VANCOUVER – Luz María Gordillo, Ph.D., assistant professor of women’s studies at Washington State University Vancouver, has published a book on immigration, transnational communities and women’s studies through the University of Texas Press. “Mexican Women and the Other Side of Immigration: Engendering Transnational Ties” weaves personal narratives with history and an analysis of gender roles of Mexicans in the Midwest. The book traces the development of a unique community created as Mexican immigrants moved from the small western town of San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, Jalisco to Detroit, Michigan. Starting with the 1942 inception of the Bracero Program, a program designed for the importation of contract laborers from Mexico to the United States, Gordillo focuses on the concept of transnational and working-class experiences as Mexican immigrants recreated and adjusted to their changing environments in Detroit.
Families were often separated as Mexican men migrated to work in the United States, leaving their families behind. Gordillo’s findings indicate that while male family members lived abroad, many female San Ignacians shattered stereotypes and transgressed traditionally male roles. With the men away, many women were forced to become the heads of household and earn income for their families in Mexico. When the San Ignacian women eventually joined their husbands in Detroit, their experiences in their community of origin facilitated their adaptation.
Placed within the larger context of globalization, “Mexican Women and the Other Side of Immigration” is a timely excavation of oral histories and archival documents.
“My book is designed as a tool for understanding historical processes of U.S. and Mexican immigration. It emphasizes important links between our historical past and our current attitudes toward Mexican immigration to the United States. I hope and expect our society to come up with a humane solution to the present-day immigration challenges we’re encountering, rather than implementing Draconian policies, such as the ones recently passed in Arizona,” said Gordillo.
Gordillo’s book is part of the University of Texas Chicana Matters Series, which focuses on documenting the lives, values, philosophies and artistry of contemporary Chicanasworking-class Latinas from different walks of life. The books in the series represent the leading knowledge and scholarship in the growing field of research on the history, culture, art and activism of Chicanas.
Originally from Mexico City, Gordillo worked as a full-time professional photographer for several years in New York City while attending graduate school. Her doctoral work at Michigan State University focused on immigration and transnational gender studies. Gordillo lived in Detroit and San Ignacio for several months in order to conduct interviews, get archival data and take the documentary photographs that appear in the book and illustrate its cover.
Gordillo is already working on her second book, “Memoirs de una Wetback.” The book includes a series of short stories focused on the female immigrant experience juxtaposed with the history and implementation of immigration laws in the United States. Gordillo has presented and performed excerpts from the book at Willamette University, the University of California Davis and at WSU Vancouver through The Center for Social and Environmental Justice.
“I’m very excited about my second book. I am convinced that understanding the immigrant experience, along with legal processes that regulate immigration, will further the public’s understanding of a complex issue and thereby bring about positive social change. Writing is a fantastic tool for activism,” said Gordillo.