Indigenous people have been migrating to the U.S The first documented large-scale migration began in 1942 border to temporary agricultural workers from Mexico But there have been few academic studies exploring how the movement of indigenous peoples across the U.S.-Mexico border has affected the culture and politics of their communities.Migration from the Mexican Mixteca: A Transnational Community in Oaxaca and California attempts to fill that gap It provides a detailed look at the settlement patterns and the social integration of migrants from San Miguel Tlacotepec in Oaxaca who now reside in San Diego County Drawing on interviews and other field work conducted in 2007–2008 by 32 graduate students at the University of California the book provides useful empirical information and data as well as an analysis of the link between immigration This is the fourth in a series of studies on Mexican migration conducted by the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies David Fitzgerald and Scott Borger of UCSD and Jorge Hernández-Díaz of the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca an estimated 30 percent of Tlacotepec’s 3,307 residents have left town having migrated to more economically developed parts of Mexico or to the United States The community is therefore an excellent choice for analyzing both the indigenous experience of migration and the transnational forces that connect sending and receiving communities social and political push-and-pull forces in the Tlacotepec-San Diego migratory process But the book’s most important discussion comes in the chapter on the civic political and cultural participation of indigenous migrants in both their places of origin and destination researchers often grapple with how the indigenous migrant experience differs from that of the non-indigenous and Julio Ricardo Méndez García attempt to shed light on this question by analyzing the customary rules (of collective decision making and communal leadership) that structure  indigenous civic and political participation and how those are affected when migrants return home Despite strict rules of eligibility that limit candidates for municipal posts to those who have previously served in public office the authors discover that many migrants in San Diego continue to play a leadership role at home “Out-migration has compelled Tlacotepenses to modify the system of political religious and social cargos [positions] in their town,” the researchers conclude New initiatives lower the requirements to hold office allow community members to carry out migrants’ leadership duties and limit the expectations that absent townspeople will actively participate in local decision-making bodies One political by-product of the prolonged absence of fathers husbands and sons is that more women now participate in town committees What remains to be studied is the importance of other factors—besides maintaining political and civic connections at home—on preserving migrants’ ethnic identity The authors suggest that prolonged disconnection from their roots makes it increasingly difficult for indigenous peoples to remain culturally distinct from other Latino migrants to the United States Another insightful chapter focuses on the role of technology in migrant networks Cárdenas survey the use of public telephones private landlines and videoconferences among migrants involved in hometown associations and local leadership committees the authors find a rise in the use of the Internet and other technologies among youth predicting that services like Skype and instant messaging will gain importance in the transnational community Migration has also affected lifestyles within the Tlacotepec community Nancy Moreno and Arielle Smith suggests that stronger border control has affected women’s decisions about when to migrate Marriage and pregnancy are also generally postponed until settling in San Diego and Durga García find that although the use of traditional and alternative healers is embedded in the cultural practices of some non-migrating Tlacotepec residents most seek treatment for serious illnesses at a government clinic migrants then seek similar care in San Diego California’s undocumented population has limited access to services which contributes to high rates of non-life threatening illnesses such as depression and anxiety and problems of alcohol and drug abuse the book is an excellent resource for immigration practitioners and researchers But it would have benefited from a conclusion that better summed up the research and tied together the individual chapters A consolidated bibliography and an overview of data analysis methods would similarly help academic readers identify new avenues for study considering the minimal amount of scholarly attention paid to indigenous migration this book represents a major addition to the literature Carlos Yescas is the author of Indigenous Routes: A Framework for Understanding Indigenous Migration He is a PhD student at The New School for Social Research Americas Quarterly (AQ) is the premier publication on politics We are an independent publication of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas PUBLISHED BY AMERICAS SOCIETY/ COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS A Mexican soldier piles poppies for incineration near the town of Tlacotepec The army says it slashes and burns poppy when fields are too difficult to access by helicopter or when it wants to protect fruits and vegetables growing nearby The mountains looming ahead are legendary in Mexico any figure in Mexican history who needed to escape authorities came here to the mountains of Guerrero," says Lt it's not revolutionaries skulking through this formidable southern section of the Sierra Madre mountains — it's heroin traffickers Mexico's southwestern Guerrero state is now the top source of heroin for the American drug epidemic, which resulted in more than 64,000 overdose deaths in 2016, mostly from heroin or other opioids. The Drug Enforcement Administration says 93 percent of heroin analyzed by the agency in 2015 came from Mexico more than double the amount from five years before The Mexican army gave NPR reporters a firsthand look at its efforts to eradicate poppy — the flowering plant that's a raw material for making heroin Mexico has the third-largest area under poppy cultivation in the world, after Afghanistan and Myanmar, according to a 2017 United Nations report based on estimates from 2015. By 2016, Mexican poppy cultivation had potentially grown more than three times the national amount estimated in 2013, according to the DEA "You get up into the mountains and look around the hillsides and there are poppy fields everywhere," says Orzua from an army pickup rumbling over winding dirt roads Guerrero is a heroin hub not only because its mountains are inaccessible Orzua explains that the high elevations catching warm humid air from the Pacific coast are ideal for growing high-quality poppy deep-red flowers just before harvest — have changed with agricultural enhancements over the last few years They are now shorter and each plant can carry up to 10 bulbs from which opium paste is extracted Harvest time is now as many as three times a year Poppy fields are both more productive and more potent in Guerrero "But this is nothing to be proud of," he adds solemnly a few poppy fields spread before the army convoy The red flowers stick out next to a dead corn field at one end "This is just a distraction field," Orzua says It's meant to occupy soldiers with destroying less productive fields instead of the best producers But they're here and have orders to destroy all poppy they come across A handful of troops begin reconnaissance in the area, tiptoeing among the poppies, rifles at the ready. As the heroin business has boomed, driven by strong demand in the U.S., Guerrero has consistently been one of Mexico's most violent states. The U.S. State Department listed it as a "Do Not Travel" zone in its recent travel advisory At least 15 cartels operate in these mountains using brutal tactics to get a slice of trade the only other person in sight is a farmer up the hill tending to his mango trees The nearest town is 30 minutes down a winding dirt road The poppy field has recently been tapped: The bulbs bear horizontal slices made by harvesters Sticky white liquid seeps out of the incisions After solidifying and oxidizing for a few hours That opium paste then gets trucked by cartels to their hidden mountain labs where it's processed into heroin The soldiers here — all men in their late teens or early 20s mostly locals from Guerrero — throw their automatic rifles behind their back and pull out machetes They hack away at the poppy and pile it into a giant pyre Fumigation is the top method for the army's poppy elimination the soldiers are killing off the plants by hand Orzua says they don't want to ruin the fruits and vegetables local farmers eat to survive At the top of the heroin supply chain are largely poor farmers hoping to sell opium paste to cartels This 2-acre poppy plot could earn a farmer roughly $750 per harvest The best farmers can harvest three times each year its price multiplies and will yield tens of thousands of dollars in the U.S "The farmers are the ones who get exploited most But if they aren't offered a better alternative they'll just keep returning to poppy," Orzua says where the formaleconomy is shrinking and jobs are disappearing eradicating poppy was the best legal job going a 22-year-old soldier who recently returned to Mexico from the U.S "When I was in South Carolina I could make $80 a day The army pays about $30 a day but it's the most you can make at a job around here," he says Bello grew up undocumented in California and Nevada and finished three years of high school there But when his dad was arrested on drug charges his mom decided to bring their family back to Mexico He's now part of this 28-man unit patrolling and eradicating poppy in their 4-square-mile area of the Sierra Madre As smoke from the destroyed poppies continues to rise several bright green and red poppy fields visible in the distance The Mexican army mostly destroys poppy fields via helicopter fumigation with a chemical called Uproquat But it's difficult in these lush mountains: an army helicopter pilot died in an accident in November this is how the Mexican army is destroying poppy: small units operating out of rudimentary camps Hundreds of these units deploy for one to two months at a time and spend daylight searching for and destroying poppy fields "We take the toughest and most resilient soldiers because this is a difficult deployment," says 2nd Lt the unit's commander and namesake of his little camp "We can travel up to 10 kilometers on foot each day and destroy up to 200 plots of poppy each month." The Mexican army destroyed nearly 200,000 plots of poppy in 2017, up 22 percent from the previous year when the DEA accused the Mexican government of not doing enough to eradicate crops Orzua says they're on pace to increase eradication even faster there's doubt the effort will make an impact "It is not possible to do a good job [in Guerrero]," says Raul Benitez a security expert at Mexico's Autonomous National University "They are failing because of the conditions in the mountains and because drug traffickers totally control the local people and corrupt local politicians." They are failing because of the conditions in the mountains and because drug traffickers totally control the local people and corrupt local politicians Drug eradication as a concept may not even be sound a nonprofit research group studying organized crime in the Americas "The whole point of eradication is that it's supposed to bring up the street prices of drugs with supply and demand principles," she says "But the farmers aren't financed by the cartels The costs of eradication are absorbed by farmers." that doesn't necessarily hit the cartels' coffers The organized crime gangs just buy from another farmer "If you look at something like Plan Colombia [a U.S.-backed anti-drug trafficking plan launched in 2000], the U.S. government has funded billions and billions into eradication and in 2016 we saw more coca being produced in Colombia than ever before," Bonello adds there haven't even been really genuinely successful efforts in terms of offering alternatives [to poppy farming]," Bonello goes on to say "Drug eradication and alternative development programs have not been a focus of the Merida Initiative even though Mexico is a major producer of opium poppy," reads the report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service It's clear in Mexico and other leading drug-producing countries like Colombia that ordinary farmers continually fall into the risky business of selling to narcotrafficking cartels even as the army crawls through the hills to eradicate crops "We know eradication is just one piece of the solution," admits Lt Col "We need to all work together in economic development and many other issues to solve the problem of drug trafficking here." Become an NPR sponsor The Field Museum connects all of us to the natural world and the human story Museum is located at: 1400 S. Dusable Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605 Contact UsFor general inquiries: 312.922.9410 or 312.665.7669 (TTY) 1400 S. Dusable Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605 including spectacular archaeological collections The nucleus of the Mexican archaeology collection was gathered in 1894 and 1896 by University of Chicago anthropologist Frederick Starr (1858 - 1933) and accessioned by the Museum in 1905 make up the bulk of Starr's Collection from the site of Tlacotepec It is arguable that the Field Museum’s is the most important collection outside of Mexico for the study of Matlatzincan ceramics and the impact of Aztec culture on provincial artistic traditions Excavations directed by Starr focused on two primary areas that exhibit contrasting artifact assemblages Locality 1 contained some Early Postclassic (A.D Excavations at Locality 1 yielded more than 800 whole vessels The assemblage is primarily domestic material representative of the Matlatzincan culture though some Aztec artifacts are present as well Matlatzincan pottery is decorated with geometric designs and lacks recognizable sacred symbols Locality 2 dates to the Late Postclassic (A.D 1350 - 1550) and contained primarily Aztec material which employs glyphs and symbols that reflect deities and rituals The Field Museum collection from Locality 2 includes black-on-orange tripod vessels and Cholula polychrome bowls from the Valley of Mexico Most of this assemblage consists of trade goods Recent Neutron Activation Analysis research by Dr Don McVicker and others on the Field Museum collections indicates that Locality 2 represents an Aztec colony at Tlacotepec Locality 1 indicates continuity of a Matlatzincan ceramic tradition in the face of Aztec conquest and colonization and the Field Museum curates only a handful of objects from this lesser area illegal poppy fields flourish and the production of opium gum is on the increase Conflicts between the small cartels that control production are also intensifying community police forces have been established to protect communities and confront or negotiate with the crime groups in the area