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University of California Press

About the Book

Anthropologists, historians, and sociologists will find here a striking challenge to accepted explanations of the northward movement of migrants from Mexico into the United States. Alvarez investigates the life histories of pioneer migrants and their offspring, finding a human dimension to migration which centers on the family. Spanish, American, and English exploits paved the way for exchange between Baja and Alta California. Alvarez shows how cultural stability actually increased as migrants settled in new locations, bringing their common values and memories with them.


Anthropologists, historians, and sociologists will find here a striking challenge to accepted explanations of the northward movement of migrants from Mexico into the United States. Alvarez investigates the life histories of pioneer migrants and their offs

About the Author

Robert R. Alvarez, Jr. is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Photographs
Maps
Foreword by Renato Rosaldo
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction

1
The Historical and Geographic Background of Mobility
The Geography
The Climate
Discovery and Settlement
2
Nineteenth-Century Developments: The Socioeconomic Context of Migration
Foreign Interests and the Development of Mining
The Porfiriato: Foreign Concessions and the Mining Economy, 1870-1900
The Development of the Frontera
3
The Social, Geographic, and Temporal Basis of Network Formation
Calmalli: The Mining Circuit and Early Formulation, 1880-1910
Calexico and San Diego: La Frontera and Early Formalization, 1910-1930
San Diego-Lemon Grove: Florescence, 1930-1950
4
Calmalli: The Mining Circuit and Early Network Development, 1880-1910
Calmalli: The Geographic Nexus
The Characteristics of the Baja Network
North to CalmalH
CalmalH: The Social Nexus
North to the Frontera: A Period of Transition
5
San Diego and Calexico:
The Frontera and Early Network Formalization
Parentesco: A Regionally Based Kinship
La Frontera: A New Environment
The Border and Immigration
San Diego, 1900-1920: The Early Steamship Migrants
The Second Stream: The Twenties and Thirties
6
San Diego-Lemon Grove: Florescence, 1930-1950
Calexico to San Diego
The Frontera Towns: Geographic and Family Connections
The Processes and Mechanisms of Network Formation
7
Epilogue
8
Conclusion
Appendix:
Original Spanish Field Notes
Notes
Bibliography
Index