Mexicans in Alaska: An Ethnography of Mobility, Place, and Transnational Life

300 Pages·2018·3.31 MB·English

by  Sara Komarnisky

Mexicans in Alaska
Anthropology of Contemporary North America
series editors
James Bielo, Miami University
Carrie Lane, California State University, Fullerton
advisory board
Peter Benson, Washington University in St. Louis
John L. Caughey, University of Maryland
Alyshia Gálvez, Lehman College
Carol Greenhouse, Princeton University
John Hartigan, University of Texas
John Jackson Jr., University of Pennsylvania
Ellen Lewin, University of Iowa
Bonnie McElhinny, University of Toronto
Shalini Shankar, Northwestern University
Carol Stack, University of California, Berkeley
Mexicans
in Alaska
An Ethnography of Mobility,
Place, and Transnational Life
Sara V. Komarnisky
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln and London
© 2018 by the Board of Regents of the
University of Nebraska
Parts of chapter 5 were originally published in “Suitcases
Full of Mole: Traveling Foods and the Connections between
Mexico and Alaska,” Alaska Journal of Anthropology 7, no. 1
(2009): 41– 56. Reprinted by permission of the Alaska
Anthropological Association.
All rights reserved. Manufactured in the
United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Komarnisky, Sara V., author.
Title: Mexicans in Alaska: an ethnography of mobility,
place, and transnational life / Sara V. Komarnisky.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018. |
Series: Anthropology of contemporary North America |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2017038779 |
isbn 9781496203649 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 9781496205636 (pbk.: alk. paper)
isbn 9781496206466 (epub)
isbn 9781496206473 (mobi)
isbn 9781496206480 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Mexicans— Alaska— History. | Mexican
Americans— Alaska— History. | Mexicans— Alaska— Social
conditions. | Mexican Americans— Alaska— Social
conditions. | Foreign workers, Mexican— Alaska— History.
| Foreign workers, Mexican— Alaska— Social conditions. |
Migrant labor— Alaska— History.
Classification: lcc f915.m5 k66 2018 |
ddc 305.868/720798— dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2017038779
Set in Charter itc by E. Cuddy.
Para la próxima generación de Acuitzences en Alaska:
que no se olviden de sus raíces

Echarle vueltas y vueltas y vueltas
(Going back and forth and back and forth).
luis bravo sr., describing his working life

Contents
List of Illustrations xi
List of Tables xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Acuitzences in Alaska xix
Introduction: Yes, There Are Mexicans in Alaska 1
1. Tracing Mexican Alaska: A Transnational Social Space 19
2. The Annual Migration of the Traveling Swallows:
Shared Experiences of Mobility across North America 45
3. “My Grandfather Worked Here”: Three Generations
of the Bravo Family in Alaska and Michoacán 75
4. “You Have to Get Used to It”:
Living the North American Dream 107
5. The Stuff of Transnational Life: Suitcases Full of Mole,
T- Shirts, Roosters, and Other Things That Move 135
6. “It Freezes the People Together”:
Producing a Mexican Alaska 165
Conclusion: Freedom to Move 197
Notes 215
Bibliography 241
Index 251