Abstract
In a growing literature on transnational migration, Alfredo Mirandé’s book Jalos, USA: Transnational Community and Identity adds a rich portrait of a migrant community, stretched between the hometown of Jalos, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, and its primary destination of Turlock, in the Central Valley of California. Building on seminal contributions to the study of transnationalism, such as the work of Peggy Levitt (2001) and Robert Smith (2006), Mirandé uses in-depth interviews and focus groups to portray in detail the workings of a transnational community, including religious festivals and traditions, gender interactions in daily life, the ways people maintain a shared identity across borders, and the ways they adapt to the United States, across generations.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is its accessible presentation of migrants’ firsthand accounts, incorporating data from both the hometown and its migrants in the United States. Mirandé uses a combination of participant observation, in-depth interviews on both sides of the border with a range of respondents, focus groups with youth in both sites, and interviews with youth and service providers to paint a picture—from the members’ points of view—of life in this transnational community. The result is a vivid image of cultural traditions, gender practices, and hometown pride, showing how members perceive migration and how the two sides of the border compare. Mirandé is particularly effective in using respondents’ voices to illuminate the views members hold about the relationships between their hometown of Jalos, Mexico and their destination in Turlock, California. By presenting a series of extended individual portraits, he also illustrates the nuance and variations that exist within the broader community.
Mirandé’s most fertile empirical material surrounds the production of transnational identity, the role of religion in supporting migrant transnationalism, and the ways both transnationalism and religion support integration into the United States. In Chapter One, he describes the religious festivals in Jalos and Turlock and considers how the practice of popular religion helps current and former residents of Jalos cultivate a shared, cross-border identity. He returns to this theme in the last two chapters, highlighting the role of a local martyr named Toribio Romo, whom the people of Jalos see as a patron saint. For them, Romo serves as a “Holy Coyote,” transcending the border between the United States and Mexico and watching over migrants in their journeys. The icon, Mirandé argues, gives migrants a subversive strategy to challenge the master narrative depicting them as “illegals” and reframe themselves as worthy of protection. Mirandé closes by contending that Jalos migrants’ transnational identity and pride have promoted their success in the United States. He argues that, despite barriers, the migrants’ religion, history of cyclical migration, pride in their roots, and strong work ethic encourage them to identify with Jalos. In turn, these religious and social networks—in combination with job skills and the privilege of having lighter skin than most Mexicans—promote their labor market success.
In the middle sections of the book, Mirandé also paints a picture of how gender and courtship have changed in the context of migration and how those living in the United States both identify with Jalos and begin to integrate into U.S. culture. He looks at questions of gender in Chapters Two and Three, comparing Jalos and Turlock to illustrate the shifts in courtship and marriage, from the old rituals of walking the town square to the new generation—and from past to present ideas of gender roles and masculinity. Chapter Four and Five, in turn, describe how, while the first generation of migrants from Jalos has an attitude that el que quiere puede (those who try will succeed), they see younger generations as less motivated. Mirandé goes on to write about how migrants feel their practices of language, cultural values, and childrearing have changed upon moving to the United States, concluding that for many, life feels safer and healthier here.
While the book gives us a vivid portrait of people’s attitudes and lives within the community, it lacks a thorough account of the political and structural context within which migration between Jalos and Turlock takes place. Given how deeply undocumented status pervades daily life for Mexican migrants, Mirandé is surprisingly silent on the implications of “illegality,” policing, or repressive U.S. immigration enforcement (other than brief mentions at the start and end of the book)—even if his respondents do have legal status. Likewise, we see little of members’ lives at work, or the economy that keeps them marginal and/or enables them to make a life for themselves. Such context could also have helped provide greater theoretical depth in terms of race and gender. As it stands, Mirandé’s chapters on gender affirm longstanding theories that moving to the United States threatens men’s masculinity while offering women opportunities for greater autonomy in the household (e.g., Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994). Yet, Mirandé does not address how the relationship between gender and migration may be shaped by the changing gender dynamics in Mexico or the intersection of gender with exploitation, race, and “illegality” in particular U.S. locales (Andrews 2014; Schmalzbauer 2014). Likewise, while Mirandé makes admirable efforts to bring race into dialogue with migration, he might have drawn more on a growing literature about migration and racialization to highlight how racialization coincides with legal status and local context, shaping migrants’ economic and social prospects on both sides of the border (e.g., de Genova 2004; Jiménez 2009; Holmes 2013).
Thus, while the book provides a solid empirical case confirming theories of migrant transnationalism and the complementarity between transnational identity and assimilation, at times it falls short theoretically. While Mirandé raises key themes of religion, gender, and race, without more information about the structural context it is hard to extend these findings to other places and groups. Indeed, while Mirandé highlights transnational identity, particularly in the realm of religion, in other realms he sometimes falls short. For instance, although he opens by rejecting the theoretical focus on assimilation, he still frames some of his analysis in terms of whether and how migrants are “adapting” to the United States economically, culturally, and in terms of gender. Likewise, while he notes that life in Mexico is also dynamic, Mirandé still compares gender relations on the U.S. side to those “back” in Mexico and closes the book with the notion that life is better for those who have come to the United States, implicitly repeating frameworks in which the United States—in contrast to Mexico—is the site of possibility and change.
In sum, Jalos, USA offers a vivid read for anyone interested in transnational identity, religion, and cross-border migrant life, illustrating the day-to-day experiences and social relations of a transnational community and adding empirical meat to existing theories of migrant transnationalism. Yet, as with many works, the book’s greatest strength is its greatest weakness: relying heavily on respondents’ voices, Mirandé often stays within their world and terms, leaving readers with less information about the broader structural context that shapes their attitudes and lives.