Gaspar Rivera-Salgado Ph.D.:Gaspar received his doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is currently Project Director at UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education where he teaches classes on Work, Labor and Social Justice in the US and immigration issues. He also directs the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies. He has previously held positions at several universities in the United States and was named the 2004-2005 Prince Claus Chair in Development and Human Rights at the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands. He currently serves as an advisor to several migrant organizations in California and Mexico, including the Fresno-based Binational Center for Oaxacan Indigenous Development, the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations and the Oaxaca-based Desarrollo Binacional Integral Indígena A.C. He has extensive experience as an independent consultant on transnational migration, race and ethnic relations and diversity trainings for large organizations. He was appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014-2017 as Vice-President of the Human Relations Commission for the City of Los Angeles. Among his publications include (with J. Fox) Indigenous Mexican Migration in the United States (University of California, San Diego, 2005) Phone: (310) 206-3910 Address: UCLA Labor Center Ueberroth Bulding 10945 LeConte Ave. Ste. 1103 Los Angeles CA 90095
Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sen... more Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sense of belonging to a region in a diff erent country of origin. Th eir philanthropic activities across borders have increasingly attracted the attention of government agencies and social and political actors. Th ese actors have endeavored to form more htas and place greater demands on them to expand their civic engagement. Th is strategy, however, will not necessarily lead to that purpose, but instead will likely exacerbate a critical gap in the htas’ organizational capacity. Th is
Migrant collective action is often grounded in transnational communities and shared collective id... more Migrant collective action is often grounded in transnational communities and shared collective identities. These social foundations constitute the basis of migrant civil society, which emerges in locally grounded public spaces that extend across national borders and expresses migrants’ capacity for selfrepresentation in the public sphere. Simply put, “migrant civil society” refers to migrantled membership organizations and public institutions. Specifically, it includes four arenas of collective actors and actions: migrantled membership organizations, migrantled nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), autonomous public spaces such as largescale cultural or political gatherings, and migrantled media.1 To spell out what the four arenas look like, membership organizations are composed primarily of migrants and can range from hometown associations to worker organizations, religious associations, and indigenous rights groups. They tend to come together around four broad collective identitie...
Cap 00 Introduccion Migrantes 1:44 PM Page 9 Introduccion* Jonathan Fox y Gaspar Rivera-Salgado L... more Cap 00 Introduccion Migrantes 1:44 PM Page 9 Introduccion* Jonathan Fox y Gaspar Rivera-Salgado La construccion de una sociedad civil entre los migrantes indigenas S E SIGUE pensando que los migrantes mexicanos en Estados Unidos consti- tuyen una poblacion etnicamente homogenea. La historia nos muestra que ciertamente estos migrantes compartieron muchas caracteristicas comunes, al provenir principalmente de comunidades rurales de la region centro-occi- dente del pais. Sin embargo, durante las dos ultimas decadas, esta poblacion se ha diversificado de manera dramatica, tanto social como geograficamen- te. Sus regiones de origen ahora incluyen una gama mas diversa de estados, asi como de grandes ciudades. 1 Por ejemplo, el area de Los Angeles cuenta actualmente con federaciones de asociaciones de migrantes de por lo me- nos 13 estados mexicanos diferentes, y existen 11 federaciones similares en Chicago. Las regiones de asentamiento en los Estados Unidos se estan di- versificando de la...
THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE MULTIPLE FORMS OF IMMIGRANT-LED ORGANIZATIONS found among Oaxacan indig... more THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE MULTIPLE FORMS OF IMMIGRANT-LED ORGANIZATIONS found among Oaxacan indigenous migrants that have enabled them to participate in various levels of the political and cultural spheres, in the different geographical spaces in which the Oaxaca diaspora has spread in the State of California. As has been extensively documented in the sociological literature on Mexican migration to the United States, the economic and social impact of the almost 12 million migrants has been such that it has transformed the places of origin and settlement on both sides of the border (Duquette-Rudy and Bada 2013; Smith 2006; Escala-Rabadan 2014). Given this, it is worthwhile to center our attention on a paradigmatic case in migrant collective political action: the Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB, Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations). This organization is composed largely of Oaxacan Indigenous migrants and has emerged as a unique point of reference in the m...
In the context of the globalization of capital and the increased mobility of labor across inter-n... more In the context of the globalization of capital and the increased mobility of labor across inter-national borders, this article analyzes the experience of indigenous migrant workers from the state of Oaxaca who have formed permanent communities in northern Mexico and in California. It focuses specifically on the experience of the Mixtec transnational community whose participation in the Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional has strengthened and changed the ethnic identities that hold together these communities across a fractured geog-raphy of different borders (at the local, state, and international levels) and has served as one of the bases to organize across these transnational borders. This analysis contributes to an understanding of how the activism of transnational political organizations promotes the construction of new political alliances along ethnic lines in a post-melting-pot California and the consolidation of indigenous migrant organizations within the context of increasin...
El proposito de este articulo es presentar algunos elementos basicos de la confluencia entre inve... more El proposito de este articulo es presentar algunos elementos basicos de la confluencia entre investigacion participativa y la promocion de desarrollo local con grupos de inmigrantes latinoamericanos en Estados Unidos. Para ello, revisaremos en detalle tres experiencias concretas de participacion entre distintos grupos de inmigrantes e investigadores, enfocadas en la formacion de capacidades organizativas de estos grupos, con el fin de destacar los aspectos centrales sobre el funcionamiento y ventajas de la investigacion participativa. Posteriormente, se presenta una reflexion que subraya las lecciones derivadas de estas experiencias sobre los retos de dicha vertiente metodologica, asi como sus usos en el ambito academico y del activismo.
Author(s): Rivera-Salgado, Gaspar; Wilson, Veronica | Abstract: This report is part of a series o... more Author(s): Rivera-Salgado, Gaspar; Wilson, Veronica | Abstract: This report is part of a series on Latin American immigrant civic and political participation that looks at nine cities around the United States: Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Fresno, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Omaha, NE; Tucson, AZ; San Jose, CA; and Washington, DC. The reports on each city describe the opportunities and barriers that Latino immigrants face in participating as civic and political actors in cities around the United States. This collection explores recent trends in Latino immigrant integration in the aftermath of the 2006 immigrant civic mobilizations, highlighting both similarities and differences across diverse cities and sectors.
Introduction FOR ACTIVISTS PARTICIPATING IN BINATIONAL NETWORKS AND COALITIONS, IT IS imperative ... more Introduction FOR ACTIVISTS PARTICIPATING IN BINATIONAL NETWORKS AND COALITIONS, IT IS imperative to consider the experiences of various cross-border social organizations of Mexican migrants. These organizations have tried to respond to the complex problems confronting migrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, problems that can only be solved through binational actions. This article examines the experiences of several cross-border organizations, such as the federations of civic clubs from several Mexican states and grass-roots orgarnzations of indigenous migrants. Over the past decade, these organizations have carried out actions on both sides of the border and have accumulated a plethora of experiences -- political capital, if you will -- that help illuminate the successes and failures of binational activism. Their experiences also illustrate possible alternatives that may serve other community and grass-roots organizations, given the organic integration being experienced by...
Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sen... more Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sense of belonging to a region in a diff erent country of origin. Th eir philanthropic activities across borders have increasingly attracted the attention of government agencies and social and political actors. Th ese actors have endeavored to form more htas and place greater demands on them to expand their civic engagement. Th is strategy, however, will not necessarily lead to that purpose, but instead will likely exacerbate a critical gap in the htas’ organizational capacity. Th is paper argues that a diff erent strategy is best suited to strengthen the organizational ability of htas, and proposes a framework to achieve this goal based on a capacity building pilot program for Latino htas from the Los Angeles region.
ABSTRACT Hometown associations (HTAS) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a s... more ABSTRACT Hometown associations (HTAS) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sense of belonging to a region in a different country of origin. Their philanthropic activities across borders have increasingly attracted the attention of government agencies and social and political actors. These actors have endeavored to form more HTAS and place greater demands on them to expand their civic engagement. This strategy, however, will not necessarily lead to that purpose, but instead will likely exacerbate a critical gap in the HTAS' organizational capacity. Th is paper argues that a different strategy is best suited to strengthen the organizational ability of HTAS, and proposes a framework to achieve this goal based on a capacity building pilot program for Latino HTAS from the Los Angeles region.
El pasado y el futuro de la nación mexicana pueden verse en los rostros de los miles y miles de i... more El pasado y el futuro de la nación mexicana pueden verse en los rostros de los miles y miles de indígenas que cada año emprenden el trayecto hacia el norte, así como los de muchos otros que deciden establecerse en innumerables lugares en los Estados Unidos. El estudio de los migrantes mexicanos indígenas en Estados Unidos requiere de una perspectiva binacional que tome en cuenta los importantes cambios en la forma en que la sociedad mexicana es entendida a comienzos del siglo XXI. Por un lado, México es considerado cada vez más como una nación de migrantes, una sociedad cuyo destino está muy vinculado a la economía y la cultura de los Estados Unidos. Por otro lado, la experiencia particular de los migrantes indígenas requiere concebir a México como una sociedad multiétnica, en la que las demandas básicas de derechos indígenas se ven incluidas finalmente en la agenda nacional, aunque siguen sin resolución. La población indígena de México es la más grande del hemisferio, con aproximad...
In this article, we examine the role of the festivals known as Guelaguetzas that are organized am... more In this article, we examine the role of the festivals known as Guelaguetzas that are organized among communities of Oaxacan (Oaxaca, Mexico) immigrants settled in California (United States), as a key factor for their internal consolidation process. We argue that all cultural activities displayed in such festivals allow a greater appreciation of the reconfiguration processes linking the places of origin and destination. Furthermore, the organization of these festivals entails the creation of cultural spaces that allow a resignification of their contents by emphasizing three core elements of the social identity for these Oaxacan immigrants: the migrant condition, indigeneity, and the pan-Oaxacan dimension.
Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sen... more Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sense of belonging to a region in a diff erent country of origin. Th eir philanthropic activities across borders have increasingly attracted the attention of government agencies and social and political actors. Th ese actors have endeavored to form more htas and place greater demands on them to expand their civic engagement. Th is strategy, however, will not necessarily lead to that purpose, but instead will likely exacerbate a critical gap in the htas’ organizational capacity. Th is
Migrant collective action is often grounded in transnational communities and shared collective id... more Migrant collective action is often grounded in transnational communities and shared collective identities. These social foundations constitute the basis of migrant civil society, which emerges in locally grounded public spaces that extend across national borders and expresses migrants’ capacity for selfrepresentation in the public sphere. Simply put, “migrant civil society” refers to migrantled membership organizations and public institutions. Specifically, it includes four arenas of collective actors and actions: migrantled membership organizations, migrantled nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), autonomous public spaces such as largescale cultural or political gatherings, and migrantled media.1 To spell out what the four arenas look like, membership organizations are composed primarily of migrants and can range from hometown associations to worker organizations, religious associations, and indigenous rights groups. They tend to come together around four broad collective identitie...
Cap 00 Introduccion Migrantes 1:44 PM Page 9 Introduccion* Jonathan Fox y Gaspar Rivera-Salgado L... more Cap 00 Introduccion Migrantes 1:44 PM Page 9 Introduccion* Jonathan Fox y Gaspar Rivera-Salgado La construccion de una sociedad civil entre los migrantes indigenas S E SIGUE pensando que los migrantes mexicanos en Estados Unidos consti- tuyen una poblacion etnicamente homogenea. La historia nos muestra que ciertamente estos migrantes compartieron muchas caracteristicas comunes, al provenir principalmente de comunidades rurales de la region centro-occi- dente del pais. Sin embargo, durante las dos ultimas decadas, esta poblacion se ha diversificado de manera dramatica, tanto social como geograficamen- te. Sus regiones de origen ahora incluyen una gama mas diversa de estados, asi como de grandes ciudades. 1 Por ejemplo, el area de Los Angeles cuenta actualmente con federaciones de asociaciones de migrantes de por lo me- nos 13 estados mexicanos diferentes, y existen 11 federaciones similares en Chicago. Las regiones de asentamiento en los Estados Unidos se estan di- versificando de la...
THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE MULTIPLE FORMS OF IMMIGRANT-LED ORGANIZATIONS found among Oaxacan indig... more THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE MULTIPLE FORMS OF IMMIGRANT-LED ORGANIZATIONS found among Oaxacan indigenous migrants that have enabled them to participate in various levels of the political and cultural spheres, in the different geographical spaces in which the Oaxaca diaspora has spread in the State of California. As has been extensively documented in the sociological literature on Mexican migration to the United States, the economic and social impact of the almost 12 million migrants has been such that it has transformed the places of origin and settlement on both sides of the border (Duquette-Rudy and Bada 2013; Smith 2006; Escala-Rabadan 2014). Given this, it is worthwhile to center our attention on a paradigmatic case in migrant collective political action: the Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales (FIOB, Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations). This organization is composed largely of Oaxacan Indigenous migrants and has emerged as a unique point of reference in the m...
In the context of the globalization of capital and the increased mobility of labor across inter-n... more In the context of the globalization of capital and the increased mobility of labor across inter-national borders, this article analyzes the experience of indigenous migrant workers from the state of Oaxaca who have formed permanent communities in northern Mexico and in California. It focuses specifically on the experience of the Mixtec transnational community whose participation in the Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional has strengthened and changed the ethnic identities that hold together these communities across a fractured geog-raphy of different borders (at the local, state, and international levels) and has served as one of the bases to organize across these transnational borders. This analysis contributes to an understanding of how the activism of transnational political organizations promotes the construction of new political alliances along ethnic lines in a post-melting-pot California and the consolidation of indigenous migrant organizations within the context of increasin...
El proposito de este articulo es presentar algunos elementos basicos de la confluencia entre inve... more El proposito de este articulo es presentar algunos elementos basicos de la confluencia entre investigacion participativa y la promocion de desarrollo local con grupos de inmigrantes latinoamericanos en Estados Unidos. Para ello, revisaremos en detalle tres experiencias concretas de participacion entre distintos grupos de inmigrantes e investigadores, enfocadas en la formacion de capacidades organizativas de estos grupos, con el fin de destacar los aspectos centrales sobre el funcionamiento y ventajas de la investigacion participativa. Posteriormente, se presenta una reflexion que subraya las lecciones derivadas de estas experiencias sobre los retos de dicha vertiente metodologica, asi como sus usos en el ambito academico y del activismo.
Author(s): Rivera-Salgado, Gaspar; Wilson, Veronica | Abstract: This report is part of a series o... more Author(s): Rivera-Salgado, Gaspar; Wilson, Veronica | Abstract: This report is part of a series on Latin American immigrant civic and political participation that looks at nine cities around the United States: Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Fresno, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Omaha, NE; Tucson, AZ; San Jose, CA; and Washington, DC. The reports on each city describe the opportunities and barriers that Latino immigrants face in participating as civic and political actors in cities around the United States. This collection explores recent trends in Latino immigrant integration in the aftermath of the 2006 immigrant civic mobilizations, highlighting both similarities and differences across diverse cities and sectors.
Introduction FOR ACTIVISTS PARTICIPATING IN BINATIONAL NETWORKS AND COALITIONS, IT IS imperative ... more Introduction FOR ACTIVISTS PARTICIPATING IN BINATIONAL NETWORKS AND COALITIONS, IT IS imperative to consider the experiences of various cross-border social organizations of Mexican migrants. These organizations have tried to respond to the complex problems confronting migrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, problems that can only be solved through binational actions. This article examines the experiences of several cross-border organizations, such as the federations of civic clubs from several Mexican states and grass-roots orgarnzations of indigenous migrants. Over the past decade, these organizations have carried out actions on both sides of the border and have accumulated a plethora of experiences -- political capital, if you will -- that help illuminate the successes and failures of binational activism. Their experiences also illustrate possible alternatives that may serve other community and grass-roots organizations, given the organic integration being experienced by...
Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sen... more Hometown associations (htas) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sense of belonging to a region in a diff erent country of origin. Th eir philanthropic activities across borders have increasingly attracted the attention of government agencies and social and political actors. Th ese actors have endeavored to form more htas and place greater demands on them to expand their civic engagement. Th is strategy, however, will not necessarily lead to that purpose, but instead will likely exacerbate a critical gap in the htas’ organizational capacity. Th is paper argues that a diff erent strategy is best suited to strengthen the organizational ability of htas, and proposes a framework to achieve this goal based on a capacity building pilot program for Latino htas from the Los Angeles region.
ABSTRACT Hometown associations (HTAS) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a s... more ABSTRACT Hometown associations (HTAS) in the United States are migrant, voluntary groups with a shared sense of belonging to a region in a different country of origin. Their philanthropic activities across borders have increasingly attracted the attention of government agencies and social and political actors. These actors have endeavored to form more HTAS and place greater demands on them to expand their civic engagement. This strategy, however, will not necessarily lead to that purpose, but instead will likely exacerbate a critical gap in the HTAS' organizational capacity. Th is paper argues that a different strategy is best suited to strengthen the organizational ability of HTAS, and proposes a framework to achieve this goal based on a capacity building pilot program for Latino HTAS from the Los Angeles region.
El pasado y el futuro de la nación mexicana pueden verse en los rostros de los miles y miles de i... more El pasado y el futuro de la nación mexicana pueden verse en los rostros de los miles y miles de indígenas que cada año emprenden el trayecto hacia el norte, así como los de muchos otros que deciden establecerse en innumerables lugares en los Estados Unidos. El estudio de los migrantes mexicanos indígenas en Estados Unidos requiere de una perspectiva binacional que tome en cuenta los importantes cambios en la forma en que la sociedad mexicana es entendida a comienzos del siglo XXI. Por un lado, México es considerado cada vez más como una nación de migrantes, una sociedad cuyo destino está muy vinculado a la economía y la cultura de los Estados Unidos. Por otro lado, la experiencia particular de los migrantes indígenas requiere concebir a México como una sociedad multiétnica, en la que las demandas básicas de derechos indígenas se ven incluidas finalmente en la agenda nacional, aunque siguen sin resolución. La población indígena de México es la más grande del hemisferio, con aproximad...
In this article, we examine the role of the festivals known as Guelaguetzas that are organized am... more In this article, we examine the role of the festivals known as Guelaguetzas that are organized among communities of Oaxacan (Oaxaca, Mexico) immigrants settled in California (United States), as a key factor for their internal consolidation process. We argue that all cultural activities displayed in such festivals allow a greater appreciation of the reconfiguration processes linking the places of origin and destination. Furthermore, the organization of these festivals entails the creation of cultural spaces that allow a resignification of their contents by emphasizing three core elements of the social identity for these Oaxacan immigrants: the migrant condition, indigeneity, and the pan-Oaxacan dimension.
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