Negotiating Formal Membership in Mexico and the United States: The case of Federations of Mexican Hometown Associations in Los Angeles County

Abstract

This study focuses on how Mexican Federations of HTAs have negotiated their formal membership in Mexico and the United States. In Mexico, migrants' market citizenship opened the channels of communication between Federations of HTAs, and the Mexican government. Once those channels were established; HTA Federation leaders were able to negotiate their passage from market to formal membership. In the case of the United States, HTA Federations have advocated for a formal inclusion in the United States, by organizing marches, lobbying and writing to their representatives and by emphasizing their economic contributions to the U.S. society in their discourse. However, these strategies have proven partially ineffective. Nonetheless, Federation leaders have sought other strategies of inclusion at the local level by emphasizing the value of migrants as market citizens, encouraging migrants to show "good character" in order to be seen as "less illegal," and through civic activities.