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Of the 11
million
undocumented
immigrants
currently
in this
country,
51% are
women and
children.
Women
migrants are
twice as likely
as their male
counterparts
to be
widowed,
divorced, or
separated.
TONY RINALDO
ist most recently on staff at the
Los Angeles Times, is the author
of Enrique’s Journey (Random
House, 2007), a national best
seller that chronicles the perilous
passage of a teenage boy
from Honduras through Mexico
to the United States, in search of
the mother who left him when
he was just five years old. Re-
search for the book pitched Nazario
into the world of the “small
army” of children as young as
nine who travel, undocumented
and alone, through Central
America and Mexico, clinging to
the tops and sides of so-called
“death trains,” in danger of attack
from violent bandits, corrupt officials,
and kidnappers, as well as
of accidental death or maiming
on the rails. While traveling with
these children, Nazario came
to understand both the pain of
separation that impelled them
to pursue their mothers—often
with just a phone number on a
slip of paper to guide them—and
the crushing poverty that drove
their mothers to seek jobs in the
United States in order to support
them.
A decade ago, by Nazario’s
estimate, 48,000 children a year
were attempting to enter the
United States in this manner,
chiefly from Mexico, Guate-
mala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Today, she said, that number has
swelled to almost 100,000. In
addition to searching for their
mothers, many of these children
are fleeing abusive home situ-
ations, forced recruitment into
transnational narcotics gangs,
and other forms of violent crime.
Nazario’s presentation was followed
by an introductory address
by the University of California at
Irvine sociology professor Rubén
G. Rumbaut, who said, “We live
in a world of widening inequalities.
Since the end of World War
II, the crossing of borders from
poorer, younger countries to
richer, aging countries has been
accelerating and will continue to
accelerate inexorably.”
Rumbaut, who has directed
major empirical studies of immigrants
and refugees in the United
States, offered an overview
of the history of the study of
gender in migration. Statistics on
legal immigration to the United
States indicate that women have
outnumbered men every year
TONY RINALDO
QUETZAL ROCKS THE CONFERENCE
“Crossing Borders” began with an evening performance
by the Grammy-winning bilingual rock band
Quetzal. Radcliffe Dean Lizabeth Cohen introduced the
band, emphasizing Radcliffe’s long-standing commit-
ment to integrating the work of artists with that of
academic scholars. Cohen said, “The rhythms, melodies,
images, and insights inspired by Quetzal’s East
Los Angeles immigrant community will open our eyes,
imaginations, and hearts to the immigrant experience
in ways that even the most brilliant analytic discourse
cannot.”
The band’s lead singer, Martha Gonzalez, a feminist
music theorist and doctoral candidate in the Gender,
Women, and Sexuality Studies program at the
University of Washington, sparked an entertaining and
thought-provoking program that alternated between
music and discussion. In a break between sets, the
moderator and Amherst College professor Ilan Stavans
asked her about the power of music. “I believe that
songs . . . influence and ignite thought,” said Gon-
zalez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and one
of many women at the conference who exemplified
the outstanding achievements of first- and second-
generation immigrant women. “When you dialogue
through creative expression, you reach a different kind
of understanding. It lets you get to bigger theories and
ideas.” The group’s musical director, Quetzal Flores,
also participated in the discussion.
Summer 2013 radcliffe magazine 5