Mexican Immigration to the U.S.

Alexander Monto looks at how labor migration flows from Mexico to the United States are directed and structured, and what changes they bring in the sending and receiving communities. He places cyclical migration in the context of historical and economic developments in Mexico and the United States, and he concludes that the circulatory movement is an element in the well-established world economic system that has endured for a hundred years.

In one of the hottest, loneliest spots on earth, John Annerino hooked up with four Mexican nationals determined to cross the border illegally. Their choice was simple: risk their lives crossing the desert for a poorly paid job in El Norte or stay in Mexico and watch their families starve. Annerino and his companions would have died in that vast, unforgiving land had they not shared the water they had and helped one another with the encouragement that seemed pointless at the time. Dead in Their Tracks is the true story of a desperate human struggle in a bleak, beautiful wilderness.

In the small village of Napizaro, on the border of Mexico & Southern California, local peasants have learned to operate in two worlds to survive: they participate in the global capitalist economy by sending migrants to the United States in order to succeed as small-holding farmers. But as marginalized workers in a segmented labor force, they are unable to secure a full livelihood in the United States; thus they must retain the links to their agrarian roots, including retaining right to ejidal property. Casa De Mis Suenos is an exploration of conflict between the ideals of home, centered on community & family in Mexico, & the need to earn a living, which entails long sojourns in the United States. Despite the apparent ease with which Mexican natives move across borders, participation in international labor markets necessitates dividing the community. It also calls into question the notions of village, house-hold, nation-state, & self, which have lost their descriptive power in the context of transnational capitalism. The book is more than an engaging account of the realities which pervade one small village-it's an examination of the politics, poverty, wealth, & social & economic changes with affect the entire Mexico/ Southern California border today.