The Xaripu Community across Borders

Labor Migration, Community, and Family

Manuel Barajas

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780268022129, 9780268204822
• eBook ISBN: 9780268076245
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Discrimination & Race Relations
• Index: Social Sciences

During the past three decades there have been many studies of transnational migration. Most of the scholarship has focused on one side of the border, one area of labor incorporation, one generation of migrants, and one gender. In this path-breaking book, Manuel Barajas presents the first cross-national, comparative study to examine a Mexican-origin community's experience with international migration and transnationalism. He presents an extended case study of the Xaripu community, with home bases in both Xaripu, Michoacán, and Stockton, California, and elaborates how various forms of colonialism, institutional biases, and emergent forms of domination have shaped Xaripu labor migration, community formation, and family experiences across the Mexican/U.S. border for over a century.

Of special interest are Barajas's formal and informal interviews within the community, his examination of oral histories, and his participant observation in several locations. Barajas asks, What historical events have shaped the Xaripus' migration experiences? How have Xaripus been incorporated into the U.S. labor market? How have national inequalities affected their ability to form a community across borders? And how have migration, settlement, and employment experiences affected the family, especially gender relationships, on both sides of the border?

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

Labor Migration, Community, and Family across Borders

An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.

—Martin Luther King Jr. ([1963] 2003)

On December 16, 2005, the House of Representatives passed House Resolution 4437, which threatened to further militarize the southern border and criminalize as felons undocumented immigrants and those assisting them in any way (Nevins 2002, 61–62, 68–69, 74, 78). Like Martin Luther King a generation ago, the Roman Catholic cardinal Roger Mahony instructed his priests to disobey HR 4437 if it became law, arguing that “denying aid to a fellow human being violates a higher authority than Congress—the law of God” (Fetzer 2006, 698). In 2007, competing interests in the US Congress continued to debate the content of a national immigration act and revealed the historical contradictions of immigration policy, between capital and labor, economic structural demands and nativism, and the ideals of an open society and rigid border control (Calavita 1998; Carens 1998). In line with the historical trajectory of US immigration policymaking,¹ any likely compromise-based immigration act—with its emphasis on border security, exploitable and disposable guest workers, and a burdensome path to legalization—would keep immigrants of color marginalized from the economic and social center of US society for generations to come (Calavita 1998, 98).²

This book illustrates the long-term consequences of national borders on both the sending and the receiving societies. It presents an extended case study of the Xaripu community originating from Michoacán, Mexico, and elaborates how various forms of colonialism, institutional biases, and emergent forms of domination have shaped the community’s labor migration, community formation, and family experiences across the Mexican and US border for over a century. The Xaripu people generally constitute a transnational community with home bases in both Xaripu, Michoacán, and Stockton, California, and reflect a high level of transnationalism—that is, they feel at home in the two nations and maintain active and fluid social ties across borders. A total of fifty-six persons participated in the formal study on which this book is partly based: thirty-one in California and twenty-five in Michoacán (the concept of transnationalism and the methodology for this extended case study are elaborated in chapter 2).

Among the central questions guiding this book are the following: What historical events have shaped Xaripus’ migration experiences? How have Xaripus been incorporated into the US labor market? How have national inequalities affected their ability to form community across borders? And how have migration, settlement, and employment experiences affected the family, particularly gender relationships, on both sides of the border?

People from the pueblo of Xaripu began coming to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, but it took three generations of migrating before Xaripus began settling permanently in el norte (the United States). While US national policy had privileged Western European migration and settlement since the foundation of the United States (Ngai 2004; Bernard 1998), nonwhite colonial subjects were subordinated in both the US society and labor markets through racist policies, norms, and practices (Barrera 1979; Mirandé 1985; Glenn 2002).³ It was only after the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 ended racist quotas and allowed for family reunification that Xaripu migration changed from chiefly involving male laborers to entailing family migration and eventually settlement. This settlement produced a transnational experience for most Xaripus, though some are more active and comprehensively involved in the actual experience of crossing borders (e.g., communication, remittances, travel, social activities) than others.

In the past three decades there has been much interest in the transnational migration experiences of various groups,⁴ including Dominicans (Grasmuck and Pessar 1991), Filipinas/os (Parreñas 2001a), Indians (George 2000; Kurien 2003), Puerto Ricans (Toro-Morn and Alicea 2003), Salvadorans (Menjívar 2000; Mahler 1995), and persons of Mexican origin, who remain the most proximate and numerous immigrant population in the United States (Rouse 1992; Kearney and Nagengast 1989; Smith 2003; López 2007). While identifying the forces that dislocate migrants from their homelands and keep them from being fully incorporated into the receiving society (Espiritu 2003b; Parreñas 2001b), scholars often capture only part of the community experience and overlook the most politically and economically marginalized ones—i.e., the non-migrants who remain in the homeland.⁵ This absence of a comparative analysis of migrants and those they leave behind lessens our understanding of the full migration experience (Guarnizo and Smith 1999; Sarmiento 2002). Because the voices of immigrants or transnational subjects are privileged over those of non-migrants in the sending communities, the reality—that their dissimilar cultural and material contexts produce different experiences and at times distort their shared realities—is neglected.

Moreover, by focusing on one side of the border (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994; Torres 1998; Espiritu 2003b), one area of labor incorporation (agriculture) (Kearney 1996; Zavella 1987; López 2007), one generation of migrants (particularly older ones) (Massey et al. 1987; Rouse 1992, 1996), one gender (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994), or an essentialist or monolithic view of Mexican migrants (Massey et al. 2002; Portes and Rumbaut 2006), such scholarship offers a limited view of the labor migration and community formation experiences across borders. Thus this cross-national, comparative study of the Xaripu community builds upon these early efforts but attempts to offer a more critical and comprehensive understanding of labor migration, community formation, and family experiences across borders. Unlike in most labor migration studies, I emphasize how colonial domination continues as a social-historical phenomenon that has had a significant impact on the quality of life for Xaripus in both Mexico and the United States.⁶

To do so, I trace the Xaripu community’s century-long international migration and detail how it was initiated, how it has transformed, and how it continues to this day. By examining the particular history of the Xaripus I hope to shed light on the experiences of other communities that were similarly dislocated and transformed by social-historical colonial processes. Furthermore, by focusing on this specific community, I attempt to move away from essentialist hegemonic scholarship that homogenizes and erases differences by producing a falsely universal discourse of “Latinos” or “Hispanics” or “Mexicans,” which, in truth, obscures social inequities and diversity based on race, class, gender, and national histories.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK

After this introduction, chapter 2 reviews the scholarly frameworks through which labor migration is typically examined, focusing particularly on the structural (Bonacich and Cheng 1984; Frank 1978; Wallerstein 1974), transnational (Glick-Schiller et al. 1992b; Rouse 1992, 1996; Smith and Guarnizo 2003), and colonial (Blauner 1972, 2001; Barrera 1979)⁷ perspectives and offering a conceptual framework I call “interactive colonization” that synthesizes and advances their key concepts.⁸ The interactive colonization framework is derived from the social history of Xaripus and employed to understand their labor migration, community, and family experiences across borders. It aims to advance an understanding of their emergent social location between nations and other social structures, and the implications of this location for ending social inequalities rooted in colonialism. This theoretical model accounts for the overlapping forms of colonialism (internal, external, and new forms) and combines three central concepts of labor migration scholarship—colonization (the longue durée historical view; Braudel 1980, 25–34),⁹ dialectics, and social interaction—to provide a comprehensive, historically grounded, and dynamic understanding of labor migration experiences in the modern world.

The concept of colonization provides the necessary historical context for understanding modern global migration and social relationships, since descendants of the colonized continue to experience economic, racial/ethnic, and gender subjugation and geographic dislocations.¹⁰ The resulting dialectical relations—unequal and exploitative power relationships—create conflict and change in the social interactions that subsequently produce new individual and collective identities. To help illuminate the dynamics of these new identities I employ the Indigenous Nahuatl concept of nepantla—a state of being in-between or hybridity—because it captures the collective identity that emerges from being within conflicting material and cultural contexts (León-Portilla 1990, 10; Guarnizo and Smith 2003, 23). Thus the role that those who occupy the nepantla position play in advancing or impeding social justice becomes a central issue of analysis in this chapter.¹¹ The distinction between structural (collective and enduring experience) and situational (individual and temporary level) inbetweenness is important. In the former type, social categories of in-between collectivities—e.g., middle class, mestizas/os,¹² and transnational community—create distinct experiences shaped by collective and shared institutional experiences. Historically, trends show that emergent collective nepantlas develop interests distinct from those at the top and those at the bottom. In contrast, at the more individual level, a person’s agency and pragmatism work within the existing social hierarchies, and an individual may pursue or be given unique possibilities (token positions) in relationship to those with structured advantages along race, class, gender, and nationality. This individual intermediary position—e.g., contractor, administrator, spokesperson—is predicated on reproducing the status quo and can be terminated if this role is not followed.

Chapter 3 provides a social-historical context for the Xaripu labor migration experiences. Xaripu as a pueblo traces its origins to the Purépechan Empire, and its people’s labor migration has occurred within the context of various colonialisms (Fonseca and Moreno 1984; Moreno García 1994). Fifteenth-century European colonialism appropriated Indigenous land and labor (Cockcroft 1998; Keen 1994) and created the first labor migratory movements among Indigenous people in the Michoacán region (Bravo Ugarte 1960). This domination was facilitated by in-between criollos/mestizas(os),¹³ who emerged as brokers and/or rivals for the conquering groups.

After Mexican Independence (1821), criollo hacendados gained power over the land and continued the suppression of Indigenous communities with the help of guardias blancas (hired security). Many of the guardias were mestizos—the emerging mixed-race class that would later be favored over more Indigenous communities in the agrarian reforms before and after the 1910 Mexican Revolution (Cockroft 1998; De Bernal 1969; Purnell 1999). Indigenous people were continuously dislocated and forced to migrate even into the twentieth century, particularly after the US-Mexican War and the rise of the US-backed dictator Porfirio Díaz (1876–1910). During this period, the dictator secured Mexico’s neocolonial position in the emergent global hierarchy by opening its most valuable resources (mines, petroleum, and railroads) to foreign domination. The overlapping colonialisms of internal-colonial and neocolonial relations created the conditions for the revolution. It was also a major catalyst for international migration.

Around this time Mexican hacienda elites, in association with foreign capitalists, expanded their landholdings by dislocating Indigenous and mestiza/o communities from their lands and converting their populations to migrant wage workers in extractive enterprises producing for export (Moreno García 1994; Fonseca and Moreno 1984; Gonzalez and Fernandez 2003). The construction of the Moreno Railroad Station near Xaripu in 1900 further encouraged Xaripus to begin migrating to the United States. This migration was formalized with the first US-Mexican guest-worker program of 1917–21, which recruited Mexican men to the expanding US agriculture, mining, and steel industries (Barrera 1979; Gómez-Quiñones 1994). Xaripu migration continued to be a largely male reality through the Bracero Program of 1942–64¹⁴ but was ultimately transformed by the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, after which entire families began to migrate north. Although seeking economic improvement in the United States, Xaripus remained occupationally stratified, devalued, and without access to labor protections.

Chapter 4 examines the relationship between racialized work and labor conditions, revealing the logic of colonialism in modern labor relations. I identify three racialized work settings—Mexicanized, diversified, and Whitened—that represent the differing workforce compositions and labor conditions Xaripu migrants experience. The concept of “Mexicanization”¹⁵ describes how wages and working conditions decline as the workplace’s labor force becomes increasingly Mexican. Mexican immigrants do not themselves deteriorate the labor conditions; rather, employers devalue Mexican workers and thus decrease both the pay and the quality of the working conditions. Thus, Xaripus did not enter such workplaces as low-cost labor but rather were reduced in value once they were on site. In other words, Mexican labor is not cheap but cheapened (devalued), illustrating the continued logic of colonialism—which, I argue, entrenches and universalizes the racial, gender, and class hierarchies that continue to this date (see also chapter 2).

This labor subordination is facilitated by in-between individuals (e.g., contractors, supervisors, political administrators, etc.), who become brokers and manage the appropriation of surplus value (profit) from those at the bottom. This emergent segment has historically been crucial in the ultimate domination of the colonized. Hence, in the extreme stages of Mexicanization, Mexican supervisors are appointed to manage and supervise the super-exploitation of those at the bottom, thus giving the impression that the employers are fair (“color-blind”) and that Mexicans themselves are the ones who keep themselves down—a belief that is often internalized and expressed via the comment uno mismo se baja (We keep ourselves down).

This chapter also analyzes the relationship between the racialization of the workplace and labor conditions in two sections: “Colonial Labor in the Fields” and “Out of the Fields.” In the United States, thanks to immigration policy, housing segregation, labor market opportunities, and class segmentation, older Xaripus generally remained working in farm labor throughout their lives. Many of their children and grandchildren, however, searched for economic opportunities outside of the fields, particularly at the time of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While their economic opportunities improved out of the fields in comparison to their elders’ experiences, their labor experiences also reveal colonial hierarchies—occupational segregation in the service and deskilled sectors and class segmentation within occupations (Barrera 1979; Segura 1990; Glenn 2002).

Chapter 5 explores how haciendo comunidad (building community) across borders works as a strategy by which Xaripus reclaim a fuller humanity. Xaripus’ unequal integration as full and equal members of US society keeps many of them oriented toward the homeland even in the twenty-first century (see also Espiritu 2003b). This chapter explores three interrelated concepts in building community across borders: convivencia, nepantla, and empowerment. Convivencia (affective and egalitarian social interaction) allows Xaripus to construct community on both sides of the border via informal and formal gatherings during las buenas y las malas (good and bad times). However, the different experiences between two unequal nations shapes their nepantla position for Xaripu norteñas/os.¹⁶ Social inequalities and nativist sentiments toward nonwhites in the United States (e.g., anti-immigrant, anti-diversity, and anti-bilingual policies in California) create a hostile climate that contributes to their particular nepantla. For instance, while young Xaripus reject a one-way assimilation (i.e., conformity with Anglo culture) and seek to reproduce their cultural community in the United States, they have nonetheless undergone material and cultural changes that differentiate them from non-migrants in Mexico.

This social differentiation created by national inequalities becomes a unique source of tension and conflict between transnational Xaripus and non-migrants who remain in Michoacán. While there is evident interest in forming community across borders among transnational and nonmigrant Xaripus, social inequalities rooted in national inequities and hierarchies (political, economic, and cultural) strain their relationships.

Today, Xaripus who are able to maintain a fluid and constant movement across the border are generally better off than those who cannot. They are relatively wealthier than non-migrant relatives in both California and Michoacán, and form an emergent in-between group that constructs, to the best of its abilities, a better future for its members. How should this group that exists between unequal power structures relate to those who are advantaged and those who are disadvantaged by an existing social order of privileges (Whiteness, economic hierarchies, and patriarchy) rooted and/or universalized in colonialism? Before pursuing this question in th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction: Labor Migration, Community, and Family across Borders
• 2. Theoretical Perspectives on Labor Migration
• 3. A Social-Historical Context of Xaripu’s Land Displacement and Labor Migration Experience
• 4. The Logic of Colonialism in Modern Labor Relations
• 5. Haciendo Comunidad across Borders
• 6. The Family across Borders: Exploring Gaps in Perception and Practice of Gender Empowerment
• 7. A Pueblo’s Search for Empowerment across Borders
• Appendix
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index