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Claudia did not wish to migrate from her home in Castillotla, Puebla. Nevertheless, her partner, who had been in the United States before, thought they should, and, with a baby on the way, she said, “Uno piensa en los dos, no sólo en uno” [You think about the two of you, not just yourself]. She had a terrible time crossing the border in Arizona. She was returned to Mexico seven times by the border patrol. She worried about the immediate risks posed by her crossing, and she also worried about going through the remainder of her pregnancy far from her mother and mother-in-law. Over the phone, they attempted to care for Claudia the way they would if she were still in Castillotla. But, in New York City, Claudia said she and her partner were together and they could “sacar a la familia adelante” [pull the family ahead].1 Even though Claudia did not come to the United States because of personal ambition, her migration was part of a larger project, calculated to enable her and her partner to improve their lives and that of the child who was on the way. Separation from her family, the rupture of the networks of women who would have cared for her and the baby during pregnancy and after birth, even the economic expense of crossing and then settling as a couple in a costly city were secondary to the overall project of unity as a family and a project to better their circumstances. Rosario had her first child in San Pablo, outside of Apizaco, Tlaxcala, Mexico. Left by her husband, she lived with her father, who helped maintain her. When a sister died of cancer, still grieving, she decided to leave everything behind and migrate to New York: “Decidí quedarme un tiempo aquí para realizarme” [I decided to stay for a while to fulfill myself]. Now, five years later, Immigrant Aspirations and the Decisions Families Make Chapter 2 21 she is expecting her second child and is happy. Her partner, she says, supports her, and, she explains, “Me siento capaz” [I feel capable]. Columba came because of economic need: “No había que comer” [There was nothing to eat]. She left her four children with her mother in Ocuapa, near Chilpancingo de Bravo, Puebla, and crossed the border with a coyote her partner hired.2 She works in a factory, sewing. Nayeli came from Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla, explaining, “Bueno, como siempre, este . . . querer trabajar, salir adelante y tener un porvenir” [Well, like always . . . wanting to work, to get ahead and have a future]. Although each of these women came because of individual, sometimes tragic, circumstances, their stories share a common thread. Each had the desire to better her life circumstances, a process often referred to in Spanish by those in this study with the noun superación or with the verb superarse. To migrate is a dramatic rupture that is also often seen as a means to proactively alter one’s path. Superarse—literally, to surpass oneself, or better oneself—is the answer frequently given to the question “¿Por qué te viniste?” [Why did you come?]: “Para superarme.” Douglas Massey and Magaly Sánchez identify five main categories of motivation for international migration, each of which was well represented in this study’s sample: economic conditions at origin, economic conditions at destination, network connections, violence at origin, and family reunification (2010, 39). Although their projects are not always successful and some come to view their migration as a “bad investment,” as one interviewee put it, the locating of their migration within a larger aspirational frame influences immigrants’ approach to life in the United States. Although some migrate as a youthful rite of passage, for others migration is a last resort, a costly, risky venture in which the stakes are extremely high. In turn, typically not only the migrant herself has high hopes for her sojourn in New York; migrants have an average of four people they have left behind who will depend on their remittances (Suárez Orozco 2009). María Islas (2010) writes about the “transnational dreams” of migrants and the families that stay behind, asserting that family members who never migrate increasingly stake their aspirations on the fortunes of those who leave for the United States. As a result, as trying and dangerous as their crossing may be and despite the difficulties they often face in establishing themselves in the United States...

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