Peruvian Lives across Borders: Power, Exclusion, and Home

231 Pages·2018·9.289 MB·English

by  M. Cristina Alcalde

peruvian lives
across borders

Peruvian Lives
across Borders
Power, Exclusion, and Home
m. cristina alcalde
© 2018 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Alcalde, M. Cristina, author.
Title: Peruvian lives across borders : power, exclusion, and home / M. Cristina Alcalde.
Description: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2017056068| ISBN 9780252041846 (hardback) | isbn
9780252083464 (paperback)
Subjects: lcsh: Peruvians—Foreign countries. | Return migration--Peru. | Group
identity—Peru. | Peru—Emigration and immigration—Social aspects. | BISAC:
HISTORY / Latin America / South America. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women’s Studies.
| SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration.
Classification: lcc jv7511 .A33 2018 | ddc 305.868/85—dc23 lc record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2017056068
Cover illustration: ©iStock.com/misio69
A mi familia, who provide me
with my sense of home . . .

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Transnational Lives:
Home, Privilege, and Exclusion 1
Chapter 1: Privilege, Racialization, and Exclusionary
Cosmopolitanism in Transnational Trajectories 34
Chapter 2: Gendering Return: From Middle-Class Señoras
to Migrants without Domestic Help, and Back 68
Chapter 3: Gendering Everyday Violence and Seguridad
across Spaces 91
Chapter 4: Heteronormativity, Homophobia, and Home 118
Chapter 5: The Taste of Home: Nostalgia, Pride,
and the Limits of Inclusion 142
Conclusion: Persistent Hierarchies and Transnational Lives 165
Notes 173
Bibliography 185
Index 207

Acknowledgments
Research specifically for this book began just a few years ago, but the topics
themselves and my research and interest in Peru and migration have a much
longer history. It is impossible to list all the people, places, opportunities,
and forms of support that have made this book possible, but here I attempt
to include at least some of these.
My parents, Pilar Vargas and Xavier Alcalde, would tell me as a child who
complained about moving around so much that I would one day be thankful
for all these moves and the new homes and new people the moves involved.
All these years later I still can’t say I’m mostly thankful for the moves, but
I recognize with much more certainty that my experiencing different ways
of seeing the world early on made possible my finding anthropology a good
fit in college and later deciding to focus on topics that eventually led to this
book. My mother, father, brother, and sister (Pilar, Xavier, Gonzalo, and
Gabriela) were my first and constant home amid movement across borders,
and I am incredibly thankful that they are my family. Although I did not
interview my parents for this book, they remain the most important return
migrants in my life.
As a parent myself, I am also very thankful to my children, Santiago and
Emilio, for being part of their lives and for keeping me grounded. I am very
fortunate to have my smart, caring, generous and supportive spouse, Joe
O’Neil, as a partner in this rich, complicated journey together. Gonzalo,
Gabriela, Rob, Nico, Lucas, Paula, and Dan also remind me of how impor-
tant transnational ties are, and I am grateful to have them all as family and
in my life.
Contacting and asking people to meet with you for research can be a
difficult, tricky process. Meeting someone who wants to know more about
your life for their research can also be challenging and requires setting aside