Bodies in motion: Mexican migration, embodied experience and the sense of place

The significance of embodied experiences in the development of locality is an undertheorized area in folklore and cultural studies. I define locality as state of belonging that is primarily relational and constituted through shared meanings and a sense of social alliance. This study is an analysis of how embodied experiences shape the production of locality for Mexican women and men who have settled in the United States (U.S.) in the years since the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). More specifically, it maps particular embodied experiences and bodily praxis as they intersect with issues of settlement, displacement and social action in the shifting cultural landscape of a Mexican settlement community in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. As a legislative event, the IRCA was a watershed in the history of U.S. immigration; it provided amnesty and legal residency for previously undocumented laborers throughout the U.S., the majority of whom were Mexican nationals. As a result, IRCA permanently altered Mexican migration and settlement patterns. It has facilitated the establishment of Mexican communities in locales that historically have not experienced permanent settlement from Mexico. These communities challenge conventional understandings of Mexican settlement and adaptation because these areas do not provide access to long-standing social networks and the associated social and cultural capital that is a common feature in California, Texas and Illinois, the historic “gateway” states of Mexican migration and settlement. Drawing upon the example of Kennett Square, I argue that these recent post-IRCA Mexican settlements require a re-evaluation of ethnographic inquiries that seek to understand community formation and group cohesion. In post-IRCA settlements, an English-speaking citizen population is likely to dominate the local social scene, and often limits overt or public expressions of cultural identity and locality production by their Mexican neighbors. As such, these communities necessitate a reconsideration of the indicators of community formation. In the case of Kennett Square, narrative accounts of embodied experiences coupled with bodily praxis provide insight into cultural productions that would otherwise be overlooked