Fathering within and beyond the Failures of the State with Imagination, Work and Love

When Emilio Lpez made his way to Atlanta, Georgia from Mxico's third most populated city, where he had grown up, worked, married and had two daughters, he was in pain. He had hurt his back in a work-related accident and was still recovering. "Es algo que no se lo deseo a nadie" [It's something I don't wish upon anyone], he began. Eventually he would come to talk about another kind of pain that previously had been too raw to share, one provoked by having to leave his school-aged daughters, wife, and country in search of a job 'para ver por mi familia' [to look after my family]. Emilio, and others in this study, father at a distance from their children once they cross the Mxico-U.S. border. They tell a story about globalization and neoliberalism that reveals the dystopias families traverse when parents cross borders as a way to 'look after their family.' The narratives challenge policies, laws and economic arrangements that separate families. The fathers also remind us that while Mexican immigrants support the Mexican economy to the tune of 24 billion dollars a year through remittances, and help fuel the U.S. economy through their underpaid labor, the fathers see themselves as much more than workers and providers. Their identities are informed by an expansive definition of fathering. Although the fathers' sense of disillusionment grows as they experience only modest gains for their families and live in precarious circumstances themselves, they nonetheless create radical and bold models of affection, care, love and fathering that help them overcome borders and the failures of the state to stay connected as a family.

Klappentext

When Emilio López made his way to Atlanta, Georgia from México's third most populated city, where he had grown up, worked, married and had two daughters, he was in pain. He had hurt his back in a work-related accident and was still recovering. "Es algo que no se lo deseo a nadie" [It's something I don't wish upon anyone], he began. Eventually he would come to talk about another kind of pain that previously had been too raw to share, one provoked by having to leave his school-aged daughters, wife, and country in search of a job 'para ver por mi familia' [to look after my family]. Emilio, and others in this study, father at a distance from their children once they cross the México-U.S. border. They tell a story about globalization and neoliberalism that reveals the dystopias families traverse when parents cross borders as a way to 'look after their family.' The narratives challenge policies, laws and economic arrangements that separate families. The fathers also remind us that while Mexican immigrants support the Mexican economy to the tune of 24 billion dollars a year through remittances, and help fuel the U.S. economy through their underpaid labor, the fathers see themselves as much more than workers and providers. Their identities are informed by an expansive definition of fathering. Although the fathers' sense of disillusionment grows as they experience only modest gains for their families and live in precarious circumstances themselves, they nonetheless create radical and bold models of affection, care, love and fathering that help them overcome borders and the failures of the state to stay connected as a family.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements.- List of Figures and Tables.- Migrating to Father, Migrating to Provide.- Defining the Problem Space.- Intimate Terrorism del Nortey mexicana.- Intersecting Fields: Perspectives on Fathering at a Distance.- The 'Father as Provider' Construct.- The Father's Contribution.- Immigrant Fathers Living with Their Children.- Transnational Fatherhood.- Child Outcomes.- The Fathers in This Study.- Learning from padres mexicanos: A Pondering of Selves.- Who Are They?.- Four Fathers en el Norte.- Cinco papás en México [Five Fathers in México].- Theoretical Frames.- Representation and Translation.- Testimonio: Pasar la frontera.- Testimonio as Method.- Testimonio: La travesía [Testimonio: The Crossing].- The Fathers in North Carolina: The Everyday Practice of Being an Immigrant: Sign Reading, Meta-Ideologizing, and Differential Consciousness.- Drugs in México.- Education in México.- Sign Reading.- Meta-Ideologizing.- Differential Consciousness.- Methodology of the Oppressed (MotO) as Taken up by the U.S.-Based Fathers in North Carolina.- Facing an Acute Family or Financial Crisis.- Meta-Ideology: Work as Love.- Para seguir adelante [To Keep Moving Forward, to Progress].- Engaging Differential Consciousness to Move and Stay Ahead.- Para un mejor vivir [For a Better Life].- Sign-Reading Both Sides of Fathering at a Distance.- Working Skillfully in the New Latino South.- Shifting Gears to Stay Employed.- Fathering without Borders: The Undocumented Mexican Male Immigrant Worker Status as Fathering.- Fathering Dispositions, Practices, and Strategies.- An Insider/Outsider in México: Welcomed as familia, Schooled as a Newcomer.- Valley Girl.- Getting There.- Héroes de la Independencia Middle School.- Secundaria Niños Héroes/Niños Heroes Middle School.- Political Economy in Person: The Fathers in México.- Lessons from the Fathers in México.- Political Economy as Lived Experience.- The Mothers and the Children: Las plegarias.- Las madres.- La plegaria de los niños.- Intimate Terrorism: The State as Assassin of Families' Dreams and Children's Futures.- Authorization from La Jornada.- References.- Index.