Mixtec Transnational Migration

Mixtec transnational migration, mainly to the United States has continued for over three generations. Nevertheless, the Mixtec have remained an autonomous community; indeed, they remain one of the last autonomous Mesoamerican indigenous groups.

The Mixtec transnational social experience challenges traditional conceptions of cultural identity (nationhood) linked to geographical location (territory). They are an example of a social group in which migration had not led to a loss of cultural identity; rather, migration has generated territorial expansion and cultural reaffirmation.

Mixtecs have migrated to various parts of both Mexico and United States. In recent years Mixtecs, along with Zapotecs and Triqui, have emerged as one of the largest groups of migrants in the United States. Large Mixtec communities exist in the border cities of Tijuana, Baja California, and San Diego. According to statistics compiled by the National Geographic and Statistical Institute, out of the 241, 080 indigenous people living in the border cities, 72,000 (30 percent) are migrants. Migration of indigenous populations to various cities of the United States constitutes an important source of income for the Mixtec, who have a long tradition of migration and are the most numerous in the United States according to the Mixtec Integrated Development Program, the remittances sent between 1984 and 1988 amounted $2,000 million pesos annually. Mixtec communities are generally described as transnational and transborder because of their ability to maintain and reaffirm social ties between their native homeland and diasporic community. For more than two decades, anthropologists have documented people who move from one country to another and who build transnational links.