Humanities Decanted: Migrant Longing: Letter Writing across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

Migrant Longing draws upon Miroslava Chávez-García’s personal collection of 300 letters exchanged by family members across the U.S.-Mexico border, illuminating what migrants experienced in their everyday lives both “here” and “there” (aqui y alla). Chávez-García uses these private, firsthand accounts to demonstrate not only how migrants struggled to maintain their sense of humanity in el norte but also how those remaining at home made sense of their changing identities in response to the loss of loved ones.

Miroslava Chávez-García is Professor in the Department of History at UC Santa Barbara and holds affiliate status in the Departments of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Feminist Studies. She is the author of Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s (2004) and States of Delinquency: Race and Science in the Making of California’s Juvenile Justice System (2012). She has also published numerous articles on topics of migration, juvenile justice, and Chicana history as well as on mentoring young scholars of color in academia.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Harry Girvetz Memorial Endowment