

122

Chapter IV

Mexico lindo y querido,

Si muero lejos de ti

Que digan que estoy dormido,
Y que me traigan aqui,

Que digan que estoy dorrnido,
Y que me traigan aqui

Mexico lindo y querido

Si muero lejos de ti,

Que me entierren en la sierra,
A1 pie de los magueyales

Y que me cubra esta tierra,

Que es cuna de hombres cabales
Jorge Negretel

Dear beloved Mexico

If I die far from you,

Tell them that I’m asleep

And have them bring me back here
Tell them that I’m asleep

And have them bring me back here

Dear beloved Mexico

If I die far from you,

Have them bury me in the mountain range,
Next to the magueyales (rrraguey plants)
And let your earth cover me

Which is a cradle for gentlemen

Transnational Identities

The bells jingling from the ice cream cart, the smell of camitas at the nearby
taqueria La Lupita, and the aroma from the panaderia, along with the musica ranchera
playing from the CD store, awakened for a split second my Mexicaness. Living in the
US. for so many years makes it difﬁcult for my sense of smell to trigger my appetite the
way Mexican food smells have done in the past. Every opportunity that I have to eat
“authentic” Mexican food stimulates my day and my palate. Visiting Mexican Town in

Detroit made me forget I was in the U.S., and it was interesting to observe how

 

1 Jorge Negrete, interpreter, Chucho Monje, author. Mexico Lindo, (New York: Betelsmann de Mexico,
S.a. De C.V. Manufactured and Distributed by BMG Music, 1959, 1991).

123

Mexicanized neighborhoods in the US. become when there are large numbers of
immigrants and/or Mexican Americans living in one particular area. While taking a tour
of Mexican Town with my friend Gaby, I was bombarded by images that I recognized
very easily on painted murals; the great Aztec pyramid next to a muscular Aztec male
holding a very sensuous female wearing a sheer costume outlining her voluptuousness;
altars carefully arranged at the entrances of many homes; the Mexican ﬂag serving as a
curtain for a small room on a second ﬂoor of a house, and young children playing around
and cursing in Spanish. For me a piece of Mexico had been transported to Detroit and it
tantalized my sense of smell, sight, and sound. In the midst of this pastiche of images,
advertisements in Spanish abounded offering services to Mexicans. These services
included lawyers, ﬁnancial services like cash and go and bail bond companies, psychic
readings, and all kinds of consumer goods from food to clothing to bracelets that bring
you happiness and stop your husband from drinking. Witnessing this display of
consumerism offering promises of happiness and fulﬁllment underlined how Mexican
immigrants are recognized for their economic value, but ignored in many other ways.
While driving through Mexican Town and obsessively devouring a concha con
ﬁ'ijoles, Gaby and I were commenting on the sudden death of Trino’s lS-year—old son
Manuel. Trino had been living in Detroit for over thirty years and his son was born in
Detroit. After the funeral, his body was going to be sent back to San Ignacio and his
entire family planned to ﬂy back and bury his body at the local cemetery. I realized that
all throughout my investigation of Mexican irrunigrants there had been at least three
deaths in Detroit and all of the bodies were sent back to Mexico for burial. I asked Gaby

if she wanted her body to be sent back when she died and her response was, “Hell yes, I

124

don’t want my body to be buried here in Detroit, are you kidding?” Ni modo que me
desparramen aca (I would not like to be scattered here). No Luz Maria, I would never
want to be desparramada here in Detroit” (desparramada literally means something that
is broken into little pieces and scattered everywhere). Yet Gaby has been in Detroit for
more than ﬁve years, and although she was forced to go back temporarily to San Ignacio
because of a family illness, she was eager to return to Detroit.

San Ignacians in Detroit oscillated between feelings of permanence and
temporality, and their everyday experiences shaped and reshaped the way they saw
themselves vis-a-vis their residence in the United States and their notions of citizenship.
This precarious situation challenged San Ignacians’ sense of belonging. This explained
why most San Ignacians made arrangements, or maintained silent understandings
amongst the family that upon death, their bodies be buried in San Ignacio so that they
would not be desparramados in Detroit. As Jorge Negrete’s song emphasized at the
beginning of this chapter, “if I die far from you [Mexico], tell them that I am asleep and
have them bring me back here.” However, most San Ignacians remained in Detroit where
they constructed their transnational community. These contradictions emphasized the
parallel conﬂict that they lived with everyday of wanting and not wanting to reside
permanently in the US.

Early literature on Mexican immigration focused on the push-pull theory that
centered on the idea that Mexicans migrated to the United States solely in an effort to
make money.2 Present day researchers of immigration recognize that Mexican

immigration is more complex than just attempting to improve livelihoods. The literature

 

2 Manuel Garnio, Mexican Immigration to the United States: A Study of Human Migration and Adjustment
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1930); Paul Taylor, A Spanish-Mexican Peasant Community.-
Arandas in Jalisco, Mexico (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1933).

125

now centers more on structural differences in both countries as well as the historical labor
demand from the U.S. that encouraged large numbers of Mexicans, regardless of
immigration status, to cross the border. This “encouragement” included illegal measures
according to U.S. law.3 Social networks have become the center of some academicians’
studies recognizing the importance these have in the politics of movement. Along with
the creation of transnational communities conﬂicting sentiments arise about whether to
reside in the U.S. permanently or temporarily. Over the last three decades the
militarization of the U.S. border has “forced” many immigrants to stay in the U.S. rather
than travel back and forth.4 The U.S.’s denial or recognition of immigrants as “citizens”
persecutes the undocumented, yet they are considered highly desirable commodities for
low wage work. This situation affects Mexican immigrants’ sentiments when

considering the U.S. as their new home. Regardless of their immigration status

 

3 In the late 19405 the labor demand was not met in the U.S., and agricultural growers began to hire
undocumented Mexican workers. “In doing so, they incurred no liability under U.S. immigration law: the
well-known “Texas Proviso” (named for the congressional delegation that originally wrote it) had explicitly
prohibited the prosecution of employers for hiring undocumented workers.” Douglas S. Massey, Jorge
Durand, and Nolan J. Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic
Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002), 36.

In 1954 during Operation Wetback when the INS nrilitarized the border and had thousands of Mexicans
deported, “where the U.S. Department of Labor was waiting for them to process them as braceros, and back
to the very ﬁelds they had been arrested!” Ibid., 37.

4 In 1986 the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration and Reform Act (IRCA), which granted amnesty to 2.3
million undocumented Mexican workers, but at the same time it allocated $400 million to the Border Patrol
for the hiring of more ofﬁcers. It also severely penalized employers who hired undocumented workers; in
1990 the Immigration Act authorized more funds for the Border Patrol to hire one thousand more agents, it
also tightened sanctions for employers who hired undocumented workers, it systematized criminal and
deportation procedures, and penalized several other immigration violations; State Initiatives were also
launched in the 19805 like Proposition 187 in Los Angeles, California that deprived undocumented
immigrants of having access to social services including public schools; in 1993 “Operation Blockade”
came into place in El Paso, Texas; in 1994 the INS launched “Operation Gatekeeper” in the San Diego
border “which installed high-density ﬂoodlights to illuminate the border day and night, as well as an eight
foot steel fence along fourteen miles of border from the Paciﬁc Ocean to the foothills of the Coast Ranges;”
in 1995 the INS launched “Operation Safeguard” in Nogales, Arizona; in 1997 “Operation Hold-the-Line
was extended into New Mexico; in August 1997 “Operation Rio Grande” was implemented along thirty-six
miles of border in southeast Texas. Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone, Beyond Smoke
and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage
Formdation, 2002), 90-94.

126

Mexicanas and Mexicanos deﬁne themselves and their lives vis-a-vis these anti-
immigrant and hostile environments in the U.S..

This chapter addresses the ideological baggage that Mexican immigrants
unpacked as they navigated their new lives within their transnational communities and
how they created new understandings of identity in relation to their experiences as
immigrants. Within this context, Mexican immigrants have historically created
alternative identities to accommodate their experiences both in their sending communities
as well as in the communities residing in the U.S.. I explore the complexities of these
identity formations and underline the impact of hostile U.S. practices that directly target
Mexicans. These practices affect the way Mexicanos and Mexicanas identify themselves
as citizens of these transnational communities. Further, I analyze the immigrants’
perspectives of what citizenship means both in deﬁnitions of residency and permanency
in the immigrants’ collective imagination. Mexicanos and Mexicanas have deﬁned
themselves as San Ignacians and Mexican-Detroitians whether they reside in San Ignacio
or in Detroit. Despite these deﬁnitions, however, contradictions arise that are symbolic
of deeper feelings that inhabit immigrants’ constructions of identity.

San Ignacio Cerro Gordo belongs to the delegacio'n Cerro Gordo, which belongs
to the municipio of Arandas in the state of J alisco in the Western part of Mexico.5 San
Ignacio is a small town with a long tradition of migration to the United States. In 1927,
Manuel Garnio, an anthropologist, conducted research on Mexican migration to the

United States. He provided an annotated statistical account of all the remittances sent to

 

5 Mexico is divided into States and States are divided into municipios that in turn are divided into
delegaciones. Local authorities that control and allocate state ﬁrnding as well as federal funding are the
cabezas municipales, meaning the municipios where the presidentes municipales reside. These municipios
decide where and how the local budget will be spent.

127

Mexico ﬁom 1927 to 1928 that showed the presence of people from Jalisco in the
Midwest.6 In 2000 with a population of approximately 17,500 residents San Ignacio’s
economy thrived upon the cultivation of com and of agave, the plant used in the making
of tequila. Also adding to the economy were cattle ranching, dairy farming, brick-making
industry, and to a lesser degree diverse services including car repair shops, agricultural
related services and products that sustained the cultivation of com and agave. Finally, in
the last 15 years, the economy spurred from the rapid expansion of small businesses such
as construction companies (booming due to the demand on the construction of houses
triggered by immigrants’ money), bars and restaurants and small retail businesses. To
date, there are approximately 350 small retail businesses in the region. In the period of
1999-2000 the delegacio’n of San Ignacio Cerro Gordo received approximately
$1,683,000 from remittances of family members residing in the United States. However,
Trino, who owns a very proﬁtable business in Detroit that facilitates the sending of
money to San Ignacio, calculated that San Ignacio received approximately $10,000,000
annually from his store alone. If we were to rely on the “ofﬁcial” amounts, it suggested
that families in San Ignacio received an average of $1,053 annually (under the
assumption that all the families received remittances in similar amounts). Therefore,
partial economic growth in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo has been stimulated and supported

with the money sent by San Ignacians living in the Detroit.7

 

6 Manuel Garnio, Mexican Immigration to the United States: A Study of Human Migration and Adjustment
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1930). In June of 1922, a letter was sent from U.S. authorities
to the Mexican Consul in New York and in Laredo, Texas explaining the new requisites that Mexican
nationals have to meet in order to enter the U.S. 37-11-110 ARE

7 Maria Basilia Valenzuela Varela, Claudia Monica Sénchez Bemal, “Aportes Para la Formacion del
Municipio San Ignacio Cerro Gordo. Una Experiencia de Vinculacion” in de Vinci (Guadalajara:
Universidad de Gaudalajara, Aﬁo 3, Num. 6, Abril de 2001).

128

In 1982, Trino, a long time San Ignacian resident of Detroit, drove from Detroit
to San Ignacio with a bulldozer in the back of his troca ready to make some changes to
the kiosco and the town’s main plaza. The plaza had been ignored by Arandas and despite
pleading from San Ignacians it was very run down. Trino became involved with the
committee for the ﬁestas patronales (religious festivities) and collected more than $6,000
dollars to reconstruct the plaza. With the permission of the municipal authorities, Trino
and other San Ignacians tore down the old plaza and built a new one. However, in the
middle of the project they ran out of money. Therefore, municipal authorities ﬁnished the
project leaving San Ignacio with “a plaza like over there you know very European-
looking that did not look good in front of our church so people were not happy.”8 Three
years later, Goyo along with other San Ignacians appealed to the authorities and collected
money so they could tear down the “European-looking” plaza and kiosco, and they began
a project to renovate the plaza. With the help from a long time benefactor of San Ignacio
and San Ignacians in Detroit people pulled forces together and worked on rebuilding the
kiosco and their plaza.9 Goyo remembered his involvement in the project,

We started to complain and tell the authorities we wanted to tear it down and rebuild
it until they accepted. So before we tore it down I went to Don Alfonso and I asked
him if he could help us rebuild the plaza. When he saw the photographs he agreed
and said, “that plaza is not for my town.” [. . .] So the next day we started to tear
down the kiosco and the plaza and we went to Irapuato with Don Alfonso and he

gave us the ﬁrst check that was 11,700,000 pesos so that we could get started then
he gave us 50,000,000 pesos for the kiosco. [. . .] The kiosco that we have is a replica

 

8 Goyo y Lola, 39 and 51 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “[N05 hizo una
plaza] tipo de alla, Europea pues que no hacia contraste con el terrrplo entonces la gente no estabamos de
acuerdo. . .”

9 Trino, 57 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “E1 kiosko que estea ahi aﬁrrea tiene su historia
porque yo lo tumbé, yo me lleve de aqui en el 82 una maquina escabadora y como el kiosko estaba muy feo
y la plaza muy abandonada my fea y por ordenes de las autoridades dc Arandas yo lo tumbé. Entonces fui
delpatronato de las ﬁestas patrias y jutamos $6,000 [dolares]. [Arandas] se pusieron a hacer una placita y
empezamos y nos ensefraron un projecto muy bonito y todo el pueblo acerpto y cuando se nos acabo
eldinero nos hicieron para un lado y hicieron una plaza muy diferente de la que nos prometieron m fea y a
travéz de 3 o 4 aﬁos se tumbo y por medio del Seﬁor Patiﬁo y la gente de aqui se renovo la plaza.”

129

of the kiosco in Chapala, we looked for ways to embellish the plaza and I think we

succeeded with the help of the townspeople. '0
The effort of San Ignacians to have a beautiful plaza and kiosco were representative not
only of their love and commitment to their town, but it indicated the importance of
aesthetics that San Ignacians embraced. They were so proud when it came to their town’s
appearance. Involvement with construction in the town by immigrants was a recurrent
activity and was reﬂected by the numerous renovations including changes to the church,
maintenance of the streets, the construction of two arches at the entrance of the town, the
construction of luxurious houses and the development, and improvement of small
businesses. Father Ignacio emphasized San Ignacians’ commitment to better their town,

[. . .] The arches are not there thanks to the authorities, none of them could say “in

our administration they were built,” the town is witness that those arches at the

entrance of the town were built with money and labor donated by the people ﬁ'om

San Ignacio here and in Detroit. Whoever wanted to give me a brick or a bag of

cement it was welcomed; that’s how they were built. And the same goes for the

landscaped line of trees that separate the main streets, and the paving of the streets

as well. Before then, a dirty stream ran on what is now our main avenue. We

thought that it would be worth it to have a main avenue. [. . .] The same happened
with many other streets that are now paved.ll

 

‘0 Goyo y Lola, 39 and 51 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Enrpezamos
a hacer borlote para tumbarla y si nos dieron permiso de tumbarla. Entonces yo antes de tumbarla fui con
Don Alfonso Patiﬁo y le dije que si nos podia ayudar en algo y cuando vio las fotos dijo, “esa plaza no es
para mi pueblo.” [. . .] Y al dia siguiente nos pusimos a tumbar e1 kiosco y la plaza y luego luego me toco ir
a Irapuato con el Don Alfonso y el primer cheque que nos dio ﬁre de 11,700,000 pesos, para que
empezaramos y luego nos dio 50 millones de pesos para el kiosco. [. . .] El kiosco que tenemos es una
replica del kiosco de Chapala, buscamos la form de que se hiciera la plaza bonita, yo pienso que logramos
lo que queriamos. . .”

11 Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Igancio, November 2001. “L . .] Lo de los arcos no es obra
de ningr'rn ayuntamiento, ningr’m ayuntamiento puede decir, “de que en nuestro tiempo nosotros hicirnos
esos arcos.” Nadie lo puede evitar el pueblo es testigo de que esos arcos dc entrada se hicieron con un peso
que daba la gente dc aqui y de Detroit. El que me quiera dar un ladrillo un costal de cal una serrrana de
trabajo, asi hicirnos esos arcos y el camellon pues era un arroyo entonces dijirnos cale la pena hacer una
avenida y hicieron esa avenida. . .[. . .] Lo nrismo el adoquin y asi siguio pues con algunas otras calles.”

130

It is through this main avenue that all the processions during the ﬁestas patronales
parade. They start by the arches proceed to the main avenue that ends at the plaza, and
from there enters the church. The kiosco in San Ignacio has taken center stage as a
religious, cultural, and political platform. Kioscos are usually built in the center of plazas
in towns and cities throughout Mexico. These kioscos are usually placed in front of the
church and in the middle of the plaza. Around the plazas one usually ﬁnds different small
businesses including many restaurants. In San Ignacio the plaza has become an integral
part of political, religious and social events such as courting rituals.

As a political platform, the kiosco became of extreme importance for the
promotion of San Ignacio as a future municipio. While collecting interviews in San
Ignacio from 2001 through 2004, there were several meetings conducted for the
mobilization of the entire town to become a municipio. The comite' para un nuevo
municipio (committee for a new municipio) had weekly meetings at the plaza using as a
platform the kiosco. During these meetings the committee hired a band that played after
the meeting was adjourned. Banda music serves as an entertainment for gatherings
whether political, religious or social.

San Ignacians began their efforts to become a municipio in the early 19905 but
they were continuously turned down by the state’s legislature. Because of Mexico’s
political efforts to centralize power, historically municipios were not relied on for local
development. It was until 1986 in an effort to decentralize power that the municipio
began to be promoted as a local entity to advance change within the different states in

Mexico.12 However, Jalisco resisted this power division and had not created any new

 

12 This was initiated in 1983 by a change in article 115 of the Mexican Constitution when “it is recognized
the importance of the municipio as an agent of local change.” (Cuando se reconoce la importancia del

131

municipios since 1946; thus making it harder for the citizens of San Ignacio to begin the
process to become a new municipio.l3 One of the several prerequisites required by state
authorities was the demonstration of high population numbers. Although San Ignacio had
17, 530 residents in 2000 and consequently held 0.3% of the total population in the state
of J alisco, they were still denied the right to become a municipio. A study conducted by
the University of Guadalajara identiﬁed that 45% of the municipios in J alisco had less
numbers of residents than San Ignacio making the argument by the authorities invalid.14
It was in 2000 that San Ignacians posited a new argument. Immigrants living in
Detroit who had historically been active participants in the economy of the delegacio'n
should be counted within the population numbers to meet the required demographic
criteria to become a municipio. Through this process, San Ignacians in Detroit began to
get involved as citizens of San Ignacio to promote municipalizacén. The second criteria
required by state authorities to qualify as a possible municipio was territorial size, which
according to the same study conducted by the University of Guadalajara, San Ignacians
were well within the territorial limits that the law called for. Trino recalled how important
it was for San Ignacians in Detroit to accomplish the goal of becoming independent from

Arandas,

Now they [regional authorities] want to take away some of our territory so that we
do not qualify [to become a municipio] but we have already, and they can’t just take
our tenitory away from us. Arandas is supposed to govern us this year [2004] and
next, but in 2006 the process begins for us to elect a municipal president and by
2007 we will become completely independent from Arandas. Their resistance to let

 

municipio como agente de cambio local) Maria Basilia Valenzuela Varela and Claudia Monica Sénchez
Bemal, “Aportcs para la formacion del municipio San Ignacio Cerro Gordo. Una experiencia de
vinculacién.” In de Vinci (Universidad de Guadalajara/ Aﬁo 3/Num.6/ Abril de 2001), 40.

'3 Ibid., 41.
‘4 Ibid., 41.

132

us go was largely because Arandas has had us [San Ignacio] very marginalized. It is
believed that we get between 26 and 28 million pesos annually from remittances
going into San Ignacio alone. Arandas never gave us anything. Everything went into
Arandas and not even to better their public services, it usually went into the pockets
of the authorities in Arandas.15
Trino exempliﬁed how San Ignacians in Detroit were and presently are very much
involved in political, economic and social developments in San Ignacio. Moreover, the
way he expressed himself by using pronouns such as “us” to identify with the town of
San Ignacio further acknowledged his membership as an active citizen of San Ignacio
despite the fact that Trino had been residing in Detroit since 1970. Trino has also been an
active participant in the social and economic landscape in Detroit, since he opened the
ﬁrst Mexican taqueria and ice cream parlor in the early 19905 in Mexican Town.

Since the 19405, immigrants have slowly become social and economic
protagonists in San Ignacio by making generous contributions to the betterment of their
community of origin. Historically, San Ignacian immigration has undergone several
economic stages that started out by ﬁrst satisfying their immediate survival needs. As
their transnational community was well established and they began to accumulate capital,
they invested in purchasing a house to make sure their families were taken care of. Once
they accomplished certain economic stability they became consumers of various goods in

Detroit. In San Ignacio, the bracero generation began this complex transformation and

through four generations of immigrants they have now taken center stage as important

 

'5 Trino, 57 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Ahora quieren quitar territorio para que no
caliﬁque San Ignacio pero ya esta caliﬁcado. Ya no pueden quitarlo, Arandas todavia nos gobiema este
aflo y el que sigue y ya e1 2006 enrpezamos a votar para un presidente municipal y en el 2007 ya San
Ignacio se independiza. Se logro porque Arandas nos ha tenido muy marginados. Se cree que son 26 a 28
millones de pesos lo que debe entrar a San Ignacio de aqui, cuando no nos daban nada. Todo para Arandas
y desgraciadamente no era para servicios pﬁblicos en Arandas. [. . .] El dineral que agarra se lo echa a la
bolsa e1 gobiemo, los mandamases.”

133

contributors to the political, social and economic structures in their sending community.
Exemplifying this new role is the immigrants’ involvement in tuming San Ignacio into a
municipio.

Both the church and local authorities- el comité para un nuevo municipio
(committee for a new municipio ) — have been strategically aligning themselves to these
recent changes in order to manage, discipline and beneﬁt from this new social
protagonist: the immigrant. Father Ignacio commented on what he thinks the church’s
role should be as he recognized the importance of the immigrants,

I think that by becoming a municipio this town has a lot of opportunities to progress.

It has great telecommunication systems, we have a new highway, and we have all

the infrastructure to progress. [. . .] The church has a duty to insure that the

immigrants don’t loose their Christian moral values, their traditions and their

culture. And that is the duty of the priest and to a lesser extent their families [here in

San Ignacio].16
The church continued to emphasize its role as spiritual leader and “keeper” of “tradition”
and moral values. Within the context of recognizing the immigrants as important
contributors to the future politics and economics of San Ignacio, José, the president of the
comité para un nuevo municipio, and most likely a candidate to become the Presidente

Municipal in the 2007 elections, commented on the beneﬁts of becoming independent

from Arandas,

[The beneﬁt of becoming a municipio] ﬁrst is that our people or us [local
authorities] can decide the future of our town. Secondly, we will be able to rely on
the budget that legally belongs to us [dollars ﬁ'om Detroit] and use it to develop

 

‘6 Ibid., “Yo pienso que siendo municipio es un pueblo que tiene muchas perspectives mucho futrrro
progresista. Tiene todos los medios tiene sus buenas carreteras, tiene teléfono y tiene toda la irrfraestructura
para progresar. [. . .] La iglesia tiene este sentido de hacerles ver que no pierdan sus valores morales
cristianos que no pierdan sus tradiciones y sus costumbres. Eso nos toca a1 sacerdote y a las fanrilias.”

134

social and public services such as taking care of our environment. Additionally, we
can use this money to strengthen the cultural networks with cities in the U.S.
[Detroit]. [.7. .] That is why when we become a municipio we will create a sister city
in Detrort.
Both religious and secular institutions in San Ignacio have recognized the importance of
the immigrants’ social, economic and political contributions. These attitudes reﬂected
their collective acknowledgement of the Mexican immigrants’ afﬁliation to their local
citizenship and their identities as San Ignacians and Mexican-Detroitians.

Transnational citizenship is reﬂected in this dual afﬁliation as a Mexican-
Detroitian and at the same time San Ignacian. Transnational citizenship is speciﬁc to the
immigration experience and thus fosters varying conceptualizations of citizenship while
offering alternatives to previous ideologies of belonging. Local identity intensiﬁes San
Ignacians’ membership in the transnational community insofar as their state and
country’s afﬁliation is supplanted by their local identity in Detroit. Being Mexican-
Detroitians and San Ignacians are much more important to their identity than being a
Jalisience or a Mexican or an “American.” However, conﬂicts and contradictions arise
when San Ignacians face hostile and racist environments in Detroit. As a consequence,
many San Ignacians lack the security and the social and political rights that are imparted
to citizens in the U.S. Even though they deﬁne their identities very clearly with

afﬁliations and membership in their transnational community, the lack of recognition and

efforts by the U.S. to integrate them in the social, economic and political fabric brings

 

'7 Jose, 44 years of age and president of the committee for a new municipio, interview in San Ignacio,
January 2003. “[Cuando seamos municipio] el primer beneﬁcio sera que ya nuestras gentes o nosotros
podemos decidir el futrrro del pueblo. En segundo lugar contar con ese presupuesto que legalmente
corresponde y desarrollarlo en servicios para que tenga mas atractivos para cuidar la ecologia y para tener
mas vinculos culturales con ciudades en Estados Unidos [Detroit]. [. . .] Si sorrros municipio varrros a
enrprender una ciudad hermana con Detroit.” My emhasis.

135

about apprehension and anxiety. As the alternate consul in Detroit declared, “[Mexican
immigrants develop self defense mechanisms] to survive in this society [Detroit] that
provides them with the resources to work and acquire more than just basic necessities,
but also discriminates against them.”18 J 056 also corroborated this by narrating his
experience while living in Detroit,

Detroit is a place with a lot of opportunity to grow to prosper, but the legal

insecurity makes you feel unstable, it doesn’t provide you with a foundation. And

that made me feel out of place for my self respect as a person to be in a place that I

wanted to prosper but at the same time I did not have the legal right to stay.

Nevertheless, I really liked it a lot. [. . .] I really did not feel that I had the possibility

to participate as a citizen.19

Despite the many economic, emotional and cultural contributions that San

Ignacians deployed in Detroit, their status as “aliens” has never been eroded. Pejorative
stereotypes of Mexicans have been embedded in the production of culture in the U.S. and
white supremacist ideologies have permeated Euroamericans’ imaginations, complicating
and aggravating the politics of movement for Mexican immigrants. “Mexican migrants
are very commonly the implied if not overt focus of mass-mediated, journalistic, as well
as scholarly discussions of “illegal aliens.”[. . .] The ﬁgure of the “illegal alien” itself has
emerged as a mass-mediated sociopolitical category that is saturated with racialized

difference, and moreover, serves as a constitutive feature of the speciﬁc racialized

inscription of “Mexicans” in general, regardless of their immigration status in the United

 

‘8 Oscar Antonio de la Torre Amezcua, 49 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “[Los Mexicanos
a su vez usan un mecanismo de segrrridad] para poder sobrevivir en esta sociedad que los arropa y los
protege y les ofrece la oportrmidad de nabajo pero que también los agreed y los discrimina.”

9 Jose, 44 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “E5 un lugar donde da mucha oprtunidad
para crecer para prosperar, pero la insegmidad legal lo hace sentir a usted de una forma instable no crea una
raiz. Y eso para rrri propia persona estar en un lugar donde yo queria prosperar pero a la vez no tenia la
legalidad para permanecer en ese pais. Pero si me gusto muchisirno. [. . .] No me sentia con posibilidad de
participar como ciudadano.”

136

States or even U.S. citizenship.”20 It is this hostility that strengthens San Ignacians’ and
their children’s orientation to their community of origin, and the identiﬁcation with their
transnational citizenship.

U.S. citizenship, however, was and continues to be a desired commodity by San
Ignacians who understand their disenfranchised status in Detroit despite their many
social, economic and cultural contributions. Some Mexicanas used their access to
citizenship as a leverage to negotiate gender equality and to create a sense of importance
and social superiority within their transnational communities. Tina’s situation illustrated

these efforts,

A great miracle happened to me, I became a U.S. citizen without speaking English.
My husband and I applied through a church in Detroit. We paid $150 for everything
and all the questions that immigration is supposed to ask you they tested us on. So
we got a call from immigration and my husband went and they asked him what were
the three legislative entities in the U.S. and he said, “I don’t know” and they told
him to wait until he had 15 years of residency status to take the exam in Spanish or
until he was 55 years of age. Me, well I got my appointment and I went there on a
Monday fasting and putting my fate in the hands of our Lord, “if he wants me to I’ll
become a citizen or stay as a resident.” I answered their questions and I only missed
one word when I wrote two sentences in English I wrote “lobe” instead of “love”.
So the woman from immigration said, “do you believe in the constitution?” and I
said, “no” and she replied in disbelief, “what?” so she repeated the question and I
said, “yes, yes, yes!” so she said, “ok bye bye.”21

Tina’s situation illustrated how San Ignacians considered it necessary to become

recognized as citizens of their new home.

 

20 Nicholas De Genova & Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas, Latino Crossings: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the
Politics of Race and Citizenship (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), 3.

2' Tina y Sar'rl, 47 and 52 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Un nrilagro
grande rrre paso, me hice ciudadana sin saber Inglés. Metimos la aplicacion por una iglesia, dirnos e1 test y
metimos los papeles. Pagamos $150 por todo y todas las preguntas que hacen en migracion nos las hicieron
ahi, las contestamos y nos llamaron de migracion, ﬁre mi esposo y le preguntaron cuales son las tres ramas
y el dijo, “I don’t know” y le dijeron que se esperara hasta 15 aﬁos de residencia para hacer e1 examen en
espar‘rol o hasta que tuviera 55 aﬁos. Yo me frri e1 lunes en ayunas poniéndome en las manos del senor, “si
quiere me vuelvo ciudadana si no residente”. Contestar si solo una no supe puse dos oraciones en ingles y
las escribi me equivoque una sola letra puse “lobe” en vez de “love.” Y la de la migra me pregunto, “Do
you believe in the constitution?’ y yo dije que no y me dijo, “(,Qué?” escricheme y repitio la pregunta y yo
le dije, “yes, yes, yes!” Y ella me dijo, “0k bye, bye.”

137

While conducting my research, at the end of all my interviews I would ask the
interviewees if they wanted to add anything else and Tina chose to tell her courageous
attempt to become a citizen regardless of the fact that she felt she had a major handicap:
not speaking the “ofﬁcial” language. Moreover, she used her narrative as an opportunity
to emphasize her husband’s inability to accomplish the desired goal. In 1979 Doﬁa Luna
also became a citizen and her attitude toward her “accomplishment” was more ironic. She
commented, “Let me tell you something, I became a citizen and nobody believed me
[because I don’t know how to read or write] even in immigration they were stunned.
When we went to get my passport they asked me how come my certiﬁcate of citizenship
was not signed and how could it be possible for me to become a citizen without knowing
how to read or write so they investigated. Finally, I made them laugh when I signed with
an X.”22 This sense of accomplishment of conquering the impossible elucidated how San
Ignacians were very aware of the importance of having recognition in the receiving
community and that recognition was symbolized by acquiring citizenship.

Other San Ignacians were more cynical of their status knowing that pejorative
stereotypes have been used against them in the U.S. “Well you can say that I crossed as a
wet pants not as a wetback because I crossed through a tunnel that had water up to my
crotch.”23 Nevertheless, afﬁliation with the transnational community as a form of
collective strength enabled San Ignacians to identify themselves as active participants of

their community whether in San Ignacio or Detroit.

 

22 Dona Luna and Don Andrés, 72 and 74 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, November
2001. “Le digo algo que me hice ciudadana y hasta ni lo creen porque ahi mismo me dijeron ahora que
cuando fuimos a sacar el pasaporte dijeron que como era posible que me hubiera hecho ciudadana sin saber
leer ni escribir, porque no estaba frrmado e1 papel y hasta investigaron. Y no pues ahi los hice reir pues

use 1a cruz.”

3 Mari and Goyo, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Si pues yo pase de pantalones mojados no de
espaldas porque iba en un tr'rnel [tenia agua hasta aqui].”

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Since the 19705 when Dofra Tere arrived with her family, San Ignacians have
been purchasing homes in Mexican Town. Many Mexicanos and Mexicanas remembered
how inexpensive their houses were when they purchased them. “We arrived in Detroit on
a Monday [in the late 19705] and by Wednesday we had already purchased a house for
$15,000 cash, except they did not give it to us until two months later. We borrowed half
of the money and the other half we had.”24 Purchasing a house was one of the most
important investments San Ignacians made in Detroit and in San Ignacio. Don Chuy’s son
Jaime left for Detroit in 1989, brought his family a year later and in 1991 they bought

their ﬁrst house. Jaime and his wife Irma proudly recollected how it happened,

Jaime, “We bought the house two years after we anived. It was very expensive [he
laughs sarcastically] it cost $5,000 there in Mexican Town where all the San
Ignacians live.”

Irma, “Yes we bought the house on a Tuesday, we ﬁlled out all the paper work and
gave them the money and on Thursday the house next door burnt down. [. . .] That
was on Thursday and on Friday we had to urgently move there just in case. So they
took everything and demolished the burnt house and only the lot was left and we
bought the lot as well.”

Jaime, “I ﬁxed the house, it was not very pretty, I bought the lot next door very
expensive as well [joking] I paid $300. An just a few months ago we had someone
from the bank appraise the house and they offered me $70,000.”25

 

24 Tina y Sar'rl, 47 and 52 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003. “Llegamos a
Detroit un lunes y para el miércoles ya habiamos comprado una casa en $15,000 a1 contado, nada mas que
me la entregaron en dos meses. Conseguimos la nritad del dinero y la otra mitad la llevabamos nosotros.”
25 Irma y Jaime, 47 and 40 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, February 2003.

Jaime, “Cornpramos casa verdad, a los dos ahos. Que rrre costo re cara [5e rie], si me costo $5,000. Ahi en
Mexican Town donde estamos todos los de San Ignacio.”

Irma, “5i compramos la casa un martes, llenamos los papeles y dirnos e1 dinero y el jueves se quemo la del
otro lado, no se quemo toda nada mas 5e derritio todo el plastico. Eso fue el jueves y el viemes nos fuimos
dc emergencia a vivir ahi. Porque la otra quedo quemada y habia mucho peligro de que prendieran la casa
quemada. Y quitaron todo derrumbaron la casa y quedo el terreno y él lo compr .”

Jaime, “Y la arregle las casa, no estaba muy bonita, compre e1 terreno de a1 lado bien carisimo también [se
rie bromeando] $300. Y ahora que fui me hicieron un avaluo en el banco y me ofrecieron $70,000 por la
casa.

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This situation emphasized their efforts to build a community in Detroit where they
could feel safe and where they could construct their sense of belonging by owning the
place where they lived. However, due to the historical housing segregation in Detroit
since the end of World War H, their choices of space and location were mostly limited to
the Mexican Town area. However, the denial of rights to Mexican immigrants also puts
them in very vulnerable positions and they become easy prey for predators who are aware
of their situation. Nan’s situation exempliﬁes these consequences,

Well lately we have not had much money because we bought a house from a man

and apparently he had taken out several loans on the house and the bank took the

house from us. Something was wrong with the ﬁnances of the house from the

beginning and we didn’t know. It was a fraud, and he stole from us $35,000. We

went to see a lawyer and we are still battling that, but apparently there is not a lot

that we can do.26
These are some of the many circumstances that Mexican immigrants are exposed to when
they are denied social and political recognition. Several companies in Detroit prey on the
immigrant’s vulnerability and Nan’s case is one. Purchasing homes then is not such an
easy enterprise.

Since the 19405, the City of Detroit began a process of urban redevelopment that
generated a systematic process of housing segregation of African Americans and
subsequently of Mexicans. This segregation and marginalization of African Americans
and Mexicans only worsened in the next three decades. Banks would not consent to any

type of mortgage facilities to Aﬁican Americans or Mexicans and furthermore, banks

along with landlords and real estate agents discouraged any investment where Aﬁican

 

26 Nan, 26 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “No herrros tenido dinero nos robaron aqui en la
casa. Corrrpramos una casa de un guey y el la hipoteco o no se que y nos la quito el banco, porque no
estaba, no pues estaba mal esa casa desde un principio, nos hizo un ﬁaude. Fuirnos a un abogado y todavia
estamos en eso pero parece que no podemos hacer mucho.”

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Americans or Mexicans lived. The city of Detroit began to decrease basic public and
social services to the neighborhoods where these minorities resided. In his book The
Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, Thomas J. Sugrue
provided a detailed analysis of the systemic housing segregation and marginalization
African Americans (and one can assume Mexicans as well, though smaller in numbers,
due to the racist environment that permeates in Detroit) underwent in the decades
following World War 11.

Sociologist Norman Daymond Humphrey, who wrote several articles on
Mexicans in Detroit during the 19405, showed Euroamerican attitudes toward Mexicans.
In 1946 he published an article entitled, “The Housing and Household Practices of
Detroit Mexicans.” In his article Humphrey made numerous racist and prejudice
assrrrnptions about the way Mexicans lived in Detroit, ignoring completely their lack of
access to basic resources needed for the survival of families and also disregarding the
housing segregation that both Aﬁican Americans and Mexicans were exposed to. Instead,
Humphrey believed that Mexicans chose to live in deplorable conditions because it was
in their nature, “Thus early in the process of change, one segment of the Mexican
population is found living in basement apartments which in being lightless and airless,
approximate the adobe huts of the peasant village. The likeness of this dwelling to that in
Mexico accounts for the persistence with which it is retained by the least assimilated
migrants.”27 These Euroarnerican sentiments legitimized not only their overt racist
attitudes against Mexicans, but also the criminal practices applied to housing segregation

and the continuous marginalization of underrepresented groups.

 

27 Norman Daymond Hurrrphrey, “The Housing and Household Practices of Detroit Mexicans,” Social
Forces, Vol.24, No.4 (May, 1946), 433.

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Housing conditions worsened decades after World War II with the advent of
deindustrialization when Detroit went from one of the most important manufacturing
cities in the nation to a city that lost more than half of its population in a span of 50
years.28 While Mexican immigrants were buying houses in Detroit since the 19705, the
process of deindustrialization and de-urbanization triggered a massive white exodus to
the suburbs, leaving behind most of the working class African-Americans and Mexican
immigrants. This exodus along with the economic downfall that the city was enduring,
caused public and social services such as health care access, education, maintenance of
street lights, police security, garbage collection among others to seriously diminish
increasing the decay of many neighborhoods in Detroit.29 More recently, Farrell-
Donaldson, Detroit’s ombudsman, remarked in 2004, “Right now, we have streets with
one person living on them, yet you still have to provide streetlights for that street. You
still have to provide police protection. You still have to provide ﬁre protection. We
should move those people out.”30 Many Mexicanas who arrived in the early 19705 were
ﬁrst hand witnesses of the effects of deindustrialization and de-urbanization imbued with
racist ideologies regarding Mexicans in the U.S. However, many were unaware of the
general economic situation of the city and therefore, they tended to blame the arrival of
more Mexicans to the slow decay of their neighborhoods. Dona Tere commented on the

changes she noticed since her arrival in Detroit,

 

28 In 1950 Detroit’s population was 1.85 million people, by 2000 the population had seriously decreased to
951,270, 48% below that of 1950. “In 2000, Detroit’s African-American population constituted 81.6% of
the city’s total population. Many whites had moved to the suburbs.” Richard Freeman, “Death of Detroit:
Harbinger of Collapse of Deindustrialized America,” Executive Intelligence Review (April 23, 2004), 9.

9 “The process of close-down of hospitals, and insufﬁcient beds to treat people, has been exacerbated in
Detroit. [. . .] During the last three decades, Samaritan Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital, and Saratoga
Hospital, all located on Detroit’s East Side, have closed down, leaving only one major hospital still open in
Lemnrons’ district.” Ibid.. 12.

30 Farrell-Donaldson, Detroit’s Ombudsman as quoted in Richard Freeman, “Death of Detroit: Harbinger
of Collapse of Deindustrialized America,” Executive Intelligence Review (April 23, 2004),

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Well, people play soccer in Patton Park rather than in Clark Park, which is much

closer to us, but since some young people were killed there now they only play on

one side. It is not very safe to be there anymore. Before it was safe when we lived

there it was mostly Americanos [Euroamericans] there were not a lot of Mexicans

very few. It was so much prettier back then, the street was very nice and they never

discriminated against us, on the contrary they were nice. But then they left and more

Mexicans arrived.31
Doha Tere’s comment emphasized her own class bias toward her fellow townspeople, but
more importantly it signaled to her internalization of pejorative and racist stereotypes of
Mexicans that was and continues to be inherent in the U.S. collective imagination.
Unaware of the outside forces affecting the slow decay of her neighborhood, Doha Tere
condemned her fellow Mexicans for “worsening” her neighborhood. Her daughter-in-law
corroborated these sentiments by emphasizing how Mexicanos have made this
neighborhood much more dangerous?2

The decline of city services compounded by the impact of Euroamericans’ ﬂight

of economic investments and contributions from the city to the suburbs severely affected
the city of Detroit and consequently its residents, African-Americans and Mexican
immigrants. A good example of the city’s reluctance to provide public and social services
in Mexican Town was the park that Doha Tere mentioned, Patton Park. This park was

where I began to do my research ﬁve years ago. The park, however, was not documented

as a park by the city of Detroit, which meant that Mexicanas/cs who attended soccer

 

3' Doha Tere, 53 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001. “Ahora juegan football en Patton
Park porque e1 Clark que le dicen esta mas cerquita de la casa, pero como ahi mataron a unos muchachos ya
ahora nada mas se ponen de un lado. No es muy recomendable, antes no antes no era tanto. Antes que
nosotros viviamos casi habia pura gente Americana no habia muchos Mexicanos muy pocos y estaba mas
bonito por la calle donde estaba mas bonito nunca nos hicieron discriminacion mas bien 5e hacian arrristad
con nosotros. Pero después se fueron muchos y llegaron mas Mexicanos.”

32 Cérla, 50 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Yo no se si 105 Latinos nosotros mismos lo
estamos canbiando [e1 barrio]. Yo pienso que si 10 hijos, los nnrchachos [los cholos]. No habia lo que hay
ahora estaba mas bonito. No habian casa quemadas.”

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games on Sundays in the summer, had to provide and pay for garbage collection, portable
toilets and security.
Despite the economic hardships and changes that the city of Detroit underwent in
a matter of 60 years, Mexican immigrants slowly constructed a very dynamic
transnational community. Through this process, San Ignacians developed a sense of
identity that reﬂected their personal afﬁliations with both their sending and their
receiving community. These afﬁliations became stronger as they constructed meanings
for the different social circumstances of both places and these strengthen their recognition
of a transnational citizenship. Nevertheless, these meanings and changing identities and
senses of belonging brought about conﬂicting feelings reﬂected in San Ignacians’ desire
to reside either in Detroit or in San Ignacio. In 2001 Doha Tere went back to San Ignacio
permanently because her health had slowly worsened after residing in Detroit for 31
years. Nevertheless she acknowledged,
I really liked being there [Detroit] if it was because of me I would have stayed there,
but one of my daughters wanted to come back. I was very comfortable there; I even
worked here and there cleaning houses and ofﬁce buildings. I also worked in a
restaurant in the kitchen. [. . .] Now everything is so big here in San Ignacio because
of all the people that live in Detroit. [. . .] Whole families are now in Detroit, young
women also leave and they make money and buy a house. You can tell by the prices
of the houses in Detroit, they are so expensive now when they were so cheap back
then. I want to go back, I have a daughter-in-law that keeps telling me to move in

with her, “come and live with me there are many bedrooms in the house,” the house
that used to be mine and yes I think I will go back.33

 

33 Doha Tere, 53 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001. “Ya esté todo muy grande aqui en
San Ignacio porque la cantidad de gente que hay en Detroit dc aqui. [. . .] Se van fanrilias enteras de aqui y
también muchachas se van y ya se quedan y cornpran casa y bueno carisirnas de baratas que estaban. Yo

me quiero ir tengo una nuera que me ha dicho, “ve'ngase conrrrigo, hay muchos cuartos en la casa,” que era
nria. Y si yo creo que me voy a ir ahi, si voy.”

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Doha Tere’s conﬂicting sentiments about residing permanently in Detroit and her views
about the deterioration of the neighborhood illustrated how Mexicanas have undergone a
process of identity formation that was rooted in how they saw themselves as citizens of
San Ignacio and Detroit. It was this transnational identity that allowed Mexicanas to ﬁnd
ways to counter attack hostile environments in Detroit such as the lack of public and
social services in the Mexican Town neighborhood. Her sense of community was rooted
in the immigrant experience and her reliance on her family served as a defense
mechanism to enable her to live with dignity and a sense of accomplishment in Detroit.

Mexican imnrigrant’s identities have radically changed since the bracero
generation with the accumulation of capital. In the 19405 and 19505, braceros mostly
continued to labor on similar tasks they had in San Ignacio, and their priorities were to
support their families in San Ignacio. In the 19605, when they moved to Detroit, they
became respectable industrial workers and in the 19705, with the arrival of Mexicanas to
Detroit they became active economic participants by purchasing homes in Detroit. By the
19805, San Ignacians in Detroit were important social, economic and political
contributors in San Ignacio and in Detroit. And ﬁnally, in the 19905, San Ignacian
immigrants became heroines and heroes in the eyes of their co-nationals not only for their
contributions to their town, but also through the accrnnulation of capital that enabled
them to invest their capital both in San Ignacio and in Detroit.

Older men from the bracero generation preferred to go back to San Ignacio
permanently in their old age. The Hernandez brothers for example, all went back to live

in San Ignacio when they retired. Delﬁno, Ruben, and Jesr'rs have all passed away;

145

however, Don Gabriel is still alive and resides in San Ignacio. He stated why he made
that choice,
My intention since I left to work [in the U.S.] was to try and save, to try and earn
enough to come back to rest. I said, “life is too short and it has extended too much. I
didn’t think that I was going to be alive past my 50 years of age, but I am close to
70. I say that life is too short and to work every day until the end of your days is not
worth it, it’s not worth it.34
Don Gabriel’s comment reﬂected the braceros’ initial attitudes toward el Norte, as San
Ignacians, their only purpose to leave home was to make a better living and provide
for their families. Their identities remained rooted in their sending communities and el
Norte was a place that provided them with better opportunities for work. Unlike his
children who all reside in Detroit, he preferred to go back and enjoy his
accomplishments along with the respect given by the townspeople. Like Don Gabriel,
another pioneer of the transnational commrmity, Don Chuy moved to San Ignacio in
1974 permanently due to his ill health. Along with Don Chuy and Don Gabriel, Don
Manuel and Don Rar’rl all from the bracero generation have moved back to San
Ignacio; however, their families all reside in Detroit. Most of their wives have passed
away, but those who are still alive that are in San Ignacio expressed their desire to go
back to Detroit. Older men seemed to look at San Ignacio as their ﬁnal resting place
whereas older women looked at Detroit as their ﬁnal resting place mostly because they

all wanted to stay with their families. Older men also seemed to be content with their

status as heroes in the town since they were all well respected due to their success as

 

34 Don Gabriel and Sergio, 70 and 46 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001.
“Mi intencion desde que me fui, tratar de ahorrar, tratar de ganar lo suﬁciente para venirme a descansar. Yo
dije, “la vida es muy corta’ ya se me largo mucho pero yo no pensaba durar mas de los 50 ahos pero ya
ando en los 70. Y digo la vida es muy corta y trabajar todos los dias, hasta el ultimo dia no tiene caso no
tiene case.”

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immigrants. Moreover, a lot of younger San Ignacians consult them when they want to
journey north. This situation also brings about questions of citizenship where older
men, despite the fact that they had constructed lives in Detroit, never felt a sense of
belonging whereas their citizenship in San Ignacio becomes overwhelming with social
recognition and beneﬁts from their townspeople’s admiration. This sense of worth
would not be the same in a big city such as Detroit. Older women, on the other hand,
had as a priority to stay with their families in Detroit and they enjoyed the collective
strength that made them feel secure and safe, their transnational citizenship.

As opposed to older women’s contradictory sentiments about temporal or
permanent residency, younger Mexicanas are very motivated by the idea of owning their
home in the Mexican Town neighborhood and, like their elders, to be close to family
members revealing how their community of choice is in el Norte. Younger women,
however, are also more aware of the shortage of public and social services and the lack of
quality provided by the few health care providers that are left near the neighborhood.
One of the young women I interviewed whose child was born with cerebral palsy was in
the process of suing the hospital where her child was delivered. Despite the long and
arduous process involved in a suit of that magnitude, this young woman was determined
and driven by her maternal obligation to ensure that her child’s future was provided for.
She was driven by a conscious acknowledgement that the doctor on call at the time of her
delivery was responsible for the birth defect of her child. She remembered how the
resident on call deliberately tried to delay the birth of her child. The recognition of being
mistreated by the medical staff on the day of her childbirth, her child’s wellbeing and her

husband’s emotional support were the impetus for her to seek justice and accountability.

147

These attitudes underlined how this younger generation continued to rely on their
collective recognition of their transnational citizenship. Elena and most of her family
members are rendered socially invisible “aliens” in Detroit; nevertheless this situation did
not stop her from seeking justice.

The difference in opinions related to the idea of the neighborhood between these
two generations has to do with many factors, of which one is a nostalgic view of the past
“when things were better.” However, the difference in opinions also marked the inﬂuence
generated by a hostile and racist environment where Mexicanas navigated in Detroit. For
the older women the presence of Euroamericans “made the neighborhood better,” when
in fact most of it had to do with de-urbanization and marginalization. Yet, their view also
underlined the tensions between the older generation’s and the younger generation’s
attitudes toward their residence in the United States and their imagined hopes that living
in the U.S. was and will continue to be better than living in Mexico. Younger Mexicanas
are more cynical about residing in Detroit and they recognize the reality of living in a
harsh and racist environment. Additionally, younger women have found that being rooted
in their transnational community gave them a stronger sense of identity based on their
shared immigration experience. They have also recognized the denial of a fair
distribution of resources and a powerful oppressive nation-state due to Euroamericans’
narrow-minded deﬁnitions of citizenship. Furthermore, women like Gaby and Elena are
initiating an ideology of accountability to institutionalized racism in social structures in
Detroit.

While taking me on a tour of the neighborhood Gaby showed me the school

where most of the students are of Mexican origin, and we both joked about the fact that

148

the school proudly ﬂaunted over 15 ﬂags of different countries by the main entrance,
none of which was the Mexican Flag. Our sarcasm, however, did not ignore how
racialized institutions in Detroit systematically continue to discriminate against Mexicans
despite the large Mexican and Latino population in the neighborhood. Continuing on the
tour, we passed several burned houses, not uncommon in the neighborhood, and piles of
garbage in what used to be front and back yards. I had my video camera on while Gaby
gave me the tour and when we were passing by deteriorated and abandoned houses, Gaby
turned to me and said “no, Luz Maria don’t tape that” and I asked “why not?” and she
responded, “because people who watch the video (both Euroamericans and Mexicans)
will think that all the neighborhood is like that.” This statement underlined her
acknowledgement of the lack of public services and her rejection of the idea that
Mexicanas/as are responsible for this abandonment or deterioration, and more
importantly, what she viewed as a “real” community. This attitude also emphasized how
San Ignacians wanted to take a more active role in shaping their identity and how others
would see them. Her comment also acknowledged at some level the pernicious
stereotypes that they have to deal with while living in Detroit as “aliens.” Cultural
productions of Mexicans in the U.S. have continued to recycle negative images of
Mexican imrrrigrants and they are very much aware of them, thus affecting the way they
identify as citizens of their transnational community. In their research, Nicholas De
Genova and Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas emphasized the oppressive measures that the denial of
social recognition, in this case citizenship has,

Insofar as the institution of U.S. citizenship is commonly presumed to differentiate

subjects in relation to the power of the nation-state, differences, divisions, and
inequalities are elaborated in terms of “citizenship” and “immigration”: Who is a

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U.S. citizen? Who is a “foreigner,” or an “alien”? Who is eligible for citizenship?

Who is deportable? And moreover, who is a “real American”?35
Consequently, Mexican immigrants will always exist in many Euroamericans’ minds as
“aliens,” - regardless of the Mexican immigrants’ status. They view Mexicans as
deportable and thus deny them any opportunity or equal access to resources. Through this
process they validate their historical racist and oppressive practices against Mexican
immigrants. Furthermore, these attitudes are absorbed and internalized by Mexican
immigrants denying them the right to occupy the very spaces that they own and work,
and construct their lives. The denial of citizenship and of social recognition moves San
Ignacians to develop and constantly redeﬁne their transnational citizenship.

On the other hand, San Ignacians become heroes and heroines when they continue
to invest in their sending community’s economy by constructing enormous houses that
ﬂaunt their success as immigrants. Contrary to their limited social positioning in Detroit,
in San Ignacio immigrants gain upward social mobility and respect from their fellow
townspeople when they ﬂaunt their monetary success by parading luxurious cars,
clothing, jewelry, cell phones, etc. One of the most important and symbolic commodities
that emphasized the immigrant’ success and prestige is the construction of new and
elaborate homes. When I arrived in San Ignacio for the third time on October of 2002, I
began to look for a place to rent. My intention was to stay for at least six months to
conduct my research. Two weeks went by and to no avail; I was still paying for a room in
the only hotel in San Ignacio, which charged up to $50 a night. I would ask women where

I might ﬁnd an apartment or room to rent. Most responded that there were not such

 

35 Nicholas De Genova & Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas, Latino Crossings: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the
Politics of Race and Citizenship (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), 2.

150

accommodations in San Ignacio. An older woman, however, kept repeating that it was a
pity that her house was not ﬁnished because if it were she would allow me to live there
for free. And as she was mentioning the construction of her house she was taking me for
a walking tour of San Ignacio.

The ﬁrst stop we made was at the construction sight of her new house. She gave
me a thorough tour of the incredibly luxurious house and then she proceeded to show me
two other houses that belonged to her brothers who were residing in the United States.
Her brothers’ homes were as luxurious as hers, but to add pain to injury she let me know
that both of her siblings’ houses were empty most of the year since her family only came
to San Ignacio during the patron saint’s festivities in January. I realized that she was not
going to offer to rent a room, but rather she was showing off her family’s success within
their immigrant experience. This was my ﬁrst encounter with what San Ignacians call
“las cosas solas” (the empty houses). I had heard about these houses while I was in
Detroit listening to Mexicanas talk in Patton Park. The houses became a symbol of
economic success and upward social mobility. Mexicanas would compete with each other
showing off how much money they had spent in laying down the ﬂoors, building the
doors, designing the kitchen cabinets, and so forth while at the same time consulting with
each other what colors would be best for the different bedrooms and what pictures would
look good on the walls.

Investing in the construction of a house and investing in numerous renovations to
their existing houses in San Ignacio were some of the most important goals of San
Ignacians. Furthermore, the process became a gender negotiation between couples that

involved traveling back and forth to the community of origin in order to supervise the

151

construction or the renovation of the house, and to contribute to the design and the
ﬁrrnishing of the house. Most of these houses were exact replicas of residences in the
United States. Immigrants chose from real estate magazines pictures of the houses that
they liked best seeking the architects in Mexico for reproduction. This left San Ignacio
with a very eclectic aesthetic look. The construction of new homes was a family project
involving the women that reside in San Ignacio as the caretakers of the “cosas solos”.
When I walked by the empty houses I got the impression that they were not really “casas
solas” because most of the time the doors were open, the curtains were drawn, and the
plants and yards were perfectly landscaped and cared for.

For Mexicanos and Mexicanas their citizenship as San Ignacians in San Ignacio
stood in opposition to their negation of citizenship status in Detroit. However, their
investments in housing, their social participation in U.S. social structures, and the
creation of transnational communities afﬁliated them more closely to their transnational
citizenship and reclaimed this sense of belonging. As heroes and heroines in San Ignacio
they became center stage and that, in a way, alleviated their marginalization in Detroit.
Somewhere between their positioning from center to periphery, from heroes and heroines
to “illegal aliens,” Mexicanos and Mexicanas developed different notions of what it
meant to be a citizen of a transnational community. However, in their collective
imagination, most of them fantasized on returning to San Ignacio to retire in their newly
renovated or constructed homes. The contested terrain in Detroit, then, is seen as integral
to laboring for a better future.

Not many San Ignacians returned to San Ignacio as they had planned when

building or renovating their houses. The casas solas remained, for the most part,

152

uninhabited except when immigrants returned for the fiestas patronales during the fall
and winter months. These luxurious homes became symbols of how San Ignacians
constructed their notions of citizenship and thus of belonging. Since most Mexicanos and
Mexicanas will make arrangements to have their bodies sent back to San Ignacio when
they die, these homes, in a way, become giant tombs that will house them if not during at
least at the end of their lives. Nevertheless, during their lives, San Ignacians in Detroit
will continue, to the best of their abilities, to risk — those who are rendered socially
invisible - going back to San Ignacio and continue to celebrate their status as heroines
and heroes as they stand in the endless line of the hijos ausentes (absent children)
procession during the ﬁestas patronales. They line up patiently in the procession awaiting
for the children’s school band to advance followed by the Aztec dancers. As Gel put it,
“Yes, next year we will risk [crossing the border again for the ﬁestas]. No matter, todo el
mundo (literally all the world, in this case everybody) crosses, sea como sea (no matter
what)?36 They will march proud and tall and with dignity while the band plays in the
kiosco and as their fellow San Ignacians stand aside and acknowledge the immigrants’
success and courage in constructing a life in Detroit. It is this recognition that provides
San Ignacians both in San Ignacio and in Detroit with a citizenship that recognizes their
efforts, their struggles, their endless courage, and their tolerance for hostility, racism, and

discrimination in the U.S.: their transnational citizenship.

 

36 Gel, 25 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004. “Si y asi para el otro aho si nos aventuramos
tambien. Al cabo todo el mundo pasa oye sea como sea.”

153

Que Vivan Los Mojados

Porque sonros los mojados
sienrpre nos busca la ley
porque estamos ilegales

y no hablamos en inglés

e1 gringo terco a sacamos
y nosotros a volver.

Si uno sacan por Laredo
por Mexicali entran diez

si otro sacan por Tijuana
por Nogales entran seis,
ahi nomas saquen la cuenta
cuantos entramos a1 mes.

El problema dc nosotros
facil se puede arreglar

que nos den a una gringuita
para podemos casar

y ya que nos den la mica
volvemos a divorciar.

Vivan todos los mojados
los que ya van a errrigrar
los que van de vacaciones
los que van a casarse
para poder arreglar.

Los Tigres del Norte1

Conclusions

Long Live the Wetbacks

Because we are the wetbacks

the law is always looking for us
because we are “illegals”

and we don’t speak English
obstinate gringo wants to remove us
and we always come back.

If they deport one from Laredo

In Mexicali ten cross back

If they deport another through Tijuana
In Nogales six more cross back

So make your calculations

How many of us come in per month.

Our problem is

easy to solve

give us a gringuita

so that we can marry her

and when we get the green card,
we can divorce her.

Long live the wetbacks

The ones that are going to immigrate
the ones that enter as tourists

the ones that will marry

so that they can ﬁx their status.

In history, the end is the beginning of a new chapter. With this in mind, I hope

that my research encourages a more egalitarian and fair investigation into Mexican

immigration to the United States. As the global economy expands and continues to

displace thousands of international migrants, we need to understand the politics of

movement that are integral to this economic system. International trade agreements such

as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) signed in 1994 by Mexico, the U.S.,

and Canada, that stipulated the encouragement of free trade of information, technology,

 

' Los Tigres del Norte. “Vivan los Mojados.” Coleccio’n de Oro (Mexico, D.F: Ciscos Musart, S.A. DE

C.V., 2000).

154

consumer goods, and communications between these three countries have continued to
exploit underdeveloped countries. Despite the continued outsourcing from the U.S. to
Mexico, the U.S. has continued to reject and ignore the obvious historical movement of
Mexican labor legitirrrizing its oppressive, racist, and xenophobic attitudes toward
Mexican workers in the U.S.

White supremacist nationalistic ideologies in the U.S. have walked a thin line
between presenting the U.S. as a strong powerful and very masculine nation “ﬁghting”
passive, lazy and backward Mexicans that endanger the cultural “integrity” of the country
and presenting the U.S. as an emasculated and defenseless nation-state trying to deter the
“invasion” of Mexican immigrants who decrease wages, deplete the welfare system, and
take jobs Euroamericans. This image of the nation-state as very masculine and capable of
ﬁghting against undocumented lazy, backward, and apathetic Mexican immigrants, and at
the same time unable to stop the “invasion” of dangerous economic Mexican immigrant
predators, emphasizes the schizophrenic and criminal attitudes that the U.S. has
historically adopted against Mexican immigrants. Aggressive recruitment of Mexican
labor at the end of the nineteenth century and continued through the twentieth century set
the stage for a massive movement of Mexicanos and Mexicanas to el Norte.

Gendered bilateral agreements such as the Bracero Program in 1942 encouraged
approximately 400,000 to 450,000 Mexicanos to cross the border annually to labor for
the U.S.2 As a result, the formation of transnational communities has continued to enrich

the social, cultural, economic, and political fabric of the United States.

 

2 Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, Nolan J Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in
an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003), 36-37. Furthermore, the
authors state that: “Nearly 5 million Mexicans entered the United States during the program’s twenty-two-
year history - a ﬁgure that dwarfs the combined total of legal and contract labor between 1900 and 1929 —

155

My investigation has historically traced the lives of Mexican imrrrigrant women
and men as protagonists of demographic, social, cultural, economic, and political changes
in their own histories as they constructed their transnational community in San Ignacio
Cerro Gordo, Jalisco in Mexico and Detroit, Michigan in the United States from 1942 to
2000. I began my study with the inception of the Bracero Program and its effect in
initiating the ﬂow of Mexican labor and the beginning stages of the formation of their
transnational community. As Mexicanas joined the braceros in Detroit they laid the
foundation to what was to become one of the most dynamic transnational communities in
Detroit. I have argued that Mexicanas are the main protagonists in weaving and
supporting the social networks that are inherent in the construction of transnational
communities. Furthermore, I asserted that Mexicanas in San Ignacio began to cross
translocal borders by becoming heads of households that facilitated their immigrant
experience. I focused my work on the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, and
citizenship that construct new meanings that are ﬂuid and permeable.

The imnrigrant experience needs to be analyzed through different lenses that look
at the various ways that Mexicanos and Mexicanas construct their lives in their
transnational community. In the case of Mexican immigrants and the creation of
transnational communities, sexuality has been constantly informed, shaped and reshaped
by the immigrant experience. As gender historians of immigration we need to reconsider
the meaning of transnationalism so that the experience of immigrants is not fragmented

into two different spaces — their community of origin and the receiving community. I

 

but this massive movement remained out of the public eye.” This statement questions the politics of
immigration during the tenure of the Bracero Program particularly during Operation Wetback in 1954 when
thousands of Mexican immigrants were deported to satisfy McCarthyism and to ameliorate civil society’s
concerns raised by the supporters of such politics.

156

argue that both are integral to their everyday lives and therefore we need to consider them
as one. Within this context I introduced the concept of “transnational sexualities” that
emphasizes the social constructions on sexuality informed by both experiences; and how
these in turn create new meanings and understandings of sexuality, social, cultural,
economic, and political realities that apply to Mexicanas’ and Mexicanos’ everyday lives
in San Ignacio and in Detroit.

I have looked deeper into the social networks that are inherent in the sustainability
of transnational communities arguing that it is through Mexicanas’ productive and
reproductive labor that these networks are maintained. Through the deconstruction of
these networks one can understand how Mexicanas created a community by being
exposed and participating in U.S. social structures such as schools and hospitals, through
church related activities, and through kinship. Kinship systems have been expanded to
accommodate the immigration experience and thus reconﬁgurations of family hierarchies
and structures have continuously changed and adapted to the needs of the transnational
community. Mexicanas challenge traditional gender roles while they navigate within the
contested spaces they create despite oppressive and patriarchal systems. Everyday
processes affect social networks and gender struggles and tensions that derive from them.

9, ‘6

These tensions in turn affect notions of “ferrrininity” and “masculinity, motherhood,”
and “fatherhood,” domesticity, and workers’ identities.

Feminist approaches to Mexican and Latin American immigrant communities in
the United States have emphasized the gains secured by immigrant women along the

process in terms of gender awareness, reproductive rights and separation from patriarchal

structures in the traditional society. However, these analyses have failed to recognize

157

both the ﬂuid nature of traditional patriarchal structures and the patriarchal nature of U.S.
institutions. Moreover, they have failed to recognize that the immigrant experience for
Mexican women has been both liberating and repressive. The roots of such
misconception lay on the uncritical adoption of “zero sum” general approaches towards
women immigrants, by which two opposite spaces (origin and receiving communities)
struggle for the control and domination in social values and culture among immigrants.

The trajectories of women from San Ignacio prove that gender dynamics expand
and create new and complex social spaces where the dominant patriarchal values are
permanently renegotiated and readjusted by women’s agency. Far from conforming into a
“zero sum” model, the immigrant experience multiplies and expands the gender dynarrrics
between men and women to create a new matrix of networks where these two groups
interact and bargain.

In deconstructing such interaction, my research suggests that the women’s
participation in the formation of transnational communities can simply not be understood
without analyzing the pivotal role of female reproductive labor. A5 I discussed in chapter
three, the creation of permanent and organic transnational ties between San Ignacio and
Detroit has its foundations in the network activated and maintained by women’s
reproductive labor. While current scholarship on immigrant women rightfully insists on
the ramiﬁcations of female incorporation to the productive force, its inability to identify
and analyze the effects of reproductive labor on the immigrant experience have had a
negative impact on our understanding of transnational communities.

The stories of San Ignacian families from the 19405 to the present illustrate the

extent to which female reproductive labor was the key element in the activation of a

158

transnational network and the subsequent formation of a permanent community in
Detroit. In this process my study places a new emphasis on the significance of domestic
and recreational spaces created by immigrant women and the ways in which they use
these so called “traditional” areas to create the conditions for a permanent network
between San Ignacio and Detroit, ﬁrst, and a permanent life in Detroit with permanent
ties to San Ignacio.

Mexicanas gain power to negotiate gender relations by claiming ownership to
their domestic space where they were responsible for the caretaking of not only their
immediate family but for all the “guests” that might be staying with them. Furthermore,
these responsibilities, as it were, turned Mexicanas into surrogate mothers, daughters, and
sisters of extended family, friends and comadres or compadres. By expanding and
readapting this “traditional” gender roles, women not only empower themselves in the
migrant experience, but also create the conditions in which families can better navigate
between San Ignacio and Detroit, and ultimately, between Mexico and the United States.

My research shows that this ﬂuid expansion of gender roles cannot be
conceptualized as a “natural” decision to preserve or maintain values from the rural
Mexican pueblo. Instead it is only understood against the background of San Ignacio
women’s agency and crucial participation in the immigrant experience.

The analysis of reproductive behavior among San Ignacio immigrant women
showcases the complex and vibrant dynamics between gender and immigration. Despite
constant moral vigilantism by the religious authorities in both San Ignacio and Detroit,
despite patriarchal behavior displays by San Ignacio men, and despite the socio-economic

pressures of their incorporation to the job market in the U.S., women from San Ignacio

159

have turned their reproductive practices into a highly contested terrain and have managed
to ﬁnd ways to reduce their fertility rates and the number of pregnancies in comparison to
previous generations. While women in reproductive ages in the 19405 and 19505 had
traditionally large families, new generations in the 19805 and 19905 signiﬁcantly reduced
the number of children.3

By adopting an eclectic approach, from which they select information from
Planned Parenthood programs in Mexico and the US, Spanish language media talk
shows, and by choosing not to abide by religious prescriptions, women have found
venues to reduce fertility rates while complying with marital expectations. My research
data strongly suggests that this considerable negotiating power vis-a—vis the church and
the family traditional values, and especially vis-a-vis the husband’s authority, highlights
the women’s new enhanced position regarding reproduction and family planning.

This female agency through which women have successfully renegotiated the
implementation of different contraceptive methods (patch, rhythm, mi vieja me cuida)
exempliﬁes the way in which they have used the immigrant experience to enhance their
position inside the bed, the household and the church.

My research shows the ways younger women have developed a new ability to
negotiate with their partners by manipulating patriarchal power and praising men’s
notions of masculinity and allowing them to “take care” of them. On the other hand,
women from the past generations were unable to negotiate such situations due mostly to
the overwhelming patriarchal and ecclesiastic controls, plus the positive value placed on

children as potential contributors to family labor.

 

3 See Appendix A table 1.3 and Appendix B, tables 2.1 and 2.2.

160

In the immigrant experience, younger generations of women have created new
ways to construct womanhood values that don’t necessarily include a large number of
children. While motherhood values have been expanded to include surrogate members or
“guests”, womanhood standards are no longer associated with having los hijos que Dias
me mande, (as many children as God wants me to). These two elements: expanded
motherhood roles and reduced fertility rates, provide deﬁning characteristic of the
Mexicanas’ transnational sexualities, a concept introduced in my study as a crucial
feature in our understanding of transnational communities.

Transnational sexualities certainly include premarital sex and new courtship
patterns, all based on strong ideological changes based both in Mexico and in the U.S.,
and most importantly, on the circumstances developed within the imrrrigrant experience.
Constructed in their everyday lives in San Ignacio and in Detroit, transnational sexualities
cannot be separated as two opposing and distinct experiences in the community of origin
and in the receiving community; it is a new creation that informs Mexicanas’ and
Mexicanos’ concepts of masculinity and femininity and these in turn inform gender
negotiations that shape and are shaped by the immigrant experience. Immigration is not
only a social process it is a subjective conceptualization of living experiences that include
agency and resistance within contested terrains in Mexico and in the United States.

My research shows that women in San Ignacio responded to the immigration
trends by creating and reshaping courting rituals that better mirror their mate-choosing
expectations and enhance their bargaining power before and during marriage.

Using, but not necessarily playing by, the social spaces created by local church and local

authorities to celebrate the immigrant experience, local women have generated new

161

venues to meet and select their potential life partners and accommodate to the time
restraints on young male imrrrigrants by Detroit’s job market.

Perhaps unintentionally, the church has become an important inﬂuence in this
process by enhancing and glorifying the return of the imrni grants as part of the religious
rituals during the ﬁestas patronales. These rituals have come a long way from courting
through holes or cracks on doors or walls to a more intimate contact and to a more
elaborate ritual of showing off material possessions to prove a successful immigrant
experience. Within this context, both men and women have expanded their range of
choices on how to choose partners for either temporary pleasure or potential marriage
candidates.

While Mexicanas’ transnational sexualities no longer attached a positive value to
virginity, nor a negative content to premarital pregnancy, there is still a strong
identiﬁcation between love and marriage, and between sexual intercourse and lifetime
commitment. Notwithstanding, self-awareness and body exploration of sexual identities
are certainly becoming more important issues for younger generations.

Transnational sexualities have not only reshaped the life cycle of young women
in San Ignacio but, not less importantly, also had a profound impact on the local
institutions. Local church ofﬁcials, for instance, no longer refuse to marry pregnant
women nor to chastise them from the pulpit. The traditional stigmatization of single
mothers, according to senior women, has also loosened up, while local ofﬁcials had
recently started to marry people in the civil court to expedite the process, curbing the

ecclesiastic hegemony on marriage.

162

The life around the kiosco during the imrrrigrants’ seasonal return has become a
new central feature of local courtship rituals, replacing the traditional serenatas and
summer dating practices. Moreover, the church has reshaped the traditional festivities
calendar to accommodate the schedule of returning immigrants while allowing young
“marriageable” girls to use the celebration to showcase their attributes and charm.

Traditional festivities associated with harvest and civic celebrations have been
challenged and in some cases replaced, by “American-style” female beauty contests,
where physical attributes, current U.S. fashion styles, truck platform carnival parades, are
common currency. Women’s beauty becomes a precious commodity that allows men to
satisfy rivalries among nearby towns that intertwine with economic success due to
imnrigrant’s monetary contributions both in the form of remittances and in the increase of
small businesses. Historically, towns such as San Ignacio have followed traditions of
crowning women in parades or processions, however, the young women represented the
Spring or a successful harvest and so on. It is from cultural inﬂuences from the United
States that these parades or processions have turned into beauty pageants. For the
immigrants in San Ignacio, the beauty pageants are intrinsically a part of the January
religious festivities. As women display their femininities via these pageants, they in turn
acknowledge the importance of possible empowerment. San Ignacio’s young queen for
the January festivities in 2004 was born and raised in Detroit, making her participation in
the pageant an important symbolism of second-generation San Ignacians’ adherence to
their traditional cultural and social mores.

Despite the fact that young and immigrant women are constantly bombarded by

critiques of their sexualities by elderly women and church ofﬁcials, claiming that the

163

immigrant experience tends to “loosen” women if not watched closely by their parents, it
is their bodies that have come to represent the progress of the town, the success of the
immigrant community in Detroit and the new era of prosperity that separates, at least in
local eyes, San Ignacio from the rest of Mexico.

Along with the construction of a transnational community appears the formation
of a transnational set of values and principles regarding memory, identity and citizenship.
As the process of creating translocal and transnational ties between San Ignacio and
Detroit (and between Mexico and the United States) has only accelerated in the last
decades of the twentieth century, new forms of constructing civic values, ethnic identities
and translocal concepts of citizenship have emerged.

Civic memory surely provides an example of the realignment of traditional values
in the new framework set by the immigrant experience. While the constitution of San
Ignacio as an independent municipality with full autonomy from Arandas seems
inevitable in the immediate future, it will be possible only because of the Detroit
immigrant community’s active involvement in local political affairs. As the Detroit’s San
Ignacians achieve a never-seen-before prominent status in the village, and as the
delegacién politica increases its connections with the Michigan imrrri grants’ group, the
association between success abroad and “local pride” seems more consolidated. The more
success the “children of San Ignacio” experience in Detroit, the stronger the chances for a
viable and autonomous political entity for San Ignacians in Jalisco.

It would be a mistake, however, to identify local pride sponsored by Detroit
immigrants as the only source of San Ignacian identity in both Mexico and the United

States. For the participants in the immigrant network, ethnic identiﬁcation as San

164

Ignacians, Jaliscienses and Mexicans, is also the result of their interactions in the U.S.
with other groups from J alisco, other Mexican states, and especially, other non-Mexican
groups in the Detroit area. As long as the urban conditions of the Mexican community in
Detroit continue to reﬂect a pattern of political disenfranchisement, racial segregation,
police brutality and econorrric exploitation, the incentives to “become” “American” and
forge a new “American” identity will be outperformed by the “Mexicanness” provided or
constructed against the background of the immigrant experience.

Therefore, transnational citizenship is a concept that rrrirrors both the conditions
of identiﬁcation with San Ignacio as successful immigrants and the conditions of struggle
against oppression by other groups in Detroit. As I discussed in chapter four, older men
ﬁnd satisfaction in identifying with their “heroes” status in San Ignacio, thus choosing as
their ﬁnal destination San Ignacio. Contrary to this decision-making process, women ﬁnd
their strength in their collective transnational citizenship in Detroit. The younger
generation, however, align themselves with older women by seeing themselves as both,
San Ignacians and Mexican-Detroitians.

Political life in San Ignacio centers on men as protagonists, unlike Detroit where
women establish transnational families and thus create community where they can

consolidate their leadership as the dynamic leaders of culture, tradition, and family union.

The immigrant experience and the transnational identities generated along gender
lines could be visualized better in the shapes of some of the “Fiestas of the Absent
Children” parade protagonists on the January’s celebrations: The Aztec dancers with

their intricate costumes as the reminders of a proud heritage side by side with the Miss

165

Universe fashion-stylize Mexicanas and the elaborate procession of immigrants behind
them representing the present successes and interchangeable identities of a promising

future.

166

Appendix A

Persons of Spanish Language in Detroit

 

 

Table 1.1
Year Total Population . People of Spanish Mexican
”we
1970 (a) 1,511,482 27,038
1980 1,203,339 28,466
1990 (b) 1,012,427 28,280 17,650
2000 951,270 47,167 33,143

 

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Population, 1970-
2000 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Ofﬁce).
a) For the 1970 and 1980 Census information, Mexicans were not classiﬁed; the census has them
listed as part of “General Characteristics of Persons of Spanish Language for Areas and Places.”

b) In 1990 the census began to classify Mexicans alone.

Persons of Spanish Language in Detroit: Men and Women

 

 

Table 1.2
Year People of Spanish Women Men
mange
1970 (c) 27,038 13,726 13,312
1980 28,466 14,567 13,899
1990(d) 28,280 14,189 14,091
2000 47,167 23,280 23,887

 

 

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, United States Census of Population, 1970-

2000 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Ofﬁce).

c) For the 1970 and 1980 Census information, Mexicans were not classiﬁed; the census has them
listed as part of “General Characteristics of Persons of Spanish Language for Areas and Places.”

(1) In 1990 the census began to classify Mexicans alone.

Population Numbers in Mexico and Jalisco

 

Table 1.3

Year Total Total National Percentage of

Population Population Percentage of Growth in
Mexico J alisco Growth J alisco (a)

1940 20,807,128 1,418,310 N/A N/A (b)

1950 25,791,017 1,746,777 3.2 3.3

1960 34,923,129 2,443,261 3.0 3.4

1970 48,225,238 3,296,586 3.4 3.2

1990 81,249,645 5,302,689 2.6 2.0

2000 97,483,412 6,322,002 1.8 1.8

 

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica (INEGI) VII al XII Censos dc Poblacion
y Vivienda, 1950-2000 (VII to XII Population Census, 1940-2000).

(a) Per ten years

(b) Not Applicable

Population Numbers in J alisco: Men and Women

 

 

168

Table 1.4
Year Total Population Percentage Women Percentage Men
1940 1,418,310 51.6 48.4
1950 1,746,777 51.6 48.4
1960 2,443,261 50.6 49.4
1970 3,296,586 50.5 49.5
1980 4,371,998 51.2 48.8
1990 5,302,689 51.6 48.4
2000 6,322,002 51.4 48.6

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica (INEGI) VII al XII Censos de Poblacion
y Vivienda, 1950-2000 (VII to XII Population Census, 1940-2000).

Mexican Population Residing in the U.S. and Percentages: Mexican Men and Women

 

Table 1.5
Year Mexican Percentage of Percentage of
Population in U.S. Women in U.S. Men in U.S.
1970 760,000 51.1 48.9
1990 4,766,000 44.9 55.1
2000 8,527,000 46.1 53.9

 

Source: Mexican Ministery of Foreign Affairs-U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform Washington, D.
C. Mexico-United States Binational Migration Study. Migration between Mexico and the United States.
Austin, U.S.A., 1998."

U.S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Census 2000.

169

Appendix B

Percentages of Fertility Rates in Mexico and Women’s Knowledge of Contraceptives

 

Table 2.1

Year Fertility Rates Married Women of Fertile
Women Age

1976 5.7 30.2 89.0

1981 4.4 N/A (a) N/A

1987 3.8 52.7 92.9

1992 3.2 63.1 94.9

1996 2.8 68.4 96.6

2000 2.4 N/A N/A

 

Source: For 1976: SPP-IISUNAM. Encuesta Mexicana de Fecundidad, 1976. México, DR, 1979.

For 1987: SSA. Encuesta Nacional sobre Fecundidad y Salud, 1987. México, DR, 1989.

For 1992: INEGI. Encuesta Nacional de la Dinamica Demograﬁca, 1992. Aguascalientes, Ags., 1994.

Para 1997: INEGI. Encuesta Nacional de la Dinamica Demograﬁca, 1997. Aguascalientes, Ags., 1999.
(a) Information not available

Percentages of Fertility Rates in J alisco and Mexico

 

Table 2.2
Year Fertility Rates Year Fertility Rates
Jalisco Mexico
1960 7.3 1976 5.7
1970 6.8 1981 4.4
1980 4.9 1992 3.2
1990 3.7 1996 2.8
2000 2.9 2000 2.4

 

 

 

Source: For 1976: SPP-IISUNAM. Encuesta Mexicana de Fecundidad, 1976. Mexico, DR, 1979.

170

For 1987: SSA. Encuesta Nacional sobre Fecundidad y Salud, 1987. Mexico, DR, 1989.

For 1992: INEGI. Encuesta Nacional de la Dinamica Demograﬁca, 1992. Aguascalientes, Ags., 1994.

Para 1997: INEGI. Encuesta Nacional de la Dinamica Demograﬁca, 1997. Aguascalientes, Ags., 1999.
(a) Information not available

171

Appendix C

Occupation of Employed Spanish Origin Persons in Detroit

 

Table 3.1
Year Total Employed Women of Mexican
Spanish Origin Women
1970 (c) 8,703 2,871
1980 8,302 3,379
1990 6,957 ((1) 2,777
2000 13,565 4,286

 

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, United States Census of P0pulation, 1970-
2000 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Ofﬁce).
e) For the 1970 and 1980 Census information, Mexicans were not classiﬁed; the census has them
listed as part of “General Characteristics of Persons of Spanish Language for Areas and Places.”

f) In 1990 the census began to classify Mexicans alone.

172

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archives

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AGN Archivo General de la Nacién, Mexico City
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ARE Archivo de Relaciones Exteriores, Mexico City
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NARA — Great Lakes Region (Chicago)
7358 South Pulaski Road
Chicago, IL 60629—5898
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Mexican Contract Laborers, August 24, 1944;
Mexican Importation: State Department of Translation of Draft, Beneﬁts under
the RA of 1937, August 25, 1944;
Mexican Importation Program, October 4, 1945;
Mexican Payroll, October 15, 1945.
((923303), box 19:
Proposed Refund to Mexican nationals, June 19, 1953
(919738), box 13:
Validation Study of Mexican Proofs Conducted by SSA, August 3, 197 3
(919752), box 17:
Mexican Nationals re: Retirement Beneﬁts, June 14, 1978
RG 211, War Manpower Commission, Region 5
RG 184, Railroad Retirement Board (re: braceros)
RG 228, Fair Employment Practice Committee
RG 202, National War Labor Board
Naturalization Records, 1837-1998
Declarations of Intention, 1856-1989

173

Newspapers and Local Pamphlets

The Detroit News (Detroit, Michigan).

El Inforrnador (Guadalajara, J alisco, Mexico).

El Arandense (Arandas, Jalisco, Mexico).

Noti-Arandas (Arandas, Jalisco, Mexico).

Boletin Municipalista (San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, J alisco, Mexico).

La expresion de la palabra: Panorama Alteho, (San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, J alisco,
Mexico).

Noticias Notimex, (3lde mayo del 2005, Mexico, D.F.).
Interviews

Don Antonio, 78 years of age, interview in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, November 2002
Doha Ana, 62 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003.

Ana, 18 years of age, interview in San Ignacio 2003.

Doha Anita, 70 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002.

Alejandro, 34 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2002.

Alex, 30 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, February 2003.

Doha Alicia, 69 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, November 2002.

Carla 50 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004.

Carmela, 54 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003.

Chava, 52 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, February 2003.

Don Chuy, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001.

Don Cosme Martinez, 83 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001.
Gaby and Gabriel, 22 and 28 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio,
December 2002.

Don Gabriel and his son Sergio Hernandez, 70 and 46 years of age respectively,
interview in San Ignacio, December 2001.

Gel, 25 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004.

Gilberto Arias, Delegado de San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, 26 years of age, interview in San
Ignacio, January 2003.

Jorge Diaz Pérez, Presidente Municipal de Arandas, interview in Arandas, January 2003.
Father Ignacio Ramos Puga, interview in San Ignacio, November 2001.

José, 44 years of age and president of the committee for a new municipio, interview in
San Ignacio, January 2003.

Lola, 50 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004.

Doha Luna and Don Andres, 72 and 74 years of age respectively, interview in San
Ignacio, November 2001.

174

Mari and Goyo, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003.

Maria, 49 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003.

Nan, 26 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004.

Oscar Antonio dc la Torre Amezcua, 49 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004.
Irma y Jaime, 47 and 40 years of age respectively, interview in San Ignacio, February
2003.

Don Raril and Benjamin, 78 and 58 years of age respectively. Interview in San Ignacio,
December 2001.

Reyna, 15 years of age, Monica, 15 years of age, Bianca, 13 years of age and Elena, 14
years of age, interview in San Ignacio, January 2003.

Rogelio, 55 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, February 2003.

Sonia y Francisco, 43 and 44 years of age respectively, interview in Detroit 2004.
Doha Tere, 73 years of age, interview in San Ignacio, December 2001.

Doha Teresa and Luis Mercado, 67 and 71 years of age respectively, interview in San
Ignacio, December 2001.

Susana, 50 years of age, interview in Detroit, July 2004.

Tina y Sar’rl de la Torre, 47 and 52 years of age respectively, interview in San Igancio,
January 2003.

Trino, 57 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004.

Vivi, 28 years of age, interview in Detroit, June 2004.

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