From El Bajío to the Nuevo New South: Ideations of Race through Transnational Migration

Though “settler colonialism” and even “immigration” have often been used to describe changes in one single geographical space, my project argues that the racial formation of migrants is neither unidirectional nor monolithic and causes significant changes within the sending community as well. Though Mexicans have distanced themselves from racial discussions by claiming that race is a US problem, my project suggests that the migration of Mexicans to and from the United States has exposed both Mexicans and US citizens to different understandings of race. Even Mexicans who did not migrate participated in a world of ideas across national boundaries. Specifically, my project investigates how migrants’ racial formations begin in Mexico and are contingent on the cultural histories of their communities of origin. I also examine how migrants’ racial identifications were negotiated after intersecting with others in North Carolina. We must pay special attention to state-level cultural policies that promote regional constructions of race, rather than assuming a racial identity based on nationality. This untold history of migration and racial formation reveals how Mexican communities actively have engaged with racial ideologies.

In terms of settler colonialism, I seem to borrow from Sanchez and Pita’s “Rethinking Settler Colonialism.” Though Mexicans have actively settled in North Carolina, and have in their migration caused subsequent waves of migration, my oral histories have shown that Mexicans never intended to permanently settle here. Rather, increased border militarization, especially in the 1990s (Operation Gatekeeper), as well as widespread border violence, have encouraged folks to remain in the United States – an unintended consequence, their lack of mobility has actually forced them to be more of a “settler” community than before. However, especially in North Carolina, these Mexicans (and an increasing community of Central American migrants) are criminalized because of their undocumented status and constitute a second-class citizenry.