MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE: Mexican Men, Masculinity, and Northward Migration Author(s): Chad Broughton Reviewed work(s): Source:

Gender and Society, Vol. 22, No. 5, Gendered Borderlands (October 2008), pp. 568-589 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27821678 . Accessed: 16/11/2012 00:38
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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE

Mexican
CHAD BROUGHTON
University of Chicago

and Men, Masculinity, Northward Migration

As Mexico alism, dented many

endures

predominantly

thefar-reaching rural

economic states

and

social

dislocations have

in southern Mexico

wrought witnessed

by neoliber an unprece

that in This article argues exodus of working age men and women. to emigrate, poor men from rural Mexico intense pressures do more than to the border; instrumental calculations about migration make they must negotiate mascu in relation to the migration line ideals and adopt strategic gendered practices experience northward response to these and the dynamic economic, social and cultural conditions of the border in neoliberal region. This article adven Mexico. finds that men adopt one or a hybrid of three fluid masculine to migration pressures turer, and breadwinner?in response stances?traditionalist,

Keywords:

masculinity;

border;

neoliberalism;

Mexico;

migration;

work

the far-reaching economic and social dislocations wrought by neoliberalism, many predominantly rural states in south As ernMexico have witnessed an unprecedented northward exodus of work Mexico

endures

ing age men and women. Academic, policy and popular discussions about this kind of labor migration typically assume that economic logic dictates economics, focusing on migrants' decisions and strategies. Neoclassical an individual's cost-benefit

household

(3) the extent of social capital a by market penetration and expansion, can draw in upon migrant receiving areas, (4) the nature of labor market areas 2002), and segmentation in receiving (Massey, Durand, and Malone (5) active and passive company recruitment (Cantu
2008 568-589

this narrow understanding point to additional considerations including (1) risk management and diversification strategies, (2) disruptions in sending areas to existing social and economic arrangements brought on

calculation, argues that rational actors will in invest inmigrating if they expect their net returns, typically measured and other critics of income, will be positive (Borjas 1989). Sociologists

1995, 405).

GENDER DOI: ?

& SOCIETY, Vol. 22 No. 5, October 10.1177/0891243208321275 for Women in Society

2008 Sociologists

568

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

569

To understand themassive

of economic

monic masculinities"

relating to family,work and place in the face of intense to and (2) the gendered strategies, practices and identities pressure migrate in the take process. I find that men embrace three masculine up they their asso "adventurer," and "breadwinner"?and stances?"traditionalist," ciated gendered rationales as they adapt to the political and economic reali ties of neoliberal Mexico. Furthermore, I argue that these men orient and adopt gendered practices increasingly in rela gendered understandings

instrumental calculation but also by a knotty set of gendered cultural consid erations: prevailing normative expectations and standards, social roles and obligations, and shared understandings relating to family, work and place. In exploring the significance of these considerations in this article, I specifically examine (1) how low-income Mexican men from rural areas negotiate "hege

of migration. What is often left out and social demographic studies of migration, however, is an analysis of how migrants make sense of themigration experience and how their strategic responses to economic dislocation are shaped not just by

in ruralMexico, tions and the broader social dimensions

it is essential to examine and measure

internal and international migration originating instrumental motiva

neoliberal turn, tion to the specific material forces accelerated by Mexico's and the northward massive (2) rapid growth and eco migration namely, (1) of the border and cultural social nomic, region. opening This analysis is not meant simply to complement more conventional eco nomic and social demographic analyses but to inform them as well. First, I

draw attention to the fact that the entire migrant experience (i.e., migration strategies and decision making, the pathways and flows of migration, the process of adapting to social life where a migrant settles) is fundamentally an understanding of the shaped by gendered cultural considerations. Second, social and cultural processes thatundergird this robust migration adds essen

gendered practices at the border to broader political and economic an example, see Salzinger 1997).

area increas tial insight to our understanding of gender at the border?an from the south. And finally this ingly composed of and shaped by migrants article contributes empirically to a rich literature that attempts to link specific forces (for

POOR MEN FROM RURAL MEXICO, NEOLIBERALISM, AND THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER
In the past twenty years the population of border cities has exploded This largely as a result of migration from poor, rural areas of Mexico.

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570 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

movement

American

Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA removed many of the trade barriers that had existed to foreign direct investment at the border by U.S., European, and Asian firms. In concert with the 1994 devaluation and a booming U.S. economy in the 1990s, neoliberal policies helped to con foreign investment and manufacturing growth at no small part at the expense of the interiors ofMexico and sector in the export-oriented maquiladora theUnited States. Employment nearly tripled in the 1990s (Hufbauer and Schott 2005),1 creating a strong centrate and accelerate the border?in draw for job-hungry, impoverished Mexicans. Neoliberal agrarian reforms have also accelerated rural-to-urban move

has been driven by a number of factors including the 1982 and the insatiable U.S. appetite for cheap labor, and 1994 peso devaluations, the expansion of neoliberal trade arrangements?most visibly the North

ment in Mexico during the past two decades. In 1992 the Salinas government Mexican Constitution thatguaranteed land made changes toArticle 27 of the distribution to the dispossessed. The changes discharged theMexican gov ernment of that duty and allowed ejidos (collectively managed small hold administration eliminated the guaranteed minimum price for basic grains and severely reduced technical assistance and credit to farmers (Kelly 2001, 90; de Janvry et al. 1997). The implementation of NAFTA on January 1, 1994,

buyers(Gledhill 1997, 1). In addition,theSalinas ings) tobe sold toprivate

Mexico

lower prices for corn?hurt farmers across rural small and medium-sized and, consequently, squeezed rural economies and intensified existing push factors out of rural areas.

furtheropened Mexico's protected agricultural sector toU.S. agribusiness by and trade quotas lowering tariffsfor staple crops like corn.While increasing farmers were cut, U.S. farms subsidies subsidies and assistance to Mexican The remained in place. predictable result?more imported U.S. corn and

de Poblaci?n 2007b; Consejo Nacional 2007). officials in that city, however, point to other government data Municipal 1.5 million. (Those offi bases that yield population estimates exceeding underestimates cials argue that the federal government purposefully Geografia

The demographic and social results of this set of policy changes have the border fieldwork site for this been dramatic. Reynosa, Tamaulipas, article, doubled in size from 265,663 in 1990 to 526,888 in 2005 accord de Estad?stica ing to official government statistics (Instituto Nacional e Informatica

to lessen the federal fiscal responsibility for themas border populations sive infrastructure needs of rapidly growing border cities.) Most of the state of in rural areas in the populous growth in Reynosa originates the long, slender state bordering Tamaulipas

Veracruz,

to the south that

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

571

to Chiapas. to border Indeed, internal migration from Veracruz areas inTamaulipas one the two in become of the decades, has, past major Mexico (U.S. Department of Labor 2005; Vega 2005). migration routes in extends In addition ment

to the pull and push factors dramatically increasing move to the border, several influences, including stagnant wages in the sector and Schott cost of the 2005, 45), (Hufbauer maquila living at rising

increasing costs and risks. On top ofmaterial factors, the allure of a modern, consumer lifestyle that immigrants imagine to exist in border cities and the United States has become an increasingly potent pull factor as television's Mexico and as diasporic populations circulate between ubiquity increases in border cities or the United States and their hometowns and share informa tion, experiences

the border (Comit? Fronterizo de Obreras 1999), and growing migrant net works (Durand, Massey, and Zenteno 2001; Massey et al. 1998) conspire to attract migrants across the border at unprecedented the rates?despite

and ideas (Smith 2006). In the 1990s therewere 2.8 million came to theUnited States fromMexico who and 15.8 mil legal immigrants lion "deportable aliens" (U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2006).2 Using figures from theU.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Hoefer, Rytina, and Campbell lion "unauthorized" Mexican (2007) estimate that therewere about 6.5 mil immigrants as of January 2006. Although to help Mexico "export products, not people," it has

NAFTA

ment

shaped dramatically men were to Mexican contracted work American farms and by gender. to in the Bracero from the 1942 1964. While Border railways Program Industrialization Program was created in 1965 by theMexican govern to stem border unemployment among ex-braceros, maquiladora to women operators preferred employ young (Iglesias Prieto 1997; Kamel and Hoffman More 1999; Cravey 1998). recently, maquiladora employ at the border evened between men and women

was supposed in fact encouraged the exportation of both. to and beyond the border has been The movement

in 2001, with men now making up 51 percent of maquila In the lowest ranking employees. obrero (assembly worker) category, however, women made up 60.7 per cent in January 1990 and, in December 2006, women still constitute the at 54.7 percent (Instituto Nacional e de Estad?stica Geografia majority

ment

Informatica 2007a). On the other hand, men have consistently made up about 75 percent of border crossers from Mexico since 1970 (Durand et al. 2001). In fieldwork I have found that many migrants living in on had to otro work el lado (the Reynosa, especially women, planned other side) but settled at the border to continue to care for family members or out of fear of the risks associated with crossing without documentation.

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572 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

dizzying speed, neoliberal adjustments are reordering social and life at theMexican border and in the countryside, making the the fate of Mexicans fate ofMexico's themselves?more economy?and With economic itsmuscular northern neighbor. To examine gender and in it is essential to understand the robust contemporary Mexico, migration pushes and pulls that emerge from these profound political and economic forces. In this approach I am following Gutmann (2003, 16, 18), who one advises that when writing about gender identity in Latin America ought to examine intertwined with

(1) the ways in which "global influences [are] filtered through particular, local, Latin American contexts" and (2) "the role of the United States today and historically in helping to define and circumscribe and its opposite." men in particular, these economic disloca low-income Mexican a strate tions have forced hurried reinvention of conventional masculine For gies, ideals and practices useful to recall Connell's which "embodied surrounding work, family and place. Here it is original formation of hegemonic masculinity, the currently most honored way of being a man" but 'Latin' manliness

thatmore than one hegemonic masculinity could exist, thus recognized as forms of for "older masculinity might be displaced by allowing change new ones" (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005, 832, 833). Indeed, mono lithic generalizations about Mexican

masculinity and machismo have been shattered in recent years. In place of a simplistic, unitary notion of what it means to be a man in Mexico, many studies have dug beneath widespread stereotypes accounts

1996, 2003; Melhuus 1996;Mirand? 1997; Prieur 1998).While these

have uncovered veneer, that have always existed beneath complexities the recent economic, political and social opening of at the border and in large cities?has further com of Mexican masculinities. As Gutmann

to find complexity,

ambiguity

and contradiction

(Gutmann

the popular

Mexico?particularly plicated fixed understandings

stances thatmen as men adopt in relation tomigration and the border: the "traditionalist," "adventurer," and "breadwinner." By a "fluid" typology I mean that the three stances are ideal types that do not necessarily neatly map onto individuals at the exclusion of other stances; they are negotiated, gendered approaches formeeting instrumental and identity goals related to work, family and place, and they are often deployed different stages in the life course and in hybridized strategically at combinations.

(1996, 243) contends, "Numerous women and men have become aware "uncertain of gender identities as impermanent and changeable"?as a result this of qualities"?as opening. I outline a fluid typology of After explicating the study's methodology,

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

573

residue of an unnatural boundary." To further qualify this framework, I do that these three ideal types encompass the experience of all men areas. I only claim that these three types offer Mexican from rural not claim insight into how the border and themigration experience are viewed and experienced by working-class men in a time and place of profound mate rial and cultural change?when the U.S.-Mexico border, as Spener and Staudt (1998, 3) argue, "stands at the center and offers us a front-row view

identities in a constant state of transition, after all, exemplify Hybridized the experience of the borderlands, famously described by Gloria Anzald?a (1987, 3) as "a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional

of history's drama unfolding."

METHOD
this article specifically explores the gendered migration strategies it is part of a broader longitudinal and multi of low-income men in Mexico, situated in Galesburg, sited ethnographic study of economic globalization While

and the Papantla region of the coastal state of Illinois; Reynosa, Mexico; in central Mexico. This article draws exclusively from data Veracruz obtained inReynosa and Veracruz collected in four fieldwork excursions of two weeks each beginning in the summer of 2003 and ending in the summer of 2007. Fieldwork in both Reynosa and Veracruz has involved mixed meth and economic

data collection from federal, municipal and 11 inReynosa with Veracruzanos interviews group nonprofit agencies, (pri or with male workers and var with male and female workers maquila marily ods: demographic ious family members), interviews with a broad

women.

and 37 in-depth and tape-recorded individual assortment of maquila workers (usually in their homes), human and workers' rights advocates, government and business offi cials and journalists inReynosa and Veracruz, and low-income ruralmen and In addition, I have conducted informal interviews with an uncounted number of men and women while exploring markets, z?calos, and colonias, in agricultural fields or in the beds of pick-up trucks, and in nonprofit agen cies and small-town mayors' offices. While all of these data were collected with lived experience of work and migration informed this article in some way, the individual income men

specific attention to the in neoliberal Mexico and have interviews with 16 low

have provided the richest source of data. In these largely interviews, ranging from two to eight hours in length, I gather open-ended the life histories of each respondent, with an emphasis on migration and work. These interviews invariably addressed the gendered objectives,

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574 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

aspirations, strategies and perceived responsibilities of the respondents, which, while not always explicitly related to their own constructions of masculinity, spoke to idealizations of work, family and place. The low income men in this study were between 18 and 42 years of age, and the vast majority had not graduated from prepa (high school). Unless other to wise noted, the subjects of this study did not possess documentation enter theUnited States legally. With their explicit permission, I have used the actual names of all my and "Jose" and informants with the exception of two pairs?"Rosa" and "Gris." In both of these cases, the interviewees sensibly "Diego" requested

anonymity out of fear of repercussion from their employers. the convention in ethnography is to employ pseudonyms for Although names and places, I have elected to use actual names because it is the (1)

distinct preference of nearly all of my respondents and (2) I believe it strengthens the credibility of the study's data. In taking this path I am adopting an ethic embraced by journalists and by some social scientists 1999, 348). (for an example and defense of this approach, see Duneier

MIGRANT MASCULINITIES
This article argues thatmen

IN NEOLIBERAL

MEXICO

culine

ideas and meanings thatMexican men as to economic and social dislocation emphasize they adapt strategically to and rework hegemonic masculinities relating family, work and place. These fluid stances supply gendered strategies and practices formeeting instrumental and identity goals and are shaped dynamically by the eco section reveal some of themodal nomic and social possibilities open to low-income men inMexico.

adopt one or a hybrid of three fluid mas stances?traditionalist, adventurer, and breadwinner?in response tomigration pressures in neoliberal Mexico. The stances described in this

The Traditionalist: Rejecting the Moral Laxity of theBorder

I refer to as "traditionalists"?speak Many men in ruralMexico?whom of the call of the border as a siren song, alluring but fraughtwith risk, inse referred to as "adventurers"?the curity and vice. For others?henceforth

border offers a place not only to earn a better living but also to prove one's seek thrills and escape the rigidities of rural life. This extended manhood, fieldnote, detailing an argument between twomiddle-aged brothers from the small town of Barra de Cazones, Veracruz, illustrates these contested mean ings associated with venturing to and across the border:

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

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For a good part of the afternoon,while sitting at theLa Palapa de Kime [a beachfront restaurant] drinkingModelos, Emilio Fuentes, 40, and Ismael with Fuentes, 38, gradually worked their way into a vociferous debate . . . each man defending his position and choices concerning migration. Ismael [a documented, seasonal agricultural worker]: People do not emigrate because they're stupid?they want a new life. They're just tired of being here. They want a change. . . .That's why they go! What is this concern about people emigrating, Emilio? That's where the future is! People that that leave Veracruz, they make progress in their lives. leave Mexico, better off. They're Emilio [looking at us]: Look, there are two different ambitions. My highest ambition ismy family.His highest ambition ismoney. But with themoney he makes, he cannot have the family he wants. . . . If I went to the States and came back once a year, my children could become drug addicts, or

delinquents. And he [points to his son, Lenny, 18, who had been listening without comment for hours] wouldn't be talking about going to the univer sity right now. You can see thatmy house ismore humble than his, but I have family security and he doesn't. . . .There are two differentkinds of ambition. Mine is real and his is a fantasy,because theUnited States is not his country. [Looking at Ismael] I wanted to tell you something: theUnited States is never going to be your country. Ismael: Well, of course not, I loveMexico. Emilio: But what are you doing for Mexico?

me. You have to look out Ismael: I'm not doing it for Mexico; I'm doing it for for yourself.What did Mexico do forme? What did the local mayor do for me? Nothing! I'm the one who built my home. Emilio: What you're trying to do is a fantasy.You're trying to conquer (con quistar) the unconquerable. He wants to conquer theUnited States, tomake theUnited States his own. Ismael: For God's sakes, if you don't go to the richest country in theworld, won't do you anything in your life.Don't talk about the people who have failed, talk about the people who have triumphed! I mean Hollywood is in come theydidn't put it inGuatemala? California?how

Emilio: Ask him with whom he lives. He lives alone. Ismael [after initially denying it]:Fine, the truthis I like being alone. I've been living alone for 10 years and I like it.Gringos and gringas live alone. I like thatwhat's mine is mine: It's my television, my stereo and my house. Emilio, you'll never trysomething new.
Emilio: Nor do I want to. . . .For me it's just the unknown, an adventure. It's

a huge land towant to conquer, a land more difficult than your own. With my life that my family, I have more needs thanhe does, but I have a plan for I created a long time ago and I like it.Him? He is not from theU.S., and he's not fromhere. If I fall, at least I know where I've fallen.

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576 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

In this exchange, Emilio marks clear moral boundaries in his discussion to Ismael with his with ideals about work, family and place. His regard traditionalist masculine views prioritize the cohesion of his family, a com mitment

to his hometown and his country, abiding by the law, and sus what he sees as a stable, authentic identity. For Emilio the border taining and colo presents grave danger and risk taking not just in itsworkplaces nias (poor neighborhoods) but, more fundamentally, to one's identity: Emilio: [Migrants] become impressed with the kind of life that people have there, and they start comparing their lives to the lifestyles of the people there, and they start making mistakes. . . .My brother, Ismael, he's changed a lot.He's estranged from his family.His wife [inTexas] is illegal; his children are illegal. They've changed, but not for thebetter. Yes, they've earned some dollars, but they've lost theirorigins, their values, their iden tityand each other.

When

Emilio

approached without caution and with a sense of adventure and Emilio believes that the borderlands is a minefield of moral haz greed, ards. Living in an area without stable employment, and in a very humble two-room home without running water, a sewage line or electricity, iswilling to forsake breadwinning the United States and endure destitution then, Emilio

he sees as a stark choice between

In response draws on a hegemonic masculinity that embraces masculine authority, customary family roles, vigilant fathering and social conser vatism. He strongly embraces breadwinner ideals but, in the face of what

four from those hazards.

opportunities at the border or in in order to protect his family of to a profound pressure to emigrate,

that places strategic decision eldest son, Lenny, whom Emilio is shepherding through adolescence. Further south in Agua Dulce, Veracruz, another traditionalist, Javier Gonzalez Rocha, commented more broadly on what he saw as the com destructive social influences of migration out of his small munity-wide town. Like Emilio, Javier mourns the influx of television and radio influ from el Norte that he says have increased the consumptive desires of younger people. As younger people stream north to the border, tradi ences tionalists contend, a whole

family and work, he chooses family, a the family's future in the hands of their

follow: (1) host of social consequences lose much educational localities (2) Younger people forego opportunities, of their young talent, and (3) migrants become detached from the social mores and life of their home community. Javier seemed most concerned about a decline a degraded in civility that he pins on young migrants who sense of civil responsibility: return with

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577

Older people here maintain a way of life that is sociable. Young people have lost theirmanners: They don't take off their hats when walking into a house, theydon't greet people. Some don't give up their seat for an old lady or a mother with a child riding a bus. Here people don't do that anymore. They bring these customs and manners back from the other side. While migration can provide substantial remittance flows for struggling rural towns like Agua Dulce, Javier argues that people send money for their individual houses but contribute little to the community, as this field

note indicates:

[From his pickup truck Javier pointed to a well-appointed and empty gated house.] This is one of them! This way of building a house comes from the U.S. Here the traditional style is with the house?the windows and the doors, everything?against the street.Here, though, is a house with a gate and a fence and yard in frontof the home. They are just littleoutposts. They are well made, but theydon't have life to them. Traditionalists like Emilio and Javier seek tomaintain a sense of continuity and often look nostalgically to the past as a source of resistance against the change and insecurity characterized by contemporary life in ruralMexico. Being concerned about eroding social mores, the loss of talented youth, depopulating and struggling towns, and, undoubtedly, threatened by the ero sion of male privilege, traditionalists question the viability of labor migration as a viable survival strategy formen and their families and communities. In

painting the border as an area of vice, laxmoral codes and individualism, the traditionalist defends his sense ofmasculinity?in spite of political and eco nomic forces working against themaintenance of such ideals.

The Adventurer: Escaping theRural South

and "Conquering" the Border Over the past 10 years, Ismael?Emilio's brother?has worked in and melon tobacco, sweet potato, squash, cucumber, pepper, cabbage fields in the United States as a documented and contracted seasonal worker. After the harvest season ends, he often overstays his work visa to remain with his wife and children and paint houses in Texas. While the work he takes obvious pride inwhat he has accom as a worker the and, more recently, as a member of FLOC, plished migrant a drinking prob Farm Labor Organizing Committee. Having developed lem early in life, Ismael only completed third grade and was "married" (not legally but informally) at age 12. Despite a troubled childhood, is arduous and menial,

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578 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

rural Veracruz. The contradictions he embodies are striking: illiterate but more worldly than his parochial brother, an advocate for the disenfran chised but also a machista womanizer, and brash and adventurous, yet men, seemingly unable to find satisfaction. Like many other Mexican especially those that strike out across the border alone, Ismael, an adven the rough opportunities and challenges that economic turer, embraces to el Norte presents not only a integration has fostered. To him migration chance

Ismael has attained a status in his community that comes from owning a relatively well appointed home and having ventured successfully beyond

Mexico

to earn a higher income and survive dislocation in neoliberal to elevate but also opportunities to achieve gendered objectives: one's social status, to test one's courage and virility, and to escape the tedium and tightermoral codes of the rural south.

people who have triumphed!" He later elaborated on what he meant by the term "triumph" by linking it to consumptive goals: You thinkabout [To Emilio] Why are you stuck thinking theway you think? "the zero" when you should be thinking about "the one," and then "the two," because that's how you get ahead. At first, I didn't have anything, but a cell phone. And then to "two"?say, the little then I got to "one"?say, own. I And then tomy home, which is "three." But if I just truck that pickup on I'd "the zero," get depressed. Imight startusing drugs. Emilio, get stuck even ifyou don't have a trampoline, you still have to jump.

In the debate excerpted above, Ismael said to Emilio, "For God's sakes, ifyou don't go to the richest country in theworld, you won't do anything in your life. Don't talk about the people who have failed, talk about the

look out for yourself." And when defending his solitary living conditions he said, "Gringos and gringas live alone. I like thatwhat's mine ismine." In a masculine assertion of independence and individual prerogative, Ismael rejects the traditionalists' claims about themoral pitfalls of northward migra

Here, Ismael embraces an individualist ethos and uses material possessions as progressive markers of merit and success for themigrant. As he noted in I'm doing it forme. You have to the debate, "I'm not doing it forMexico,

truck or the latest cell phone, for adventurer. Owning a newer American a of having made some head marker and visible is reliable instance, fairly way up north. And homes like Ismael's, built with money from work in the

material advancement helps one to tion and the border, asserting instead that avoid depression and substance abuse. What is irresponsible adventurism to Emilio is brash and pragmatic agency to Ismael. material advancement also serves a social purpose for the Conspicuous

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579

United

day, however, Emilio told us that in addition to his first wife, Ismael has had, "like 10 wives [all in an informal sense], one after the other. He's not to the law with any of them. He's married according irresponsible from a place where Removed individual behavior is con (ma?oso)!' can strained by tighter social controls, the adventurer engage in a wide range of behaviors thatwould otherwise come with moral opprobrium and social sanction. While much of Ismael's adventurism of being runs counter "most honored way norms regarding sober masculine a man" and dominant

in sexual philandering as part of his escape to the north, this case for Ismael. In our interview, Ismael told us he had a the clearly wife and two children living without papers in Austin, Texas. The next turer engages was

ing conquered el Norte confer social standing and serve to set themanly adventurer apart from ordinary people who have not braved the journey. it is difficult to know the extent to which the young adven Although

access to States, stand out for their relatively ornate appearance, the basic indoor and (running water, plumbing, electricity) high-end (cable, Internet) services, and electronic gadgetry. These symbols of hav

to the

rural traditionalist's

it social responsibility and provision, also draws upon a long history of countervailing patriarchal norms that sexual adventurism, agency and privilege. Furthermore, support male Ismael has access to a relatively high income, the very nature of although his itinerant travel and adventurism limits his prospects for having a sta ble family or acting as a reliable breadwinner for his family. The adventurer category might also be applied to many high school in rural Mexico who, having not yet (and dropouts as well) graduates started a family of their own, head almost by custom now to the border.

in rural These young people cite the lack of economic opportunities Veracruz and, often, a need to supplement the incomes of their parents among their primary motivations. Their migration patterns are sometimes characterized are more Ismael's sort of adventurism? by sojourning, but?unlike to root in his destination (and per the adventurer young likely later in the life course to entail a shift toward a breadwinner stance).

haps Aaron Barrera, themayor of Volador, a small, isolated town in northern Veracruz, said that out-migration of prepa graduates is now an expected interview excerpt the following yearly routine in his community. As shows, Aaron has linked increasingly concentrated About the upsurge land holdings in northward migration in the area:

to the

month after graduation. These are the best-educated 100 leftjust this we The majority goes toReynosa and some go toNew have. young people York City.We try to convince them to stay, but there isn't any work. This

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580 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

whole area is owned by a very richman who lives inPapantla. He's grabbed everything.The people around here don't have any land towork. There are no ejidos here. For young men from Volador, migration presents the possibility of escape from sharpening economic inequities and bleak job prospects as well as a territory. an opportunity to meet masculine obligations as me about the sons. a Elba Cortez told Volador Rosas, mother, responsible "About three weeks ago my day when her son leftVolador for Reynosa: to I I miss 'You're left. him. said him, my youngest, you're my youngest For many it is also chance to search out unknown

baby; I don't want you to go.' He said, 'Mom, I'm a man now, I want to meet my responsibilities myself.'" To Elba, the border ismorally perilous but much preferable toMexico City. "There are a lot of lost youth in Mexico City, mostly because of drugs. The ones from Reynosa return reg are more educated and disciplined because Reynosa is a very and ularly

is associated with traditionally mascu line ideals and practices related to self-determination, assertion and inde pendence. And as research on recentMexican migration patterns has shown, men tend tomove for employment, whereas women are generally motivated

demanding place." This sort of youthful adventurism

2001). This same research shows, by family reasons (Cerrutti and Massey that the work-related however, migration patterns of young, single women sons resemble those and fathers. For instance, Rosa Gonzalez of of closely

Naranjos, Veracruz, left for Reynosa immediately after high school at age 17, having never before lefther home town in her life: There is no work inNaranjos, only PEMEX [Mexico's state-run oil com pany]. So I went right after finishingprepa. Itwas difficult adapting to life here. Imissed my parents and I was very afraid to go out at night. When I found a job as a cashier I got my own apartment. I felt good about that. More than anything itwas a sense of independence. Rosa's brother, Jose, had benefited from the nepotism of his father, a senior employee at PEMEX inNaranjos, who secured a lucrative job for

given the "greater fluidity in gender employment patterns as a result of modernization and urbanization" there (Gutmann 2003, 13). Indeed,

jobs, is a job traditionally filled by men). Male privilege, therefore, allowed Jose to stay in Veracruz and compelled Rosa to seek out wage to the border is commonplace work at the border. Migration for women

him transporting heavy drilling equipment (which, like otherPEMEX

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

581

adventurism contrasts sharply with her brother's traditionalism. Jose prefers the "peaceful and healthy" life of Veracruz and complains that people at the border, including his sister, "are more prone to darker moods," "defensive postures," and "doing foolish things." Rosa, who now Rosa's works in a "pressure-filled" job at a bank, says she is proud of what she on her own and, despite missing her mother a great has accomplished no desire to return to the slower life of Veracruz. deal, has

increasingly open to (and being women come to the border on their own. who reshaped by) young, single Here it is important to recall Martin's (1998, 474) contention that since and femininities are cultural values and practices, "everyone masculinities can do both." However, despite having access to valorized practices nor adventurer masculinity

men are much more likely to take the adventure Although Mexican across the border, women leave rural areas for border cities like Reynosa at comparable and, from some places of origin, greater rates than men case exemplifies, the 2005; Vega 2005). As Rosa's (Fern?ndez-Kelly is a fluid stance

mally associated with men, research has shown thatwomen's migration to the border or into the United States does little tomodify existing gender inequalities (Parrado and Flippen 2005). The Breadwinner: As Gutmann work for many men Exigency and Paternal Necessity

Indeed, the hard working American is a familiar figure in the study of masculinity (Ehrenreich 1984; Gerson 1993; Lamont householder working in a border maquila 2000; Rubin 1994). A Mexican a manner similar to industrial workers of the speaks about his work in United States: principally as a sacrifice for his children. In theway that the traditionalist measures his success in terms of family cohesion and moral

(2003, 13) writes, "financially supporting one's family and in general are without a doubt central defining features of masculinity and women in various parts of theAmericas." and European industrial breadwinner

protection and the adventurer in terms of social mobility or material pos in educational and sessions, the breadwinner measures his achievements material provision: keeping his children in school through prepa, providing

a reluctant (and implicitly selfless) border as an utter necessity?often choice made under desperate circumstances. The breadwinner often recog nizes themoral pitfalls and social disorganization

sustenance, and perhaps upgrading a makeshift house made of corrugated tin and discarded factory pallets to a rain-tight cinderblock home. In con trast to the traditionalist or adventurer, the breadwinner speaks about the

of border life but, unlike

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582 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

who

ally brought his wife and children north as finances allowed. Of his initial migration, Atanacio said he arrived without a plan, asking, "What will I do? What will happen to us? How will I support my family?" Given his familial responsibilities, his desperate answer was, "I'll do anything." To support and supervise their four children inReynosa, where the cost of living and educa tional expenses are substantially higher than in ruralVeracruz, Atanacio and

Martinez, 41, came to the border in his early 20s. Like many settle inReynosa, he expected towork in theUnited States. After find assembling wheelchairs and without a work visa, ingwork in a maquiladora to he decided stay, squatted on a piece of land and built a home, and eventu Atanacio

the traditionalist, he is compelled tofind work, provide and father at the border despite those perceived hazards.

his wife, Carmen, both work full time. Atanacio works day shifts and his wife works in a maquila during nights and weekends. sees their sacrifices almost entirely in terms of the benefits to Atanacio their children, two of whom gives me working Now I'm meet have surpassed his ninth-grade education. "It to give them their schooling. I had to start satisfaction great as a young boy [inVeracruz]. Then I got married and had kids. trying to have them do what motivated I couldn't." A the initial decision

charting a course into the unknown. Since arriving in Reynosa, Atanscio says he has had to "adapt," most notably by expanding his notion of bread winning when his wife began working in themaquilas: It is a difficult life [with twoworking parents], but it's all necessary so that we can make it as a family. It's for the kids, so they can have a little more than what theywould have if just one worked. So, yes . . . one has to ... If both the husband and wife work, it is to live better. But, adapt. we are really, justmaking it. Atanacio

singular desire to to migrate and, paternal obligations to tomigrate was his decision In this his motivation likewise, way stay. distinct from that of adventurers, although there is a parallel sense of

negotiates his role as breadwinner in the face of the exigencies of border life. As other research (Massey et al. 2002, 21-22) has demon contrast to a rural provider in strated, a provider at the border?in not only expected to provide sustenance and protection but also access to a decent education, upward mobility, and a greater range of consumer items. To meet these goals in a higher-cost and low-wage area, like Atanacio (Meuser may elect to forge a with their partners. 2003) "pragmatic egalitarianism"

Veracruz?is

men

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

583

in contrast to Atanacio?that Gris, his wife, cares for their children at home rather than engage inwage work, an ideal that they have maintained at considerable economic cost: In themaquilas where I've worked?Zenith, Converse, GE, Seagate and now Maytag?the situation hasn't changed. The work atMaytag doesn't allow me tomeet my obligations as a head of family. My family's economic situation would never allow me to buy one of the refrigerators Imake. at once seeks tomaintain a sole breadwinner ideal while recogniz the in border ing impossibility of attaining it. Breadwinners working blue-collar American workers of industrialism's maquilas?unlike heyday in the middle of the twentieth century?simply cannot provide for their families on their own. While Gris could work in a maquila, Diego?draw as the traditionalists described ing upon the same hegemonic masculinities care that cohesion and for their children in their above?explains family Diego border colonia is his foremost concern:

Another breadwinner, Diego Chavez, also came to Reynosa after having started a family. Although Diego feels profoundly stuck in his economic 12 condition after he insists? years working in Reynosa's maquiladoras,

There's a real problem for the children who aren't well cared for.They may be badly behaved because both parents are obliged towork because of the low wages here. There are a lot of broken families and there isn't time to properly care for the children. It's a real concern forme. For Diego, even themost onerous material conditions cannot compel him to give up his sole breadwinner sees himself providing by ideal. Diego his wife his children and from the social of dual consequences protecting " income maquila families inwhich "parents are used up by their jobs He himself is used up in long work hours and a long bicycle commute, but in doing this he maintains his wife as the children's caretaker?an and instrumental element of his provision to his children: essential

my children. I'm fighting for that. The exacting providers who economic come

I want my children to become professionals. I don't want them to sufferthe I'm doing everything possible injustices I've suffered in themaquiladoras. to ensure that they are well educated. ... I want something different for

ing a reinvented

breadwinner

and expanded role demands for pressures to the border force a stark choice between negotiat masculinity that embraces a pragmatic

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October 2008 584 GENDER & SOCIETY /

or adhering to an unworkable egalitarian ethic of dual earning (Atanacio) sole breadwinner model (Diego). Beyond contemplating more flexible understandings of their roles as on providers, migrant breadwinners at the border face forced adaptation other fronts as well. While men are drawn north by a sense that they can earn more for their families at the border, few consider

American ily. He

for instance, said, "I was completely Diego, day seeing a maquiladora, was inReynosa. When I unaware of what the workplace like in a maquila went to look for work and I saw the employees leaving second shift, they were

are but, at the same time, com to family" Veracruzanos plain about their lack of an industrial work ethic, extended vacations back home and frequent requests to attend to family matters. Regarding his first how "committed

approach to time, responsibility and fam a problem across the board. The way is said, "Punctuality [Mexican workers] view time is just different." Before, he says, when the "there was much more 'ownership' put plant was in Jackson, Tennessee, into thework, much more loyalty to the company and more responsibility assumed in a work role." This maquila manager and others note favorably side with Mexicans'

the rigors of indus trial factory work and discrimination against rural Veracruzanos [people from Veracruz]. A former high-level manager at a Black and Decker plant stated that there was a great deal of frustration on the in Reynosa

an some of whom consider themassive influx of Veracruzanos Reynosa, "invasion" of poor, unwanted migrants many 2006). (Petros Although for being "good workers," others complain about the praise Veracruzanos their homes. One native woman ways they dress, behave and maintain even referred tomigrants from the south as "veracruchangos" [monkeys insults indicate that Veracruzanos Such racialized from Veracruz]. (who

dominant culture, it is difficult to adapt to the rigorous physical, time and cultural demands of maquila work and, consequently, difficult-to-attain breadwinner goals and adapt a refashioned borderland breadwinner ideal. Comments critical of migrants are echoed more broadly by natives of

in clean, clean clothes. I thought, 'Wow, they just had a party!'" For to family maintenance rural migrants who often view work as a means own or cultural tools of the who lack sake) (rather valuing work for its

not just hostility and typically have darker skin than natives do) face a more a subordinate position in discrimination but rigid racial hierarchy ofMexican at theU.S.-Mexico border. In his study of the "reracialization" migrants "Mexico's going

that contends De Genova in Chicago, 105-106) (1998, distinct and relatively fluid racial order may be currently under a profound ideological reelaboration that reflects and refracts the

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

585

racialized migrant encounter and increasingly shares some of the rigidity of the dominant racial ideologies of theUnited States." The exigencies of border life demand strategic adaptation of hegemonic masculine ideals to

the economic demands and dominant cultural precepts of the region: The breadwinner must consider dual-earning household strategies, adapt to the time and physical rigors of industrial life, countenance prioritizing work over family, and negotiate a newly racialized social landscape.

CONCLUSION
vision of the bor (2003) advises, there is not one Mexican article has explored some of these visions from the perspective of Mexican men as they talk and think about the border region and the As Canclini

der. This

migration experience as men. The traditionalist, adventurer, and bread winner stances to low-income Mexican men are gendered routes to real in a time of rapid and izing both instrumental and identity goals change. The traditionalist responds by adopting a hegemonic that prioritizes family and community ties, traditional gen masculinity dered roles, and watchful fathering. He constructs his identity in contrast wrenching

south. He undertakes the journey north with only a vague sense about what he will find, where he will work, where and if he will settle?or whether he will succeed. Adventurers are indeed labor migrants (Portes and Rumbaut

to individualistic and anomic migrants and an unfavorable caricature of the border region. By contrast themale adventurer sees el Norte as a place to escape the more regimented and articulated social order of the rural

1996), but they look at the border as more than a place to find work. It is also as a place to satisfy gendered aims including attain a sense of individual achievement and material and ing independence, social advancement, and a new and exciting life away from the limitations the adventurer leaves of a neglected and declining rural Mexico. While relatively unencumbered by the obligation breadwinner is forced out of circumstance to provide to migrate for dependents, the northward to pro and symbolic indig

vide for his family and, once there, endures material nities with the hope that his provision will, in the subsequent generation, foster mobility. The breadwinner knowingly puts his ability to achieve some traditionalist goals (e.g., raising children away from urban vice and disorder)

in jeopardy by embracing work at (or beyond) the border as an inescapable duty to fulfill so their children can "have something better."

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586 GENDER & SOCIETY / October 2008

These

fluid masculinities Mexican men

low-income

to the economic

illustrate some of the gendered responses and social dislocations

of of

neoliberal Mexico

aspirations sis both complements

and allow a deep examination of the goals, motivations, and rationales of men who migrate northward. Such an analy and informs more conventional economic and

decision making, their strategies and pathways, and the process of adapt ing to social life where themigrant settles. The dynamic process of gen dered identity negotiation and decision making apparent in these fluid men do much more than types demonstrates how low-income Mexican make instrumental calculations rience as men decisions as theymake sense of themigration expe and arrive at specific and adaptive gendered strategies and regarding northward migration.

social demographic studies of migration that focus on instrumental calcu lation and household- and community-level factors in explaining migrant

(2002, 4 gendered strategies, practices and identities. As Sadowski-Smith we on not must fusion" "border and "cultural focus warns, 9) porosity" without attention to the recent political, economic and social changes that structural inequalities" and "rigidified economic, "strengthened between the United States and Mexico. social, and political boundaries" For this reason this article emphasized the link between the specific gen and at the border and dered practices of low-income men in ruralMexico have

In exploring how men negotiate hegemonic masculinities related to to to is it attend the work and political and eco family, place, important nomic variables in ruralMexico and in the border region structuring these

the political and economic forces that shape them. It ismy hope that this as "a-literalist" or "literalist" (Vila 2003; article escapes categorization not it has shed x)?that only light on the ways men negotiate masculinity in a manner sensitive to the voices conditions and gendered social and economic experiences,

and lived reality of men but also to the that constrain and influence those voices,

identities and strategies.

NOTES
1. Employment in themaquiladora sector increased from 446,400 in 1990 to 1,291,200 in 2000, a 189% increase. 2. Of those classified as "deportable aliens," the vast majority are from Mexico. In fiscal year 2005, about 85 percent of apprehensions were of
Mexicans.

number of unique individuals deported.

"Deportable

aliens

located,"

however,

counts

apprehensions,

not

the

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MIGRATION AS ENGENDERED PRACTICE Broughton/

587

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