Words of Passage: National Longing and the Imagined Lives of Mexican Migrants

312 Pages·2018·6.157 MB·English

by  Hilary Parsons Dick

Words of Passage
DDiicckk__66997711--ffiinnaall..iinnddbb ii 1122//1122//1177 1122::0088 PPMM
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Words of Passage
National Longing and the
Imagined Lives of Mexican Migrants
Hilary Parsons Dick
University of Texas Press Austin
DDiicckk__66997711--ffiinnaall..iinnddbb iiiiii 1122//1122//1177 1122::0088 PPMM
Cover: Reprinted from It’s a Long Road to Comondú: Mexican Adventures since 1928
by Everett Gee Jackson by permission of the Texas A&M University Press.
Copyright © 2018 by University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2018
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713–7819
utpress.utexas.edu/rp-form
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dick, Hilary Parsons, author.
Title: Words of passage : national longing and the imagined lives of Mexican
migrants / Hilary Parsons Dick.
Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2018. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031820
ISBN 978-1-4773-1401-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4773-1402-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4773-1403-6 (library e-book)
ISBN 978-1-4773-1404-3 (non-library e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Mexico—Emigration and immigration. | Mexico—Emigration
and immigration—Social aspects. | Uriangato (Mexico)—Emigration and
immigration. | Mexicans—Migrations.
Classification: LCC JV7401 .D53 2018 | DDC 305.868/72073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031820
doi:10.7560/314012
00A-Dick_6971-FM_Reprint_CIP.indd 4 1/4/18 10:07 AM
For my grandparents Laura, Mac, James, and Geneva:
Through you, I have been able to see this world
DDiicckk__66997711--ffiinnaall..iinnddbb vv 1122//1122//1177 1122::0088 PPMM
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Technical Note: Methodology and Methods xv
Introduction. Words of Passage: Imagined Lives,
Migration Discourse, and National Belonging 1
1. So Far from God: State-Endorsed Imaginaries of Moral Mobility
in Mexico 38
2. Private Eyes, Good Girls: Authoritative Accounts and the
Social Life of Interviewing 78
3. Diaspora at Home: Homebuilding and the Failures of
Progress 115
4. Possibility and Perdition: Discursive Interaction and
Ethico-moral Practice in Traditionalist Talk of Migration 145
5. Saints and Suffering: Critical Appeal in Relationships
with the Divine Beyond 186
Conclusion. Worlds of Passage: Moral Mobility in
Global Context 226
Notes 239
Bibliography 245
Index 269
DDiicckk__66997711--ffiinnaall..iinnddbb vviiii 1122//1122//1177 1122::0088 PPMM
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Acknowledgments
This is a book of journeys, including my own from a September over
two decades ago when I began work on my PhD to the completion of
this book—these words of passage. At this journey’s beginning I was
unsure if I—a child not of scholars, but of blue-collar laborers, home-
makers, government workers, and businessmen—would even complete
the degree, let alone realize the career that I have been blessed so far
to have. I have accumulated debts, in some ways immeasurable, for the
generosity that has been shown to me as I picked my way carefully from
then to now. But, even so, thanks are to be given.
My fi rst thanks go, as ever, to the families whose lives are at the cen-
ter of this book. Without their care, their gift of time and words, there
would be no book, no journey of which to tell. A ustedes les doy todas
las gracias por su apoyo, cariño y ayuda. Though I must use pseudonyms
for many of the people who helped me in my research, I acknowledge
the friends I met on both sides of the border, particularly Luis Castro,
Sahara Lou Grande Ferrer, Carlos Guzmán, Manuel Lombera, Elaine
Marnel, Juan Carlos Navarro, Loretta Perna, Howard Porter, Gui-
llermo Rivera, Sister Jane and Father Frank, the families of La Vista
Linda, Linda and family, Marisol and family, and all the people referred
to in this book, especially Elena and her family and my host family in
Uriangato. In their fervent striving I found echoed the passion, sto-
icism, wit, compassion, and hard work of the laborers in my family: peo-
ple who taught me that it is not only migrants who can be displaced
from the lives that they feel compelled to lead but many, many people
who never leave home.
The fi eld research upon which this book is based was generously
funded by a Fulbright–García Robles grant and by two Mellon Founda-
ix
DDiicckk__66997711--ffiinnaall..iinnddbb iixx 1122//1122//1177 1122::0088 PPMM