Bibliograph

Girlhood in the borderlands, Mexican teens caught in the crossroads of migration, Lilia Soto

Type

Label

Girlhood in the borderlands, Mexican teens caught in the crossroads of migration, Lilia Soto

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-239) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Girlhood in the borderlands

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1007088617

Responsibility statement

Lilia Soto

Series statement

Nation of nations: immigrant history as American history

Sub title

Mexican teens caught in the crossroads of migration

Summary

This book examines the lived experiences of Mexican teenage girls raised in transnational families and the varied ways they make meaning of their lives. Under the Bracero Program and similar recruitment programs, Mexican men have for decades been recruited for temporary work in the U.S., leaving their families for long periods of time to labor in the fields, factories, and service industry before returning home again. While the conditions for these adults who cross the border for work has been extensively documented, very little attention has been paid to the lives of those left behind. Over a six-year period, Lilia Soto interviewed more than sixty teenage girls in Napa, California and Zinapécuaro, Michoacán to reveal the ruptures and continuities felt for the girls surrounded by the movement of families, ideas, and social practices across borders. As they develop their subjective selves, these Mexican teens find commonality in their fathers' absence and the historical, structural, and economic conditions that led to their movement. Tied to the ways U.S. immigration policies dictate the migrant experiences of fathers and the traditional structure of their families, many girls develop a sense of time-lag, where they struggle to plan for a present or a future. In Girlhood in the Borderlands, Soto highlights the "structure of feeling" that girls from Zinapécuaro and Napa share, offering insight into the affective consequences of growing up at these social and geographic intersections

Table Of Contents

Introduction -- The why of transnational familial formations -- Growing up transnational : Mexican teenage girls and their transnational familial arrangements -- Muchachas Michoacanas : portraits of teenage girls in a migratory town -- Migration marks : time, waiting, and desires for migration -- The telling moment : pre-crossings of Mexican teenage girls and their journeys to the border -- Imaginaries and realities : encountering the Napa Valley -- Conclusion

Classification