Abrazando el Espiritu

"With profound nuance, Ana Rosas provides a searing, intimate history of the women and children left behind during the Bracero Program and the subsequent ruptures that span generations. A landmark transnational study, Abrazando el Espíritu speaks volumes about the hidden costs to Mexican families as it takes readers on journeys of possibility, pain, and resilience. With each turn of the page, Rosas powerfully demonstrates the relevance of historical insight and research to contemporary immigration policy." —Vicki L. Ruiz, author of From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America

"What happens to the families of male labor migrants who go abroad to work? Ana Rosas examines the emotional costs borne by men, women, and children of the bracero era and families' strategies for coping and for seeking reunion. Their strategies were both creative and daring as they confronted U.S. and Mexican governmental power (border patrol, surveillance, welfare authorities) as well as conventional gender norms, transforming the nature of labor migration and the family in the process.  Abrazando el Espíritu enlarges our knowledge and our hearts." —Mae Ngai, author of Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America

"This significant work offers a critically important assessment of the enduring force of U.S. border governance and labor regulation in determining the fortunes of working-class Mexican communities in both countries. Abrazando el Espíritu affirms the ardent struggle migrant communities have waged to assert their belonging—and the creativity they bring along with their sweat—beyond the fields and factories."—Alicia Schmidt Camacho, author of Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands