Cyber -brides between the United States and Mexico: Transnational imaginaries, migration, and the intimate economy of marriage

In the dissertation, I analyze the new transnational space that has been forged between the United States and Mexico by way of the rapidly growing Internet bride industry. I examine the effect global processes---such as the Internet, media, migration, and tourism---have on the ways Mexican women and U.S. men construct, and are created by, new formations of gender, race, class, nationalism, romance, and family relations. I also situate this industry within a legacy of U.S. empire and imperialism to demonstrate the historical contours of modern day international romance and marriage. Conversant with feminist ethnographic methodologies in the "field" as well as in chat rooms, I combine interviews with couples at "Romance Vacation Tours" in Guadalajara and participant observation of chat room discussions. Other sources include a cultural analysis of Internet web sites, "how-to-books," films, and e-mail correspondence letters.;My project draws from three fields of study: border studies, globalization, and transnational feminism. The majority of scholars and activists situate women who participate in the mail-order/cyber-bride industry as poor women who are part of the global trafficking of women trade. This in-depth ethnographic study, on the other hand, uncovers the complexity and diversity of the people involved. I extend border studies into a transnational sphere by examining the mutual construction of romance and desire between men and women between the United States and Mexico. While professional, middle-class Mexican women look to foreign men in the United States to embody more equitable gender relations, exciting careers and opportunities to travel, the majority of men hope to find a more traditional Latina wife.;This contradiction between what men and women want reveals the power of the imaginary in modern everyday life. Modern fantasies are intimately linked to the global economy in which men's perceptions of Mexican women intersect with Latinas' transnational circulation as domestics, hard working and docile factory workers, and overly sexualized images of ethnic women. Mexican women's perceptions of American men, as better providers and more loyal husbands, are shaped by the image of the United States as a benevolent world power, as well as their interactions with wealthy tourists, exposure to the "American dream," and U.S. feminism.