That little Mexican part of me: race, place and transnationalism among U.S. African-descent Mexicans

ABSTRACT

This article uses semi-structured interviews and participant observation to examine transnationalism and notions of race among first- and second-generation young adult Afro-descended Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States. I suggest that transnationally inflected understandings of race encourage both generations to privilege place-based over ancestry-based racial identities. For the first generation, which is mostly undocumented, place is part of their socialization as Mexicans and a way to forge a more secure sense of belonging in the United States. For members of the second generation, place resolves their position as an anomalous “race” not recognized in the United States.

KEYWORDS:

• Afro-Mexican
• United States
• Hispanic
• race
• place

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Laura A. Lewis http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2782-7254

Notes

1 All names are pseudonyms.

2 Currently, 14 per cent of Winston-Salem's 242,000 residents are Hispanic (https://statisticalatlas.com/place/North-Carolina/Winston-Salem/Race-and-Ethnicity (accessed September 20, 2018). It is not known how many are from San Nicolás but about a third of San Nicolás's 3–4,000 members are in the United States at any given time.

3 “Immigrant replenishment” (Jones-Correa 2002, 230; Waters 2014, 18), produced my mixed generation age cohort (also Levitt and Waters 2002; Rumbuat 2004; Telles and Ortiz 2008, 21). Primary data are from semi-structured interviews conducted individually and alone with six first- and four second-generation respondents aged twenty to thirty-five in person or by phone/Skype. Some knew each other, and others did not. Answers to my questions on transnational ties, and race and place were coded, cross-referenced and contextualized with data from informal correspondence and participant observation in Winston-Salem. Some participants I already knew. Others, like Dylan, found me and gave me referrals. Quotes indicate participants’ exact English or my translations of their Spanish.

4 A recent Mexican survey identifies 1.6 per cent of Mexicans as “afro-descendant” and concentrated mostly on the Costa Chica and in Veracruz (INEGI). The survey team could not use local racial terms due to the national breadth of the research. It therefore struggled to convey meanings to many respondents (Emiko Saldivar and Christina Sue pers comm).

5 Due to racism, state projects, national ideologies, aesthetic preferences, geopolitics and family histories, Afro-Latin Americans often deflect “blackness” (Candelario 2007; Pineda 2006; England 2010). Race in Latin America also has no fixed referent and must be understood in context (Wade 1997; Candelario 2007). The meaning of moreno therefore varies even within Mexico.

6 San Nicolás's Facebook group members are in Mexico and the United States. Both generations post pictures and videos, while the Mexican side also posts commercial offers (for instance, international package delivery) and progress on San Nicolás's public works projects. This platform, then, creates transnational social spaces that help individuals maintain kin and community ties and identities (Christiansen 2017; Stewart 2013). FaceTime and WhatsApp allow more private communications. Because many older San Nicoladenses are not text or digitally literate, intergenerational communications include emojis and pictures, and landlines instead of phone apps.

7 For extended discussion of African American/Afro-Mexican relations see Barnett (2011); Johnson and Kasarda (2009); Jones (2012); Lewis (2012, Ch 9); Vaughn (2005); Vaughn and Vinson (2007). Today in Winston-Salem, these are best described as distant. While many African Americans are curious about “black” Mexicans and reach out through church and academic initiatives, the Mexicans are indifferent or do not understand their curiosity (Uchenna Vasser pers comm).

8 Second-generation participants wanted to interview in English, much like second-generation Mexicans in other studies (Schneider et al. 2012, 220; Christiansen 2017, 143). This is likely about both status and fluency (Jones-Correa 2002, 234).

9 “Afro-Mexican” mimics the hyphenated U.S. identities (e.g. Asian-American, African American etc.) that historically aided assimilation because, despite anti-immigrant rhetoric, it is not a contradiction to be immigrant and American (Schneider et al. 2012, 229–230). A hyphenated U.S. identity can also bring an “ethnic” bonus and interest group rights (Williams 1989), an overlooked issue in Waters’ study of racial and ethnic identities and assimilation (2014).

10 The Obama administration established DACA in 2012 to allow many undocumented immigrant youths to work and defer deportation over two-year cycles. The future of the programme is unclear but there are 30,000 DACA recipients, including some San Nicoladenses, in North Carolina (Qué Pasa 2017).

11 Dylan and Rosa illustrate how second-generation young adulthood might intensify attachment to parents’ places of origin (Jones-Correa 2002, 227; Levitt 2002, 141).