Mixtec Transnational Identity [Hardcover]

Laura Velasco Ortiz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

As Mexican migrants have found new lives in the United States, the appearance of migrant organizations reflects the revitalization of ancestral community life. One example, the Binational Oaxacan Indigenous Front, includes participants from cities along the border and represents diverse organizations of indigenous migrants from Oaxaca. Its creation reflects the vast changes that have taken place in migrants’ lives in less than thirty years. Mixtec Transnational Identity is the first book to describe in detail the emergence of a wide range of transnational indigenous organizations and communities in the greater Mexico–U.S. border region. It documents and analyzes the construction of novel identities formed within transnational contexts that may not conform to identities in either the “sending” or “receiving” societies. Laura Velasco Ortiz investigates groups located on both sides of the border that have maintained strong links with towns and villages in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca in order to understand how this transformation came about. Through a combination of survey, ethnography, and biography, she examines the formation of ethnic identity under the conditions of international migration, giving special attention to the emergence of organizations and their leaders as collective and individual ethnic agents of change. Velasco Ortiz reconstructs the Mixtec experience through three lines of analysis: the formation of organizations beyond the confines of home communities; the emergence of indigenous migrant leaders; and the shaping of ethnic consciousness that assimilates the experiences of a community straddling the border. Her research brings to light the way in which the dispersion of members of different communities is offset by the formation of migrant networks with family and community ties, while the politicization of these networks enables the formation of both hometown associations and transnational pan-ethnic organizations. An important focus of her analysis is gender differentiation within the ethnic community. There has been little research into the relationship between the process of collective agency and the reconstitution of the migrants’ ethnic identity. Mixtec Transnational Identity should stimulate further study of Latino migration to the U.S. border region and its consequences on ethnic identity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“a valuable resource for better understanding the political, ethnic, and sociological fabric of transnational communities and their interplay with America and Mexico as a whole”—Bookwatch

About the Author

Laura Velasco Ortiz is Professor-Researcher in the Cultural Studies Department at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, Mexico. Mixtec Transnational Identity was published in Mexico as El regreso de la communidad: Migración indígena y agentes étnicos—Los mixtecos en la frontera México-Estados Unidos. She is also co-author of Estudiar a la familia, comprender a la sociedad.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816523274
• ISBN-13: 978-0816523276
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,297,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and Necessary, April 30, 2009

By 

L. Falchi "lori falchi" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mixtec Transnational Identity (Hardcover)

Velasco's work has been one of the most compelling and needed in the area of Indigenous immigrants. She manages to discuss how Indigenous transnationals to work towards change, and, in doing so, she points to the need for examination of methodologies with respect to work within Indigenous communities. This work, skillfully written about with respect to Mixteco transnationals and other Indigenous immigrants from Mexico, is necessary. Her work as part of scholarship on Indigenous groups points to the fact that that many are community organizers; however, others Indigenous immigrants may strategically choose not to identify as such in order to avoid being tapped as a cheap source of labor. The economic and material benefits of being perceived as another group could mitigate against such cultural identity formation. Velasco argues that for Mixtec people this "ethnic identity" comes into play in migration. Her point is that this consciousness is related to movement across borders as transnationals. Her work poses questions about hegemony, especially as related to gender, within Indigenous communities formed strategically to enact social change. A thoughtful piece that deserves attention, this book is a wonderful resource for scholars and educators and activists who can learn much from the work on transnational identities.

5.0 out of 5 stars Examines in detail the emergence of transnational indigenous organizations & communities throughout the Mexico-U.S. border area, January 9, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mixtec Transnational Identity (Hardcover)

Mixtec Transnational Identity examines in detail the emergence of transnational indigenous organizations and communities throughout the Mexico-U.S. border area. Written with scholarly attention to detail by professor- researcher Laura Velasco Ortiz, Mixtec Transnational Identity covers such topics as the political construction of the transnational ethnic community, boundaries of gender and ethnicity within the community, and how policies of migration interplay with labor markets. Extensively researched and supported with both statistics and anecdotes, Mixtec Transnational Identity is a valuable resource for better understanding the political, ethnic, and sociological fabric of transnational communities and their interplay with America and Mexico as a whole.