Latinidad
Transnational Cultures in the United States
This series publishes books that deepen and expand our knowledge and understanding of the various Latina/o populations in the United States in the context of their transnational relationships with cultures of the broader Americas. The focus is on the history and analysis of Latino cultural systems and practices in national and transnational spheres of influence from the nineteenth century to the present. The series is open to scholarship in political science, economics, anthropology, linguistics, history, cinema and television, literary and cultural studies, and popular culture and encourages interdisciplinary approaches, methods, and theories. The series grew out of discussions with faculty at the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, where an interdisciplinary emphasis is being placed on transborder and transnational dynamics.
Carlos Velez-Ibaez, Series Editor, School of Transborder Studies
Rodolfo F. Acua, In the Trenches of Academe: The Making of Chicana/o Studies
Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez, Zapotecs on the Move: Cultural, Social, and Political Processes in Transnational Perspective
Marivel T. Danielson, Homecoming Queers: Desire and Difference in Chicana Latina Cultural Production
Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., Becoming Mexipino: Multiethnic Identities and Communities in San Diego
Lisa Jarvinen, The Rise of Spanish-Language Filmmaking: Out from Hollywoods Shadow, 19291939
Regina M. Marchi, Day of the Dead in the USA: The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon
Marci R. McMahon, Domestic Negotiations: Gender, Nation, and Self-Fashioning in US Mexicana and Chicana Literature and Art
A. Gabriel Melendez, Hidden Chicano Cinema: Film Dramas in the Borderlands
Priscilla Pea Ovalle, Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom
Luis F. B. Plascencia, Disenchanting Citizenship: Mexican Migrants and the Boundaries of Belonging
Maya Socolovsky, Troubling Nationhood in U.S. Latina Literature: Explorations of Place and Belonging
Zapotecs on the Move
Cultural, Social, and Political Processes in Transnational Perspective
Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cruz-Manjarrez, Adriana, 1966
Zapotecs on the move : cultural, social, and political processes in transnational perspective / Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez.
p. cm. (Latinidad: transnational cultures in the united states)
Includes .
ISBN 978-0-8135-6071-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8135-6070-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8135-6072-4 (e-book)
1. Zapotec IndiansMexicoHidalgo YallagHistory. 2. Zapotec IndiansMexicoHidalgo YallagMigrations. 3. Zapotec IndiansCultural assimilationCaliforniaLos Angeles. 4. Rural-urban migrationCaliforniaLos Angeles. I. Title.
F1221.Z3C76 2013
398.208997'68dc23 2012033354
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All photos are by the author unless otherwise noted.
Copyright 2013 by Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is fair use as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
I dedicate this book to Heriberto Avelino
and to the Yallag Zapotecs
Contents
I could not have written this book without the exceptional help, trust, and support of many people. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude, appreciation, and respect for la Gente de Yallag who live in Los Angeles, Oaxaca City, and Yallag. I think of every Yalalteco/a who informed and helped me to develop this project. I am deeply indebted to all of them for allowing me to participate in their community gatherings, for welcoming me in their homes, and for sharing their stories and their joy of life. Warm and special thanks go to my friends Estela Canseco and Jos Bollo. Estelas support was crucial to carry out this project. I am indebted to her for the time she took to bring me into her community in Los Angeles, for her encouragement to do my work, for introducing me to her extended family in Yallag, and for welcoming my husband and me into her home. I thank Jos Bollo for his friendship and unconditional support. I wish to mention that Jos is not only one of the best Yalaltec-Jarabe dancers in Yallag and in Los Angeles, but also one of the kindest persons I have known within the Yalaltec community. In addition, his thoughtful ideas, good sense of humor, and remarkable knowledge of his culture have shaped and been fundamental in my work. I thank him for teaching me the art of dancing to the heights.
During the course of this investigation in Los Angeles, I was privileged to work with a great number of Yalaltec families and friends who shared their experiences and stories with me over a period of many years. I would like to acknowledge the generosity and help of Irma, Juan, and Hugo Canseco; Cornelio Aquino; Trinidad Ros; Gerardo Vasquez; Israel Monterrubio; Bernarda Salvador; the late Chico Diego; Carmen Mestas; Eduardo Molina; Elizabeth Eslava; Octaviano and Elba Mulato; Edith and Renya Cancio; Elia Primo; Juan and Eustolia Ventura; Gerardo Delgado; Josefina Domnguez; Gerado and Oliva Vsquez; Cesar Bautista; Federico Aquino; Elias Bolaos; Noel Ignacio; Ruben Lice; Paula Chimil; Guadalupe Maldonado; Elodia Acevez; Elena Lucas; Irene Miguel; Petronila Vargas; Victoria, Jesus, and Quea Diego; Abundio, Crispin, and Fidencio Acevez; Violeta Chino; Paula Chimil; Hilario Molina; Ema Lucas; Liborio Matas; Aurelio Mulato; Taurino Illescas and family; Rufina Reyes; Silvano Maldonado; Eloisa Fabian; Juan and Severino Montellano; Eufemia Bollo and Juan Bautista; Gladis Garca Canseco; Norma and Erick Diego; Fredy, Linda, and Juana Fernndez; Wendy and Janette Agustin; Erika Maldonando; Anais Diego; Carlos Beltrn; Francisco and Carlos Aquino; Jessica, Carmen, and Reyna Ventura; Silvia, Laura, Daniel, and Javier Mulato; Carlos and Alberto Mulato Vargas; Sheyla Chino; Ana Patricia and Maira Maldonado; Patricia Vicente and family; and Vilma and Magdalena. Thanks to all the musicians of the Banda Filarmnica de Yallag of Los Angeles, the Zempoaltepetl brass band, and La Nueva Imgen of Los Angeles brass band.
I am also profoundly thankful to a great number of Yalaltecos in Yallag and Oaxaca City for their hospitality and for their interest in participating in this project. In particular, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Emilia and Gil Bollo as well as my godmother Alicia and late godfather Juan Bollo. They welcomed me into their homes during my multiple stays in Oaxaca City and in Yallag and took care of me. My appreciation also goes to late Mario Molina; Rafael Ventura; Cndido Primo, Pedro, Linda, and Doa Tere; Juan Delagado; Tere and Juana Vzquez; Yunitza, Camilo, Arturo and Luis Vsquez; Joel Aquino; Luvia Aquino; Plutarco Aquino and family; Acela Tomas; Maximino Aquino; Alicia Montellano; Adela; Francisco Limeta; Herlinda and Carmen Diego; Senorina; Beremundo Ventura; Juan Diego; Segismundo Molina; Jaime Morales; Justo Pasos and family; Efren Gmez and family; Oscar Cristobal; Juana Mndez; Soledad Revilla; Leonardo Maldonado; Father Adrian Snchez; El Cuevas, Juan Snchez, and Rene Brito; Marcos Brito; and the students and the professors of
