(Re)creating Mexico in the US: How grandchildren of Mexican immigrants develop diasporic subjectivities

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: US Mexican subjectivities and diasporization are markedly different from European immigrants’ path toward assimilation. According to scholars, this difference is explained by the sustained flow of new immigrants replenishes the strength of community identification with Mexicanness. While continued immigration accounts for some aspects of how identity is maintained, such as Spanish language use, it does not account for other aspects of identity. In fact, US Mexican identity formation may be a different process entirely. As such, a better framework for understanding subjectivities among grandchildren of Mexican immigrants is that of the creation of diasporic subjectivities rather than identities that are slowly becoming more “American.” The US Mexicans I interviewed are invested in constructing a diasporic Mexicanness in the United States. This group attempts to bring closer that which is expected to be distant from them, and from which they are expected to feel alienated. In some ways, they successfully bridge temporal and spatial distances, but they cannot bridge all distances. Instead, they redefine what makes up categories of belonging, and they enact these alternative subjectivities through the terms they use to define themselves, their language practices, and the ways in which they bring their families’ past into the present.

Type of resource	text
Date created	[ca. May 6, 2018]

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/ty543wq4845

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Preferred Citation: Perez, Alicia Noel. (2018). (Re)creating Mexico in the US: How grandchildren of Mexican immigrants develop diasporic subjectivities. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/ty543wq4845

Stanford University, Program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Honors Theses

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