Gustavo Cano

... Neathery-Castro, Marla Jenkins, Debbie Bial, Virgilio Andrade, Adalberto Toro (y sus papás),Kay Achar, Melissa Angie Fátima, Abraham Zamora, Jetzy Atach, Alejandro Echegaray, Lotus Ming, Melba Pría, Ma. Luisa Hernández, Nancy Degnan, Matilde ...

Una especie de fábula que trata de cómo el gigante migratorio mexicano en los Estados Unidos es despertado, de cómo lo agarran mal parado y del papel del Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior y de la política exterior del estado mexicano hacia su diáspora influyeron o no en el adormecimiento, a través de la política de taparle el ojo al macho.

May 28, 2015. Ten years ago I wrote the paper: “The Mexico-North Report on Transnationalism.” Some things have changed since then, but most have not. This piece addresses the term of “transnationalism” with the aim to update and point out the very basics of the term. If you plan to do research and/or write a paper on transnationalism, this briefing should offer you concrete hints to build a reliable framework of the essence and reaching of the term in the social sciences. Transnationalism as a notion, a concept, and a process.

This doctoral dissertation seeks to explain, from an organizational standpoint, the causes and mechanisms that have led to different types and levels of political mobilization of Mexican immigrant communities in Houston and Chicago. How and why is political mobilization of Mexican immigrants different in Chicago and Houston? To address this question, this research assesses the role of both local and transnational structures in the process of migrant political mobilization.

Data for this work was obtained from in-situ historical research, analysis of secondary sources, and more than 120 interviews that took place mostly in Houston and Chicago, between February and July 2002. Interviewees include leaders, activists, organizers, chairmen, and priests within a wide range of organizational backgrounds: community-based organizations, service providers, unions, church-based organizations, chambers of commerce, civic associations, and Mexican state federations. Immigration scholars, officials from the Mexican Consulate, city officials in both cities, and several local and state politicians were also interviewed.

    Main Findings

-  In addition to Chicanos and Mexican Americans, Mexican immigrants are already an active player in American politics, mostly in urban settings.

-  In terms of political behavior, Mexican immigrants are by no means a monolithic group within the United States. Mexicans living in Chicago show different levels of political mobilization, organization, and participation to those living in Houston.

-  Regarding the process of mobilization of Mexican immigrants, family and work are the driving forces of mobilization, the Virgin Mary (religion) and the Mexican flag are the most important symbols of identification, and legalization and workers rights are the principal fields where mobilization can take place.

-  A complete understanding of political mobilization of Mexican immigrants must focus simultaneously on the relations of Mexican immigrants with relevant political institutions and processes in their ‘home’ (in this case, Mexico) and ‘host’ societies (the United States).

-  In the local context, the role of unions, the Catholic Church, community-based organizations, the Hispanic media, and the structure of city politics results crucial to understand different levels of political mobilization of Mexican immigrants.

-  Within a context of globalization, the role of the state is by no means in decline; on the contrary, the role of the Mexican and American states becomes crucial to explain mobilization and political participation of Mexican immigrants in American politics.

-  The interaction between local and transnational politics explains different levels of empowerment of the Mexican immigrant community in American society. From a transnational perspective, the roles of the Mexican Consulate and the Catholic Church are essential components to understand this process. From a local perspective, the influence of different city regimes (Machine Politics vs. Free Enterprise Politics) on immigrant organizations is an essential component of the explanation.


About Órale!:

    Órale! is a Mexican expression that has at least five different meanings: a) Órale!: as in “come on!, hurry up!, let’s move!” b) Órale!: meaning that you are closing a good deal and you are really enthusiastic about it; c) Órale!: as “in stop bothering me!” or “knock it off!” d) Órale!: used as an expression when something goes really wrong, takes us by surprise, and is hard to believe -we really do not know what is going to happen next; and e) Órale!: used when two persons are arguing, and they both think their respective argument is the right one. Then one party says órale!, to conclude the discussion and meaning something like “we’ll see who is right!” Órale!, along with the expressions “Quihúbole!” (from ¡qué hubo!, ¡qué hay! what’s up!), “Ándale!” (hurry up!) and “Híjole!” ("Oh my God!" sort of…), represent the core of verbal Mexicanness that colorfully and vibrantly circulates mostly amongst Mexican-born population, here in the U.S. and certainly back there, in Mexico.

This paper examines the current role of religion and the Catholic Church to explain different levels of political organization and mobilization of the Mexican immigrant communities in New York City, Houston and Chicago. The paper analyzes the mechanisms and symbols used by Catholic-based grass-roots organizations when mobilizing the community in order to deal with a whole set of contextual needs, and how this process reinforces systematically the introduction of these dynamics of political incorporation within their respective localities.

In this paper, I mainly argue that, in the mainstream study of ethnic American politics, the Mexican community cannot be considered anymore a monolithic group, whose political behavior is one and the same all over the United States. Mexican communities living in the United States have different origins in Mexico, and they go through different experiences of political mobilization, organization, and incorporation through their daily lives in American cities. The initiatives of the local Catholic Church to mobilize the community, the relations of the local church with the local government, and the use of religious symbols with political purposes, are the main components that make the difference.

To what extent American cities are evolving towards a model in which their government is (or is not) adapting its structure to their growing Mexican immigrant population? What are the main factors for such transformation to take place? What is the role of the Mexican government in the process? This paper addresses these questions from two different perspectives, one local, and one transnational.

From a local perspective, the paper addresses the government structure of the 14 most populated cities, or with a significant potential of population growth in the near future, by Mexican immigrants: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Raleigh, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. This with the aim to determine to what extent the recent population growth of Mexican immigrants, and immigrants in general, has (or will have) an effect on the government structure of these cities, and to what extent the current structure is dealing, or is able to deal, with the issue.

From a transnational perspective, the questions are addressed through the consideration of three stances. First, I analyze the implicit efforts of the Mexican government to facilitate the incorporation of Mexican immigrants into some particular aspects of mainstream America through the delivery of the Mexican Consular ID (Matricula Consular) in an urban setting. Second, I analyze the recent efforts of the Mexican government to approach local and state authorities in the United States through a program of Informative Conferences, sponsored by the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME in Spanish), within the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I also address the potential influence on local politics and policies by the members of the Advisory Council of the IME (CCIME in Spanish). Finally, I analyze the motivations of the Mexican state governments in contacting directly U.S. local authorities regarding immigrant issues.

Research for this paper suggests that some governments of American cities already count with (or have started a) structural transformation to address directly their immigrants’ issues. Nevertheless, the creation of these offices is not a necessary condition to deal efficiently with their immigrants’ concerns. The most important factors that lead to the creation of these offices are a strong and growing presence of foreign born population, high levels of community-based organization among immigrants, and the interaction of these organizations with some level of local government, like the Office of the Mayor or the City Council.

Regarding the role of the Mexican government in the process, the interaction between different levels of Mexican government and local governments in the United States leads to the empowerment of the host society as a whole and, in particular, to the empowerment of the immigrant community. With the exception of the use and acceptance of the Mexican Matrícula Consular in the U.S., most of this interaction is highly informal, and the influence of the Mexican government in the process of structural change of city governments is more a matter of long-term strategic appreciation than a short-term oriented goal.

However, transnational relations have initiated a “new order of the ages” in the relationship between local governments and its immigrant population, in the sense that certain type of actions from the home state does trigger mechanisms of empowerment that will certainly influence the relationship between the host state and its immigrant population. Indeed, an important conclusion of this work is that the interaction between local and transnational politics explains different levels of empowerment of the home community in the host society.

From a theoretical standpoint, this paper emphasizes the importance of incorporating research work on transnational politics into the mainstream research body of urban politics. This is the third paper of a series of four that show different theoretical and empirical perspectives of the term “political transnationalism.” In the first paper, “Organizing Immigrant Communities in American Cities: Is This Transnationalism or What? (Cano 2004b), I argue that the term “transnationalism” has been transformed to a point in which it is extremely difficult to sustain the broader sense of the concept beyond its generic roots. Categories such as “political transnationalism,” “anthropological transnationalism,” or “sociological transnationalism,” provide a more feasible working frame in comparison to the use of the term as a catch-all paradigmatic umbrella.

In the second paper, “The Virgin, the Priest, and the Flag: Political Mobilization of Mexican Immigrants in Chicago, Houston, and New York” (Cano 2004c), I examine the transnational character and power of the Catholic Church in the mobilization of Mexican immigrants through religious and nationalistic symbols, and argue that the Mexican community cannot be considered anymore a monolithic group, whose political behavior is one and the same all over the United States. In the fourth paper, “The Institute of Mexicans Abroad: The Day After... After 156 Years” (Cano and Délano 2004), the authors argue that political transnational relations between the Mexican government and Mexican immigrants in the United States are not new, however, these relations vary across time, depending on political and economic circumstances that involve U.S.-Mexico relations. They also emphasize the role of the Institute of Mexicans Abroad in the last stage of the historical process.

In the first and second papers, political transnationalism is addressed from an organizational perspective, at a meso level of analysis. In the fourth paper, the term is addressed from a macro and meso levels of analysis, whereas the current paper addresses the term from a macro perspective, in which the interaction between two governmental bodies (one from the host state, and another from the home state) leads to different levels of transnational relations around and about a growing immigrant population in the host state.