Alloys
Migration
between Mexico and the United States has
undergone radical change in the last decade. It is now the great metropolitan areas, rather than rural ones, which send migrants to the north. This is the case of Mexico City, which has moved from being a point of attraction to one of expulsion. While in the 1950s the city received great waves of internal migrants in search of work, today it is the city population which heads for the northern border seeking better opportunities. Annually some 150,000 migrants leave the Federal District for the US, most of them young single people who want independence, or to help their families. Remittances from these migrants’ work represents an important source of income for those who live in the periphery of the city. But their contribution is not ≥ Federico Gama. (Photos / Fotos).
merely financial: they also introduce new ideas, especially when they stay in regular contact. With so many of them involved in the building industry as construction workers, migrants send their families plans, sketches, and photographs of their dream houses for them to return to, to be built with their remittances – though this return will often never occur. So long-distance phone calls are spent discussing building
Los cholos, hijos de mexicanos nacidos en Estados Unidos, han construido una identidad cultural que no es estadounidense ni mexicana, sino una mezcla de ambas y que tiene presencia en la periferia de la Ciudad de México. Die Cholos, in den USA geborene Kinder mexikanischer Eltern, haben eine kulturelle Identität ausgebildet, die weder US-amerikanisch noch mexikanisch ist, sondern eine Mischung aus beiden, und die in der Peripherie von Mexiko-Stadt starke Präsenz zeigt.
materials and commenting on photographs that go back and forth regardless of borders, while the landscape of Mexico City — together with many other regions of the country — undergoes transformation. However, migration has not only introduced American cultural patterns, but Mexican-American ones too. The Cholos — the children of Mexicans born in the US — have created an identity neither American nor Mexican, but rather a mix of both, which has returned from east Los Angeles and New York to the outskirts of Mexico City. In admiration of the family members who have left, young people still here speak Spanglish, wear the same baggy trousers as their cousins or uncles, wear hairnets in homage to the millions working in American restaurants, listen to rap and hip-hop, and adopt the names of gangs from Los Angeles or New York for their own. The nickname ‘Nezayork’ for Nezahualcóyotl — a sprawling zone to the east of Mexico City — reveals an increasingly powerful transculturation.
Counterpoint
The Cholos, the children of Mexicans born in the United States, have constructed a cultural identity which is neither US-American nor Mexican but rather a mixture of both, and which has a strong presence in the outskirts of Mexico City.
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