I’m Neither Here nor There: Mexicans’ Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty by Patricia Zavella (review)

Book Reviews appeal to historians of the Atlantic world, scholars interested in transnational cooperation, and anyone studying independence and the end of American colonies. Climate & Catastrophe offers a novel way of looking at the Age of Revolutions . Johnson has made a valuable contribution to the field and will force historians to acknowledge environmental crises as a contributing factor to revolutionary change. After having assigned this book in an upper-level environmental history course, I can say that my students found it to be an accessible and engaging read. Most importantly, it provided students with a fine example of how to incorporate new methods and approaches to studying the past. Anna Rose Alexander Department of History University of Alabama in Huntsville I’M NEITHER HERE NOR THERE: MEXICANS’ QUOTIDIAN STRUGGLES WITH MIGRATION AND POVERTY. By Patricia Zavella. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011, 352 pages, $25.95 Culminating an impressive 13 years of research in Latino communities, Zavella’s volume brings together seven in-depth chapters that explore a selection of timely topics critical to our current understanding of migration and poverty. Her treatment is thus a welcomed relief from the ubiquitous sound bites generated by political pundits and the media for the public’s consumption that invariably gloss over some of the most pressing issues of our time. The book’s preface provides the context for the rest of the book. It is a context increasingly familiar today: one that has generated concerns about the recent and remarkable increase in immigration and poverty, especially among communities of color. It is this same context that historically brings together a wide range of social actors—often conflicted and in complicated ways—whose struggle to navigate their emersion into this context may span generations, multiple economic sectors, and modes of expression. In the introduction, Zavella gives readers an efficient overview of some of the pertinent theories related to the Mexican diaspora: those that inform our understanding of economic restructuring, class, capitalism, transnationalism , and assimilation, among others. All of these have at some time or another advanced our understanding of globalization. Zavella skillfully manages to examine the complex layering of these theories as they relate to the topics explored in subsequent chapters. In this way she captures a globalized urban landscape in the coastal region of California in Santa Cruz County. The region has the highest percent of Latinos in California as a whole. A brief history of the area, couched within the broader national history, brings readers quickly up to speed and sets the stage for 147 The Latin Americanist, June 2013 the generous and well-documented discussions about the border crossing experience (Chapter 1), migration (chapter 2), the working poor (chapter 3), migrant family formations (Chapter 4), the “divided home” (chapter 5), and transnational cultural memory (chapter 6). Salient subthemes within each of these chapters are given a human face by narratives provided by interviewees and key informants. Needless to say, these case studies will enrich classroom discussions. Seasoned scholars will find many of the subthemes addressing social phenomenon rich in detail. Instructors will appreciate a book that can be usefully assigned to students from a wide range of disciplines, while alternatively, having the option of assigning any one of the even-quality chapters that can very well stand on their own for individual use. Students and the lay readership will easily engage with a text that is fluid and personable and will surely develop a greater appreciation for the “quotidian struggles” that remain to this day largely imperceptible. At the theoretical level, Zavella contributes with the development of a concept she calls “peripheral vision” to help us imagine how a dual frame of reference mediates past and present experiences, and inherent differences between places. Correspondingly, these experiences nurture a growing awareness of what is possible. Often captured by popular musicians (Chapter 7), peripheral vision engenders a shift in perspective about what is simultaneously occurring both here (the United States) and there (Mexico). For further understanding of this idea, she relies on the old adage that captures the sentiment in Spanish: “Ni de aquı́, ni de allá”, which translates into: “Neither from here, nor from there.” Although this refers to an immigrant sensibility...