Women Making Mexican America: Crossing Borders, Making Communities, 1890–1964

In Mexico, the decades after 1890 saw social dislocations deepen as political challenges rose, leading to a decade of revolution after 1910 followed by uncertain regime building and persistent social and cultural conflicts in the 1920s. During times of stress and uncertainty, circular family migrations drew Mexicans to the U.S. and back. While conflicts and dislocations in Mexico and labor demand in the U.S. might draw people north, family and community networks were pivotal to decisions to go or stay, where to head, if and when to return. The same remained true during the repatriations of the 1930s, and decisions to return north—or not—during the war and post-war decades that followed.

This paper examines the central roles that women played in making and remaking communities and families across the U.S.-Mexico border between 1890 and 1965. Women made calculations, set arrangements, and faced sacrifices and risks to move themselves and their families through binational corridors. Women were not only central to early 20^th century bidirectional cross-border movements, they played fundamental roles in the bracero migrations of male relatives in the 1940s and 1950s—often joining documented men as undocumented companions to keep families together and build community foundations.

By highlighting migrant voices and testimonies, the paper will reflect on the long history of family and female migration across the U.S.-Mexico border and reveal the intimate and personal experiences border-crossings, family separations, and reunifications. In an era when women faced gendered suspicions and limitations to their entry into the United States, and when men were privileged as household providers, women challenged patriarchy in multiple ways during repeated, often circular migrations, and later permanent–contributing to the sustenance of families and forging networks that set foundations for migrations soon to expand.