Divided by Borders
Divided by Borders
MEXICAN MIGRANTS AND
THEIR CHILDREN
JOANNA DREBY
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2010 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dreby, Joanna, 1976–
Divided by borders : Mexican migrants and their children/
Joanna Dreby.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-26660-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-520-26090-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mexico—Emigration and immigration. 2. Mexicans—Family
relationships—United States—Case studies. 3. Emigrant
remittances—Mexico. 4. Households—Mexico. 5. Marital conflict—
Case studies. 6. Parent and child—Case studies. I. Title.
JV7402.D74 2010
306.874—dc22 200901865
Manufactured in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% post consumer waste, recycled, de-inked fiber. FSC recycled certified and processed chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certified, and manufactured by BioGas energy.
Dedico este libro a
Cristian y Raúl Mariscal
(quienes se encuentran en los dos lados de la frontera)
Contents
Preface: Ordinary Families, Extraordinary Families
Acknowledgments/Agradecimientos
2. Ofelia and Germán Cruz: Migrant Time versus Child Time
3. Gender and Parenting from Afar
4. Armando López on Fatherhood
5. Children and Power during Separation
7. Cindy Rodríguez between Two Worlds
Appendix B: Family Descriptions
Preface
ORDINARY FAMILIES,
EXTRAORDINARY FAMILIES
Mexican families divided by borders are both ordinary and extraordinary. Parents who live in the United States while their children remain in Mexico experience many of the difficulties faced by all families in meeting productive and consumptive needs. Family members struggle to balance pressures at work with those at home. Gender and generation battles are common. Men and women negotiate the division of labor. Parents and children negotiate authority. In this sense, this book is about rather ordinary tensions in families.
At the same time, migrant parents and their children live in vastly different environments. Parents live hurried lives, struggling to work hard, economize, and send much of their money back to children in Mexico. For them, the joys of life are found in Mexico. Children live in places where everyday consumption depends upon remittances from parents and other migrants. Contributions from el norte [the north] permeate their daily lives, and many children think that when the time is right, they too will end up migrating for work. Divided by borders and by the lifestyle differences involved in such separations, Mexican migrants and their children find ways to make their relationships with each other meaningful. These efforts are not easy. The difficulties parents and children endure make their stories both remarkable and unique.
Indeed, the stories in this book skip along a fine line between the extraordinary and the ordinary. Within the chapters that follow, I describe the social conditions that make it hard for parents to provide for their children in Mexico and spur their migration to the United States. I offer explanations for why some women and men make the heart-wrenching decision to leave their children behind. I discuss how their social status as transnational migrants shapes families’ experiences.
Yet I also tell stories about fairly typical relationships between men, women, and children. Mothers anguish over their decisions to work. Fathers feel pressured to provide economically for their children.
