Preface  ix

Acknowledgments  xv

Introduction. The Mexican Diaspora in the United States  1

1. Crossings  25

2. Migrations  55

3. The Working Poor  89

4. Migrant Family Formations  123

5. The Divided Home  157

6. Transnational Cultural Memory  190

Epilogue  226

Appendix. Research Participants  233

Notes  239

References  281

Index  319

“Patricia Zavella’s timely I’m Neither Here Nor There: Mexicans’ Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty (2011) serves as an example of a broadly accessible approach to the study of the working poor. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in central California, Zavella analyses the daily challenges encountered by Santa Cruz County’s Mexican migrants
and Mexican Americans, with an eye towards issues of family, gender, sexuality and legal status.” —Angela S. García, Ethnic and Racial Studies

“The breadth of Patricia Zavella’s I’m Neither Here Nor There: Mexicans’
Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty is staggering.... It is undeniable that Zavella is a rigorous, experienced, and sophisticated
ethnographer who has made a monumental and original contribution
with I’m Neither Here Nor There.... [It] amplifies the words of marginalized people who ‘cannot shout’ (p. xii) yet justifiably “feel entitled to dignity in exchange for their labor” (p. xi).”—Chad Broughton, American Journal of Sociology

“Zavella’s book is an important read for scholars of migration, transnationalism, citizenship, and political economy, as well as those whose work engages gender, sexuality and race. While set in the US, Zavella’s conceptual frame and analysis can be a useful tool for Canadian scholars, particularly those working in the areas of migrant integration, immigration status and radicalized poverty.” —Paloma E. Villegas, Labour/Le Travail

“I’m Neither Here nor There is a compelling examination of structures of difference, of becoming and belonging, and of forms of border thinking that map spatio-conceptual cosmos and the human integuments that hold them together through ‘transcommunal subjectivity.’... If only every book were as intellectually productive, ethically inspiring, and politically compelling.” —Scott Catey, North American Dialogues

“Zavella’s ethnography humanizes migration, particularly its roots in economic hardship and the gendered dimensions of how migrants live, feel, and struggle in such processes, in the best of the ethnographic tradition. As a study of a marginalized group that draws on marginalized scholarship, I’m Neither Here Nor There is a significant contribution to anthropology, Latin@ studies, Latin American studies, ethnic studies, the scholarship of migration, and a welcome contribution to the undergraduate and graduate classroom.”—Gilberto Rosas, Journal of Anthropological Research

“Patricia Zavella’s book, I’m Neither Here nor There, is a valuable contribution to the studies about Mexican migration to the USA, particularly for the way that she innovatively examines immigrant assimilation through her theory of peripheral vision.”—Jennifer R. Najera, Journal of Intercultural Studies

“Patricia Zavella’s timely I’m Neither Here Nor There: Mexicans’ Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty (2011) serves as an example of a broadly accessible approach to the study of the working poor. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in central California, Zavella analyses the daily challenges encountered by Santa Cruz County’s Mexican migrants
and Mexican Americans, with an eye towards issues of family, gender, sexuality and legal status.” —Angela S. García, Ethnic and Racial Studies

“The breadth of Patricia Zavella’s I’m Neither Here Nor There: Mexicans’
Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty is staggering.... It is undeniable that Zavella is a rigorous, experienced, and sophisticated
ethnographer who has made a monumental and original contribution
with I’m Neither Here Nor There.... [It] amplifies the words of marginalized people who ‘cannot shout’ (p. xii) yet justifiably “feel entitled to dignity in exchange for their labor” (p. xi).”—Chad Broughton, American Journal of Sociology

“Zavella’s book is an important read for scholars of migration, transnationalism, citizenship, and political economy, as well as those whose work engages gender, sexuality and race. While set in the US, Zavella’s conceptual frame and analysis can be a useful tool for Canadian scholars, particularly those working in the areas of migrant integration, immigration status and radicalized poverty.” —Paloma E. Villegas, Labour/Le Travail

“I’m Neither Here nor There is a compelling examination of structures of difference, of becoming and belonging, and of forms of border thinking that map spatio-conceptual cosmos and the human integuments that hold them together through ‘transcommunal subjectivity.’... If only every book were as intellectually productive, ethically inspiring, and politically compelling.” —Scott Catey, North American Dialogues

“Zavella’s ethnography humanizes migration, particularly its roots in economic hardship and the gendered dimensions of how migrants live, feel, and struggle in such processes, in the best of the ethnographic tradition. As a study of a marginalized group that draws on marginalized scholarship, I’m Neither Here Nor There is a significant contribution to anthropology, Latin@ studies, Latin American studies, ethnic studies, the scholarship of migration, and a welcome contribution to the undergraduate and graduate classroom.”—Gilberto Rosas, Journal of Anthropological Research

“Patricia Zavella’s book, I’m Neither Here nor There, is a valuable contribution to the studies about Mexican migration to the USA, particularly for the way that she innovatively examines immigrant assimilation through her theory of peripheral vision.”—Jennifer R. Najera, Journal of Intercultural Studies

“This is the way ethnography should be written: with stories that entice, analysis that dazzles, and just the right mix of humor, music, and in-your-face dignidad. Border and migration studies will never be the same after Patricia Zavella’s impassioned new book, I’m Neither Here nor There.”—Matthew Gutmann, Brown University

“I’m Neither Here nor There is a powerful, highly original ethnography about the complexities of the Mexican migrant and Mexican American population in the United States. By drawing primarily on work by scholars of color about people of color, Patricia Zavella decenters staid ways of understanding immigration, such as assimilation and the underclass models. Her use of the concepts of peripheral vision, double vision, and border thinking are particularly effective, as is her political-economic analysis of capitalism and neoliberalism in Santa Cruz County, California, and the poverty and challenges that they create for the area’s working poor.”—Lynn Stephen, author of Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California, and Oregon

“Among the most original and important contributions of I’m Neither Here nor There are: its focus on one California region, which helps us to see that migrants do not come to an undifferentiated ‘United States,’ but rather to specific locations with distinct regional economic and social dynamics; its sensitivity to gender and sexuality as key sites where social change gets registered in the lives of individuals; and its brilliant discussions of the popular music of Los Tigres del Norte, Quetzal, and Lila Downs as repositories of collective memory, sites of moral instruction, and mechanisms for calling old and new communities into being through performance. Patricia Zavella also makes clear the causes and consequences of residential density and overcrowding in immigrant communities, surely one of the most important but least understood features of contemporary immigrant life. I’m Neither Here nor There is an outstanding work that will be welcomed by specialists as well as general readers. It makes unique and valuable contributions to scholarship and civic life and presents an exemplary model of sophisticated and socially engaged research.”—George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place

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