Vidas al Otro Lado: Acts of Representation Through Transnational Cultural Events

Abstract

This project examines the connections between popular Mexican celebrations, such as Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe and Día de los muertos, and transnational communities established in the United States in order to better understand the functions and ways in which cultural events and non-governmental organizations contribute to the (re)articulation of identity, representation, and community building in communities of residency. The aim is to study in depth the connections between Mexican transnational communities, many of them indigenous, and these popular cultural celebrations and events that take place in Mexico and in the United States. There are two regions in which transnational migrants from the Mixtec region in southern Mexico reside in significant numbers: the New York Metropolitan area, especially in New York City, and Southern California. In my analysis, I apply an eclectic methodology, stemming from Cultural Studies, Performance Studies, and Border Studies while also engaging with the work of Mexican academics in the field of Transnationalism and Anthropology. My project contends that these events reveal transnational and transregional elements that contribute to fulfill the needs of immigrants in the United States, many of who live in this country undocumented. The dissertation demonstrates how Mexican transnational communities participate in a complex system of networks that go beyond the binary perspective traditionally considered in migration studies of communities of origin and communities of arrival, while responding to a greater need to study transnational cultural events from a bi-national perspective.