eBook

Abrazando el espíritu

Rosas, Ana Elizabeth

2014

Overview

Structured to meet employers' needs for low-wage farm workers, the well-known Bracero Program recruited thousands of Mexicans to perform physical labor in the United States between 1942 and 1964 in exchange for remittances sent back to Mexico. As partners and family members were dispersed across national borders, interpersonal relationships were transformed. The prolonged absences of Mexican workers, mostly men, forced women and children at home to inhabit new roles, create new identities, and cope with long-distance communication from fathers, brothers, and sons. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, Ana Elizabeth Rosas uncovers a previously hidden history of transnational family life. Intimate and personal experiences are revealed to show how Mexican immigrants and their families were not passive victims but instead found ways to embrace the spirit (abrazando el espíritu) of making and implementing difficult decisions concerning their family situations—creating new forms of affection, gender roles, and economic survival strategies with long-term consequences.

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Subject: 20th century / 20th century american history / affection / american crossroads series / american immigration / bracero program / economic struggles / Emigration and immigration / Families / Families -- Mexico -- Social conditions -- 20th century / family / Family relationships / family situations / farm workers / farming / Foreign workers, Mexican / Foreign workers, Mexican -- Family relationships -- United States -- History -- 20th century / gender roles / HISTORY / HISTORY / Latin America / Mexico / HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY) / Immigrant families / Immigrant families -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century / immigration / interpersonal relationships / labor / labor history / Latin America / long distance communication / low wage farmers / mexican field workers / mexican immigrants / mexican workers / Mexicans / Mexicans -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century / Mexico / Mexico -- Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects / Migrant agricultural laborers / Migrant agricultural laborers -- Family relationships -- United States -- History -- 20th century / national borders / personal experiences / physical workers / political / remittances / Social aspects / Social conditions / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / Hispanic American Studies / Sociology / survival / transnational family life / United States / United States -- Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects / united states of america
• ISBN: 0520282671, 9780520282667, 9780520958654, 0520958659, 9780520282674, 0520282663