Engendering transnational ties: Mexicanas and the other sides of immigration, 1942--2000

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 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. 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 tornillo 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.