ABSTRACT
In the midst of the rise of Mexican migration to Chicago, migrants began to organize into social support clubs. These clubes de oriundos or hometown associations were similar to earlier mutual aid societies: spaces to maintain cultural links to their homeland in an often unwelcoming land. Mexican immigrant hometown clubs in the Midwest (Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana) serve as a resource for new arrivals to celebrate hometown traditions, fight discrimination, and cultivate links with fellow paisanos (countrymen) in the United States. At times, the clubs would pool resources to support philanthropic projects back in their hometown villages, such as renovating a local church, paving a deteriorating road, or providing an ambulance to a local health clinic. Until the late 1980s, the clubs remained largely outside the purview of either Mexican or U.S. politics. Over the decades, however, Midwestern associations grew dramatically from 35 in 1995 to over 340 by 2008 (Chicago Mexican Consular materials, 2009) while simultaneously evolving into vehicles to fight for full citizenship and enhanced economic opportunities. The expansion of the associations was due to growing Mexican governmental attention towards its diaspora. Mexican political elites became increasingly aware of the associations’ growing economic clout through their remittance-based development efforts. By the late 1980s the Mexican government initiated outreach efforts through its consular offices to the associations to facilitate their growth, foster the formation of state-level federations, and multiply their economic development efforts within their Mexican pueblos (Goldring, 2002; Gomez, 2005). Hometown associations are best known for their participation in Mexico’s tres-por-uno (three-for-one) development program: for every dollar a club donates for development in their pueblos, a dollar match is contributed by the municipal, state, and national governments of Mexico. Chicago’s 3x1 program began with an association from the Mexican state of Guerrero subsidizing Guerrero’s social security program and aid families that had been deported. As a result of the significant public attention migrants were now garnering in their hometowns, many association cultural festivities began to take on political overtones as Mexican governmental elites often appeared championing emigrants for their continued devotion to Mexico (Gomez, 2005). Migrants, in turn, increased their political clout through negotiations with authorities over the implementation of development projects and becoming advocates for dual nationality and absentee voting rights in Mexico (Fitzgerald, 2006). The significance of the remittances and organizations of emigrants to Mexican politics increased in the 2000s. Mexican President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) overhauled consular programming and nationalized outreach efforts to support the associations’ growth and 3x1 programs (Fitzgerald, 2006). Hometown associations throughout the United States, in turn, began to receive political recognition due to their contributions towards development in Mexico (estimated at U.S. $30 million). Consequently, Chicago associations cultivated norms of political engagement, increased self-confidence, and demonstrated a level of negotiated political efficacy focused almost entirely on Mexico. Even with organizations’ intensifying connections to their homeland, they were not immune to the U.S. political climate. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the beginning of the “war on terrorism,” U.S. immigration increasingly became a national security concern. Chicago’s associations, with support from the Mexican government, began to move into U.S.-centered financial service and political integration activities: support for the consulate’s matricula consular documentation to provide undocumented members with formal identification and access to banking services; expanding organizational activities to include ESL classes, legal counseling, and scholarship activities; and joining the National Alliance of Latino and Caribbean Communities to support national pro-immigrant legislation. By 2003 eight
Midwestern federations and 175 associations coalesced into a unique Chicago-based confederation. A key driver of the confederation development from the state of Michoacán became Illinois Governor Blagojevich’s director of the Office of New Americans Policy and Advocacy. This office worked to promote immigrant integration services in the state. While unique among federation leaders, this new connection to state government aroused further interest in domestic interest-group activity for some hometown leaders. In spite of these new activities, in 2005 Mexico still had primacy as the organizations battled for absentee voting rights in Mexico’s 2006 presidential elections. This privilege was granted in early 2005 (although restrictions attached to the measure significantly reduced emigrant voter turnout) (Smith and Bakker, 2008, p. 133). It would take a severe political threat to move U.S.-focused activity to the top of many hometown associations’ agendas. House Judiciary Chair James Sensenbrenner introduced HR4437 (the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005) which contained highly punitive provisions, including redefining any provision of support to unauthorized migrants as a criminal offense (Wayne, 2005). Insulted and frightened by the quick passage of the bill in December 2005 (with many leaders claiming as many as half of their members undocumented), association leaders gathered with other local immigrant activists to plan for the city’s 2006 mass marches at the Michoacán federation headquarters. The Sensenbrenner bill played a critical role in catalyzing immigrants’ collective resistance on March 10, 2006 with a mass march in Chicago, an effort that sparked mass protests throughout the country on May 1, 2006. Soon after the mass marches of 2006, the associations were recognized by local politicians as a potential new voting constituency. From 2006 until the presidential elections of 2008, politicians in Illinois increasingly courted the associations as a voting bloc. While the associations continued their Mexico-focused activities, the organizations were also assuming activities focused on U.S. political integration: citizenship, lobbying, and voting drives. Some association leaders would come to resemble more of an interest group promoting voting campaigns over marching with an eye towards local political recognition. Other leaders, frustrated by failed immigration reform legislation and rising local repression, returned to traditional cultural-and identity-affirming activities.
