Synopses & Reviews
"Without a doubt, Tomand#225;s Jimand#233;nez has written the single most important contemporary academic study on Mexican American assimilation. Clear-headed, crisply written, and free of ideological bias,
Replenished Ethnicity is an extraordinary breakthrough in our understanding of the largest immigrant group in the history of the United States. Bravo!"and#151;Gregory Rodriguez, author of
Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America"Tomand#225;s Jimand#233;nez's Replenished Ethnicity brilliantly navigates between the two opposing perils in the study of Mexican Americansand#151;pessimistically overracializing them or optimistically overassimilating them. This much-needed and gracefully written book illuminates the on-the-ground situations of the later generations of this key American group, insightfully identifying and analyzing the unique factor operating in its case: more or less continuous immigration for more than a century. Jimand#233;nez's work provides a landmark for all future studies of Latin American incorporation into U.S. society."and#151;Richard Alba, author of Remaking the American Mainstream
"Tomand#225;s Jimand#233;nez's study adds a much-needed but long absent element to our understanding of how immigration contributes to the construction and reproduction of Mexican American ethnicity even as it continuously evolves. His work provides useful and needed detail that are absent even from the most reliable surveys."and#151;Rodolfo de la Garza, Columbia University
and#147;In a masterful piece of social science, Tomand#225;s Jimand#233;nez debunks allegations about slow social and cultural assimilation of Mexican Americans through a richly textured ethnographic account of Mexican Americans' lived experiences in two communities with distinct immigration experiences. Population replenishment via immigration, he claims, maintains distinctiveness of established Mexican origin generations via infusion of cultural elixir-in varying doses over time and place. Ironically, it is the vast heterogeneity of Mexican Americans-generational depth, socioeconomic, national origin and legal-that both contributes to the population's ethnic uniqueness and yet defies singular theoretical frameworks. Jimand#233;nez's page-turner uses the Mexican American ethnic prism to re-interpret the U.S. ethnic tapestry and revise the canonical view of assimilation. Replenished Ethnicity sets a high bar for second generation scholarship about Mexican Americans.and#147;and#151;Marta Tienda, The Office of Population Research at Princeton University
Review
and#8220;Convincing and well documented. . . . A significant addition to assimilation theory.and#8221;
Synopsis
Unlike the wave of immigration that came through Ellis Island and then subsided, immigration to the United States from Mexico has been virtually uninterrupted for one hundred years. In this vividly detailed book, Tomand#225;s R. Jimand#233;nez takes us into the lives of later-generation descendents of Mexican immigrants, asking for the first time how this constant influx of immigrants from their ethnic homeland has shaped their assimilation. His nuanced investigation of this complex and little-studied phenomenon finds that continuous immigration has resulted in a vibrant ethnicity that later-generation Mexican Americans describe as both costly and beneficial. Replenished Ethnicity sheds new light on America's largest ethnic group, making it must reading for anyone interested in how immigration is changing the United States.
Synopsis
Drawing on more than fifteen years of research,
Mexican New York offers an intimate view of globalization as it is lived by Mexican immigrants and their children in New York and in Mexico. Robert Courtney Smith's groundbreaking study sheds new light on transnationalism, vividly illustrating how immigrants move back and forth between New York and their home village in Puebla with considerable ease, borrowing from and contributing to both communities as they forge new gender roles; new strategies of social mobility, race, and even adolescence; and new brands of politics and egalitarianism.
Smith's deeply informed narrative describes how first-generation men who have lived in New York for decades become important political leaders in their home villages in Mexico. Smith explains how relations between immigrant men and women and their U.S.-born children are renegotiated in the context of migration to New York and temporary return visits to Mexico. He illustrates how U.S.-born youth keep their attachments to Mexico, and how changes in migration and assimilation have combined to transnationalize both U.S.-born adolescents and Mexican gangs between New York and Puebla. Mexican New York profoundly deepens our knowledge of immigration as a social process, convincingly showing how some immigrants live and function in two worlds at the same time and how transnationalization and assimilation are not opposing, but related, phenomena.
Synopsis
"An ethnographic classic and the best ethnography of migration that I have ever read."and#151;Roger Waldinger, coauthor of
How the Other Half Works"A compelling, multi-dimensional portrait of Mexicans in New York. Smith authoritatively examines, in considerable detail and with convincing ethnographic evidence, how immigration patterns have drastically changed over the last 15 years, creating a group of 'transnational migrants.'"and#151;Francisco Lomeli, author of U.S. Latino Literatures and Cultures
"Many observers of American migration have noticed the increasing formation of transnational communities instead of one-way transfers from old country to new. In his warm, perceptive, richly documented study of a Mexican town, its New York counterpart, and the connections between them, however, Robert Smith has lived, chronicled, and reinterpreted the human experience of transnationalism. He shows us how individual and collective transformations interact, producing surprising new varieties of social life."and#151;Charles Tilly, author of Durable Inequality
"Studying local processes over an extended period of time has allowed Smith to make a major theoretical and methodological contribution to our understanding of the migration experience. Smith brilliantly succeeds in detecting as yet unrecognized dynamics in the increasingly complex and multi-sited character of migration."and#151;Saskia Sassen, author of Guests and Aliens
"In this essential book, Robert Courtney Smith provides insight on New York City in a new and important way. After years of research and observation, Smith documents a world through the eyes of the city's growing Mexican population. Smith's crucial points about immigration and transnational identity make compelling reading because of the sense of joy in his writing at being so close to a community that is redefining the American immigrant experience."and#151;Deborah Amos, Correspondent, National Public Radio
"The big contributions in ethnography come from doing something ambitious and novel in data gathering. Smith's research is not only unprecedented in its fieldwork, his analyses are consistently subtle, surprising and omni-relevant to major sociological issues. An instant classic, Mexican New York deeply carves a new benchmark for immigration studies."and#151;Jack Katz, professor of sociology, University of California Los Angeles
About the Author
Robert Courtney Smith is Associate Professor of Sociology, Immigration Studies and Public Affairs, School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, and Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the coeditor of Migration, Transnationalization, and Race in a Changing New York (2001). He is cofounder of the Mexican Educational Foundation of New York, a 501c(3) organization.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Transnational Life in Ethnographic Perspective
2. Mexican Immigrants in New York: Contexts for Transnational Life
3. and#147;Los Ausentes Siempre Presentesand#8221;: Making a Local-Level Transnational Political Community
4. The Defeat of Don Victorio: Transnationalization, Democratization, and Regime Change
5. Gender Strategies, Settlement, and Transnational Life
6. and#147;In Ticuani, He Goes Crazyand#8221;: The Second Generation Renegotiates Gender
7. and#147;Padre Jesus Is Our Protectorand#8221;: Adolescence, Religion, and Social Location in New York and Ticuani
8. and#147;Iand#8217;ll Go Back Next Yearand#8221;: Transnational Life across the Life Course
9. Defending Your Name: The Roots and Transnationalization of Mexican Gangs
10. and#147;Why You Gotta Mess Up a Good Place?and#8221;: Returning to a Changed Ticuani
Conclusions and Recommendations
Coda: The Mexican Educational Foundation of New York
Notes
Bibliography
Index