Impact of Internal Migration in the Rarámuri Community in Ciudad Juárez, México

Abstract

In the 1990s, Rarámuri families migrated to Ciudad Juárez from the Sierra Tarahumara due to the degradation of the ecosystem, drug trafficking, and government corruption that affected the community. To understand the impact that immigration has had on this community, I work on three different articles. The first study examines how migration has transformed gender/power relations. Using gender and migration theory, paired with a transnational feminist conceptual framework, I analyze how the Rarámuri communal life, worldview, usos y costumbres, holidays, and jobs are gendered and how these elements are transformed in Ciudad Juárez to readapt them to the demands of urban life. According to the Rarámuri worldview, women are better adapted to physical and emotional pain because women are born with four souls and men with three. This strength transforms women in the city, where they take on the roles of community leaders and heads of the family. The second research aims to understand how the Rarámuri in Ciudad Juárez (re)construct their social identity by examining photographs taken by Rarámuris. Using visual sociology paired with feminist ethnography, I discern social identification processes by the Rarámuri in Ciudad Juárez. I find that downtown Ciudad Juárez is a place that increases the experiences of discrimination. However, living in Colonia Tarahumaras, Kilómetro 30 and being part of the artesano/as help them mitigate the exclusion and reconstruct their social identity by creating solidarity and pride obtained through community work. The last paper aims to understand the vestiges of the colonial/modern [cis] gender system in the life of a transgender Rarámuri woman, Karen Paola, using life history methodology. Karen Paola’s life history demonstrates the ways one transgender woman challenged the vestiges of the colonial/modern [cis] gender system. Karen Paola and I identified a critical moment in her life: When she develops a new self-perception and gender transition. Her family and community acceptance are key to making her feel secure and without fear of showing herself for who she is, without a mask. Participating in the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/sexual/, queer, intersexual, and asexual) movements enabled her to achieve her goal of being the woman she wanted to be.