How immigration influences the construction of family, identity, and community among Mexican Americans and migrants from Mexico

I’m Neither Here nor There explores how immigration influences the construction of family, identity, and community among Mexican Americans and migrants from Mexico. Based on long-term ethnographic research, Patricia Zavella describes how poor and working-class Mexican Americans and migrants to California’s central coast struggle for agency amid the region’s deteriorating economic conditions and the rise of racial nativism in the United States. Zavella also examines tensions within the Mexican diaspora based on differences in legal status, generation, gender, sexuality, and language. She proposes “peripheral vision” to describe the sense of displacement and instability felt by Mexican Americans and Mexicans who migrate to the United States as well as by their family members in Mexico.

Drawing on close interactions with Mexicans on both sides of the border, Zavella examines migrant journeys to and within the United States, gendered racialization, and exploitation at workplaces, and the challenges that migrants face in forming and maintaining families. As she demonstrates, the desires of migrants to express their identities publicly and to establish a sense of cultural memory are realized partly through Latin American and Chicano protest music, and Mexican and indigenous folks songs played by musicians and cultural activists.

"“I’m Neither Here nor There is a compelling examination of structures of difference, of becoming and belonging, and of forms of border thinking that map spatio-conceptual cosmos and the human integuments that hold them together through ‘transcommunal subjectivity.’... If only every book were as intellectually productive, ethically inspiring, and politically compelling.”" - North American Dialogue

"“Patricia Zavella’s timely I’m Neither Here Nor There serves as an example of a broadly accessible approach to the study of the working poor. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in central California, Zavella analyses the daily challenges encountered by Santa Cruz County’s Mexican migrants and Mexican Americans, with an eye towards issues of family, gender, sexuality and legal status.”" - Ethnic and Racial Studies

"“With detail and sensitivity, Zavella illustrates how changing gender roles and generational expectations are affecting and transforming Mexican diaspora communities as migrants create inventive strategies for survival…. Theoretically sophisticated yet written in an accessible style, this book is especially apropos for graduate courses dealing with themes of globalization, immigration, transnationalism, and border life and is also recommended for general readers interested in these themes.”" - American Ethnologist

"“The breadth of Patricia Zavella’s I’m Neither Here Nor There is staggering.... It is undeniable that Zavella is a rigorous, experienced, and sophisticated ethnographer who has made a monumental and original contribution with I’m Neither Here Nor There.... [It] amplifies the words of marginalized people who 'cannot shout' (p. xii) yet justifiably 'eel entitled to dignity in exchange for their labor'(p. xi).”" - American Journal of Sociology

"“Zavella’s book is an important read for scholars of migration, transnationalism, citizenship, and political economy, as well as those whose work engages gender, sexuality and race. While set in the US, Zavella’s conceptual frame and analysis can be a useful tool for Canadian scholars, particularly those working in the areas of migrant integration, immigration status and radicalized poverty.”" - Labour/Le Travail

"“I’m Neither Here nor There by Patricia Zavella is impassioned, nuanced, powerful, and politically compelling. Above all, it is stunningly comprehensive in a way that only a senior scholar who has wrestled with her own research and chewed on existing scholarship for years can deliver. In one way or another, I’m Neither Here nor There addresses virtually every issue facing migrants in the U.S. and does so with remarkable sophistication.”" - International Migration Review