EIHS Lecture: Migrant Longing, Courtship, and Gendered Identity in the US-Mexico Borderlands

Drawing upon a collection of more than 300 letters exchanged between her parents and other family members across the US-Mexico border in the 1960s and early 1970s, Miroslava Chávez-García gives meaning to the longing migrants experienced in their everyday lives both “here” and “there” (aqui y alla). As private sources of communication hidden from public consumption and historical research, the correspondence provides a rare glimpse into the emotional, personal, and social lives of ordinary Mexican men and women, as recorded in their immediate, first-hand accounts. The talk demonstrates how migrants struggled to maintain their sense of humanity in el norte as well as relations with those left behind.

Miroslava Chávez-García is Professor of History at University of California, Santa Barbara, and holds affiliations in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Feminist Studies and is currently the faculty director of graduate diversity initiatives. Author of Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s (University of Arizona Press, 2004) and States of Delinquency: Race and Science in the Making of California’s Juvenile Justice System (University of California Press, 2012), Miroslava’s most recent book, Migrant Longing: Letter Writing across the US-Mexico Borderlands (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), is a history of migration, courtship, and identity as told through more than 300 personal letters exchanged across the US-Mexico borderlands. In addition to her books, Miroslava has published numerous articles on related topics of migration, juvenile justice, and Chicana history as well as on mentoring young scholars of color in academia.

Free and open to the public.

This event is part of the Thursday Series of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.