“I make Mexico at my home”: social media usage, diasporic discourse, and cultural endurance of Mexicans living in Barcelona, Spain

While many works have focused on Mexican migrants living in the United States of America, little attention has been paid to diasporic communities of Mexicans in Europe. The purpose of this article is to understand how social media serves as a link in between Mexicans living in Barcelona, Spain and their homeland, and how these migrants use the virtual spaces not only to share real-world information to improve their daily lives in Spain, but to preserve their cultural identity. Fieldwork consisted in 17 “in situ” semi-structured interviews to Mexicans living in Barcelona, whose ages are between 21- and 60-years during June and July of 2016. Subjects were contacted through a Facebook Group named “Mexicanos en Barcelona” (Mexicans in Barcelona) that has more than 5,000 members. This group is conformed not only by Mexicans living in Barcelona, but it also includes Mexicans in Mexico with the interest of studying, touring or working in the city.