Migrant Longing: Letter Writing across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (The David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History) - Softcover

Chávez-García

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1469641038 ISBN 13: 9781469641034

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018

Synopsis

Drawing upon a personal collection of more than 300 letters exchanged between her parents and other family members across the U.S.-Mexico border, Miroslava Chavez-Garcia recreates and gives meaning to the hope, fear, and longing migrants experienced in their everyday lives both "here" and "there" (aqui y alla). As private sources of communication hidden from public consumption and historical research, the letters provide a rare glimpse into the deeply emotional, personal, and social lives of ordinary Mexican men and women as recorded in their immediate, firsthand accounts. Chavez-Garcia demonstrates not only how migrants struggled to maintain their sense of humanity in el norte but also how those remaining at home made sense of their changing identities in response to the loss of loved ones who sometimes left for weeks, months, or years at a time, or simply never returned.

With this richly detailed account, ranging from the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s to the emergence of Silicon Valley in the late 1960s, Chavez-Garcia opens a new window onto the social, economic, political, and cultural developments of the day and recovers the human agency of much maligned migrants in our society today.

About this title

About the Author

Miroslava Chavez-Garcia is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Review

In mapping her family's journeys across and between Mexico and California, Chavez-Garcia argues that this rich archive of letters not only offers a window into the sweeping social, political, and economic changes wrought in Mexico in the mid-twentieth century, but also offers insight into the lives so deeply affected by those changes."—Monica Perales, University of Houston
By giving us this glance into the private lives of migrants and their families, Chavez-Garcia teaches us a great deal about the linkage of intimacy and the search for work and family solidarity across borders."—Donna Gabaccia, University of Toronto
In this compelling narrative, Chavez-Garcia deftly situates her family's letters within the bigger picture of U.S.-Mexico border history. The way she is really able to 'see' her parents as historical actors and characterize them in honest and critical ways is beautifully done."—Lori Flores, Stony Brook University

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1469641038
• ISBN 13: 9781469641034
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 278