The Role of Mexican Immigrants in the United States on the Imagined and Invented Traditions in Mexico’s Regional Cities

Abstract

Mexican immigrants who move to the United States exert great influence on the reproduction of tradition in regional Mexican cities. This study examined the “changes in vistas” that appear due to the frequent migration that connects global cities with sending societies. The emphasis here is on the realities in which residents upgrade their living spaces using traditionality with their own unique strategies (posttraditional vistas), despite social and financial restrictions. Employing ethnographic methods and measurement surveys of housing, this study focused on Jalostotitlán, Jalisco, Mexico. It was found that changes in the vista of Jalostotitlán have not resulted from the unidirectional impact of people, goods, and money flowing from global cities; rather, they have arisen from the bidirectional relationship between immigrants and their hometowns. This research helps to depict another factor for discussions of the global migration narrative by placing regional cities at the core.