Intergenerational Displacement in Aguililla-Redwood City: Migration from Michoacán and Diaspora in Northern California

Abstract

Intergenerational Displacement in Aguililla-Redwood City: Migration from Michoacán and Diaspora in Northern California details the diasporic community of people originally from Aguililla, Michoacán, Mexico who established the historic transnational community of Little Michoacán in the unincorporated neighborhood of North Fair Oaks near Redwood City, California (Lamchin Ohlone lands) in the 1940s during the Bracero Program. Aguilillenses in diaspora are now being forcibly displaced in Northern California by extreme gentrification and are simultaneously incapable of safely returning to their ancestral pueblo since Aguililla is being subjected to extensive cartel violence that is present throughout the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán. This dissertation traces the history of intergenerational displacement in Aguililla from its precolonial past when it was a tributary community part of the P'urhépecha Empire and subsequent genocide as a result of Spanish colonization, through the pueblo’s continuous experiences of subjugation during Spanish colonialism and Mexican neocolonialism. The nation-state of Mexico has advanced extensive efforts of exploitation and extraction throughout the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán, which have suppressed the people of Aguililla and their lands for centuries. This legacy of violence established in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán relates to the modern mass outward migration and manifestation of cartel violence in the region, thus displacing Aguilillenses, diminishing their communal wellbeing, and restricting their practices of transnationalism. This dissertation analyzes how Aguilillenses in diaspora are navigating ongoing displacement and resisting further marginalization, oppression, and erasure by engaging in methods of Indigenous survivance. Aguilillenses practice their traditional culture in community through participation in ancestral traditions, including the production and consumption of the Indigenous food of Aguililla guided by their ancestral maternal knowledge.