The city of Jalos was selected in this study because it has a long history of migration to the United States, particularly California. It is within easy reach of several large cities in Mexico, including Guadalajara, Jalisco, and León, Guanajuato, and is readily accessible by car from Mexico City. Jalos residents migrate to many locations in the United States, including Oakland, Anaheim, Sacramento, and Los Angeles in California, as well as more remote destinations such as Indiana, Illinois (Chicago), and Nebraska. The Jalos population is perhaps best described as ?border crossers.? Lynn Stephen, for example, favors this term for the families of indigenous Oaxacans whom she studied, whose members over four and five generations were constantly crossing borders: ?ethnic, cultural, colonial, and state borders within Mexico as well as the U.S.-Mexico border? (Stephen 2007, 23). Turlock, California, was selected for comparison purposes because in my initial research visit to Jalos, Turlock was mentioned more than any other city in the United States as a major destination point, with well-established patterns of migration and exchange between the two communities.

People who migrate to Turlock, as with other U.S. cities, come in search of work and a better life. They also maintain a strong religious tradition, as in Jalos. Several key contacts in Turlock, who were identified in my first visit to Jalos, proudly mentioned that Turlock had started its own celebration to the Virgen de la Asunción, modeled after the yearly fiesta in her honor in Jalos. Turlock and Jalos have also recently taken initial steps to establish a ?ciudades hermanas,? or sister cities program. Finally, Jalos and Turlock are both medium-sized, relatively isolated, agricultural communities (each well under 100,000 in population), where cattle ranching, dairies, and farming are prominent industries. Overview of Jalostotitlán The city of Jalostotitlán is located in the Los Altos (The Highlands) region in the northeast part of the state of Jalisco.

1 It borders on the north with the municipio (municipality) of Teocaltiche, on the south with Valle de Guadalupe and San Miguel el Alto, on the east with the municipio of San Juan de los Lagos, and on the west with Teocaltiche and Cañadas de Obregón (Espín and De Leonardo 1978, 35). According to the 2000 Mexican Census, the Jalos municipality, which includes the outlying area, had a population of 53,206. Jalos lies in the middle of Mexico, with semi-desert arid lands to the north and more fertile lands to the south. Winters are relatively cold, while summers are hot and rainy. The Jalos municipality includes the towns of San Nicolas de las Flores, Teocaltitán de Guadalupe, San Gaspar de los Reyes, and Mitic. The center of the town has churches that date from the 1500s, when the city was founded by the Spaniards. ?Jalostotitlán? means ?Land Of Sandy Caves? in the Nahuatl language (Gutiérrez Gutiérrez 1991, 60; Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México, s.v.

?Estado de Jalisco, Jalostotitlán, 2005?). The Spaniards first arrived in the area of Jalos in the 1520s during the conquest of Tonalá by Captain Pedro Almíndez Chirino, who had 350 Spaniards and 500 Tarascan and Tlaxcalan Indians under his control. An important factor in the decline of the indigenous population was the brutal 1529?1530 campaign of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, who terrorized the natives with unprovoked killings, torture, and enslavement (Gerhard 1982, 42), culminating in the Mixtón Rebellion of 1541?1542, a desperate attempt to drive the Spaniards out of the area. Jalostotitlán was founded in 1544 and gained the formal status of a town after Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1838. The municipality of Jalostotitlán was created in May 1872. Jalos was elevated to city status and became the seat of the municipality in 1970. Located within a vast area that the early Spaniards named Nueva Galicia, Jalos is a staunchly Catholic region that was at the center of the twentieth-century Cristero War, a holy war and counterrevolution from 1926 to 1929 in response to strict enforcement of the anticlerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 and the expansion of these laws in the 1920s. A sanctuary honoring El Padre Toribio Romo, one of the Cristero martyrs and popularly known as the patron saint of undocumented immigrants, is located in Santa Ana de Guadalupe, a rancheria just outside of Jalos (see chapter 7).

The primary economic activities in Jalos are agriculture, cattle farming, dairies, and services industries. The area produces beans and corn, although most are consumed locally. The primary economic activity in the municipio of Jalostotitlán is the raising of farm animals (Espín and De Leonardo 1978, 37). In recent years Jalos has become a manufacturing center, producing shoes, leather goods, and dairy products. Overview of Turlock Turlock is located in Stanislaus County, California, in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. It is the second largest city in the county and part of the Modesto Metropolitan Statistical area. The 2011 U.S.

Census estimated Turlock?s population as a little over 69,000. Founded in 1899 by a prominent cattle rancher, Turlock became known as the ?Heart of the Valley? because of its agricultural production. Although it grew rapidly and became a prosperous hub of activity, it was not incorporated as a city until 1908. By that time, intensive agricultural development surrounded most of the city. Agriculture and the dairy industry remain major economic forces in the region. The major products are milk, almonds, cattle and calves, chickens, walnuts, silage, peaches, alfalfa, turkeys, and tomatoes. Like the dairy industry, the almond industry commonly employs many people from Jalos. Historically, Turlock had a substantial population of farmers of Japanese descent.

After Pearl Harbor and during World War II, the U.S. government placed Japanese-Americans into internment camps all over the country. The Stanislaus County Fairgrounds was the site of one of these camps and held over three thousand interned American citizens of Japanese descent. The area is also home to large concentrations of Americans of South Asian descent (particularly Sikhs), as well as Mexicans and people of varied European ancestry. Swedes and Portuguese were early settlers to the area. Continued immigration from the Azores Islands (Portugal) in recent decades established a large Portuguese-speaking community. Turlock is also a major center for the Assyrian community in the United States, whose members began to arrive in the 1910s, seeking opportunities in farming.

In 1924 they established the Assyrian Evangelical Church in Turlock. Another influx began in the 1970s, following political strife in Iraq, and in the 1980s after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. (Excerpted from Introduction).