“We go to Get Ahead”

The long history of migration between western Mexico and the United States is fueled by their interrelated social and economic histories (Palerm and Urquiola, 1993). The flow of people, capital, and consumer goods across the border leaves no one untouched by el Norte (the United States).' Migration is now a practice of everyday life. People are confronted with its material symbols and social practices, and it is intrinsic to the production of a new imaginary in which life is different (Appadurai, 1996:1-11; Gaonkar, 2002). Images of progress and consumption are linked to a vision of modernity more easily accessible elsewhere (Mills, 2001). The circulation of ideas of difference contributes to the emergence of new political and transnational projects. The collective activities of migrants as they install new facilities or become involved in local politics permit the creation of new social and symbolic capital in a local space, often challenging local structures, class relations, and worldviews (Guamizo and Smith, 1995; R. Smith, 1994; see also Basch, Glick-Schiller, and Szanton-Blanc, 1994; Goldring, 2001). The absence of collective action, however, does not mean that migrants have no other recourse for generating status and respect.2 New practices subtly integrated into the intimate level of social relations are also part of this process (Mahler and Pessar, 2001: 445). I consider this intimate level here, examining how residents of migrant towns in Mexico use the practices of gender and social relations inherent in an ideal of the family to generate new symbolic capital out of their migrant experience that will leave them with more respect and status. Family throughout Mexico has played a key role in the production of