numbers count

[Guest guest]

.

You've been offered several primary resources regarding your questions (mar

08). I provide a few comments as a background to the questions.

There have always been indigenous workers from south of the border in the

United States, as well as indigenous workers from Canada who enter the

northern states to perform farm labor, but it is safe to say that today

there are more indigenous farm workers, and indigenous peoples from other

continents, in the states than in the past. It is equally likely that more

of these workers speak very little or no Spanish and English; but they

learn quickly, often bypassing Spanish to learn English. The depth of what

might be called their investment in " cultural capital " is on the increase

(that is, practical knowledge of migration from members of the community

who have migrated in the past). Some suggest that this is more true of

indigenous women who enter the states (they speak little or no English and

Spanish, and they are less likely to have prior migratory experience),

usually because the men have had previous experience through internal

migration in/from their home countries. All this generally means that

choices of where they seek work is contingent on areas in this country

where other speakers of their language have gone before them. In my

travels, I've found cases of what some call " daughter communities, " that

is, communities settled by members of the original recipient community: for

example, from one municipality in California to a community along the east

coast; from one town in Florida to two or more other towns in Florida and

Georgia (yes, indigenous peoples are found all across the country). I've

encountered a situation where an early arrival secured a mail box at the

post office, whose number was " told " to others of his language group, who

passed through the town to retrieve mail, whether they actually were living

in that community (his family, upon settling-in, " chanced " upon a postal

box whose number was easily remembered). Anthropologists like to explain

how the names of such communities and corresponding sending

communities/areas across the country are passed along to others, much like

one passes business cards with information on where and how to contact

someone. In this case, it's populations and communities ensuring future

contacts.

Having outlined what's " safe to say, " I should mention the debate whether

the main difference in today's " indigenous farm workers " is a matter of

indigenous language retention that sets them apart from many of the past

who also should be considered " indigenous, " owing to similarities among

both groups (past and present) with regards to cultural familiarity with

things of the modern world, not to mention rural customs and practices.

Here is where an answer appears to your question on return to Mexico.

Return may coincide with community festivals, which vary by town, as well

as for La Pascua. But not necessarily every year, and not necessarily those

times of the year for everyone.

Most scholars name 4 to 6 sending states in central Mexico as " classic "

sending areas (namely, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Guerrero,

and make your choice from Puebla or Tamaulipas), to which they add most all

of the other states in the past decade or two, as well as highland

provinces of Guatemala. As one of the first to take interest in quantifying

patterns of migration, there was a researcher in the 1930s who perused

records in this country (I believe they were baptismal and marriage

records, but don't quote me), of a super-large number close to several

thousand, from which he gave a broad overview of sending areas in Mexico

and destination (recipient) areas in the states.

All this goes to show that numbers are important, for they are the language

that many of us use in daily research and work. And the zero, itself. Was

that not an indigenous discovery and gift to all of us, however many we may

number today?

V Bletzer