The day of the dead in the Netherlands : towards transnationalism of reinvention?

Figure 1 PART OF THE OFRENDA AT A DAY OF THE DEAD EVENT ORGANISED MEXICANOS EN HOLANDAPOR LA PAZ EN MÉXICO IN AMSTERDAM ON NOVEMBER

3,2012

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

MASTER THESIS CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

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Name: Femke Engelen Student number: 5897947

E-mail address: Femke.Engelen@gmail.com Supervisor: Dr. Marie-Louise Janssen Second reader: Dr. Martha Montero-Sieburth

Third reader: Dr. Yolanda van Ede Date: 24 June 2013

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Abstract

In this thesis, I research how and why first generation Mexican migrants in The Netherlands celebrate the Day of the Dead. I argue that the Mexican regional, generational and social differences regarding the tradition have moved with the migrants. The migrants can be grouped into two categories: those who celebrated the Day of the Dead in Mexico and those who did not. I argue that the exclusion of their Mexican identity in Dutch society is at the core of their motivation for celebrating the Day of the Dead in The Netherlands. For those who celebrated it in Mexico, the tradition symbolises a connection with the home country; for those who did not celebrate in Mexico, it symbolises a connection with other first generation Mexican migrants in the host country. The Day of the Dead is a transnational tradition for the former group, while the latter group reinvents the tradition. In both instances the meaning of the Day of the Dead has changed: while it was a Day of the Dead in Mexico, it has developed to a Day of the Living in The Netherlands.

Key words: transnationalism, tradition, collective memory, national identity, belonging

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my informants, without whom this research would not have been possible. Thank you for your time, hospitality, effort and willingness to give me insights into a beautiful tradition.

Furthermore, I would like to thank Dr. Marie-Louise Janssen and Dr. Martha Montero-Sieburth for their continuing support and encouragements and for giving me valuable insights and feedback over the course of this research project.

Additionally, I thank my fellow anthropologists for their uplifting companionship (in no particular order): Maria, Eric, Andrés, Jagna, Jordi, Jeske, Megan, Johana, Raquel, and Nazly.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank my parents, Rob and Karin, my partner, Catherine, and Charlie, Billie and Molly for their unconditional love and support.

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1.4 MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION AND SUB-QUESTIONS ... 11

1.5 SETTING AND POPULATION ... 12

1.6 METHODOLOGY ... 12

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 14

2.1 INTRODUCTION ... 14

2.2 TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION ... 14

2.3 MULTI-SITED RESEARCH... 17

2.4 THE INVENTION OF TRADITION ... 18

2.5 COLLECTIVE MEMORY ... 19

2.6 SUMMARY ... 22

3 SETTING, POPULATION, AND THE DAY OF THE DEAD ... 23

3.1 INTRODUCTION ... 23

3.2 SETTING AND POPULATION ... 24

3.3 WHO ARE THE MEXICAN MIGRANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS? ... 26

3.4 THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN MEXICAN SOCIETY ... 30

3.5 WHAT PRACTICES AND TRADITIONS ARE RELATED TO THE DAY OF THE DEAD? ... 35

3.6 SUMMARY ... 37

4 FINDINGS ... 38

4.1 INTRODUCTION ... 38

4.2 THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN THE NETHERLANDS FOR THOSE WHO CELEBRATED THE TRADITION IN MEXICO ... 39

4.3 THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN THE NETHERLANDS FOR THOSE WHO DID NOT CELEBRATE THE TRADITION IN MEXICO ... 41

4.4 SUMMARY ... 45

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5.1 INTRODUCTION ... 46

5.2 HOW DID SOFIA CELEBRATE THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN MEXICO? ... 46

5.3 WHY DOES SOFIA NOT CELEBRATE THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN THE NETHERLANDS? ... 50

5.4 ANALYSIS ... 53

5.5 SUMMARY ... 53

6 CASE STUDY:CELIA ... 54

6.1 INTRODUCTION ... 54

6.2 HOW AND WHY DOES CELIA CELEBRATE THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN THE NETHERLANDS? . 54 6.3 ANALYSIS ... 59

6.4 SUMMARY ... 59

7 DISCUSSION &CONCLUDING REMARKS ... 60

APPENDIX 1INFORMANTS ... 64

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 69

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FIGURE 2PART OF THE OFRENDA AT THE CONCERT IN HONOUR OF THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN ROTTERDAM ON NOVEMBER 2,2012 ... 7

FIGURE 3RANDSTAD IN THE NETHERLANDS ... 24

FIGURE 4ADVERTISEMENT IN A HOTEL LOBBY IN OAXACA PROMOTING A DAY OF THE DEAD TOUR FOR US$18 IN 1996 ... 32

FIGURE 5 LA CATRINA BY JOSÉ GUADALUPE POSADA ... 36

FIGURE 6 TWO SKELETONS PLAYING POOL BELOW AN IMAGE OF LA CATRINA ... 36

FIGURE 7THE PROTEST DISPLAY BY YOSOY132 ON DAM SQUARE,AMSTERDAM ON NOVEMBER 3,2012 ... 39

FIGURE 8A SCARF MADE BY VALERIA IN 2012 IN HONOUR OF THE DAY OF THE DEAD ... 42

TABLE 1 POPULATION; SEX AND AGE OF MEXICAN MIGRANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS ON JANUARY 1ST,2012 ... 25

TABLE 2THE ORIGINS OF MIGRANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS 1996-2012 ... 27

TABLE 3POPULATION; SEX, AGE AND MARITAL STATUS OF FIRST AND SECOND GENERATION MEXICANS IN THE NETHERLANDS ON JANUARY 1ST,2012 ... 28

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1. Introduction

1.1 The Day of the Dead

November 2, 2012 – Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán, Mexico1

Standing in a busy market place, you can hear music and everywhere you look you see people going from stall to stall, shop to shop. Everybody has the day off and it seems as if all of Mexico has come out to prepare for a special occasion. There are market stalls selling calaveras (small sugar skulls). You see a lady trying to find one with Juan written on its forehead to give to her son. You look around and you see bright colours all over and you can smell the cempasúchil (marigold flowers) and mano de léon (bright purple/red flowers) flowers. All the bakeries have a special bread, pan de muerto, in their shop windows. Not to forget the many images of skeletons, skulls and La Catrina, the Lady of Death, by Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada. It is el Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, the day our deceased loved ones will come back from the afterlife to enjoy the world of living once more. To make their return pleasant and to show them that we have not forgotten about them, people gather their favourite things to put on their ofrendas, altars, dedicated to their deceased loved ones. While each ofrenda can be set up differently, they typically all have the following elements: a photo of the deceased; candles, one for each loved one, which symbolise the light to guide them to the home; papel picado (colourful cut paper) symbolising air through the movement by wind; water, to cleanse their thirst after their long journey from the afterlife; fruit, to symbolise earth; the deceased’s favourite food and drink; salt, to season the food, as well as a symbol of purification; cempasúchil flowers, as their beauty and scent attract the soul to the altar; the deceased’s favourite things, such as cigars, or toys, in case of children.2

Later today we go to the cemeteries. Even though the sun has set, the whole cemetery is lit up by the hundreds of candles placed around the graves. People visit the graves of their loved ones: they clean the stones and bring fresh flowers, the same flowers you saw in the market stalls earlier today. You see people place opened tequila bottles by the graves, as well as cigarettes and other things the deceased enjoyed while they were alive. You find it

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I chose to set this diary entry in Tzintzuntzan as it is well-known for its extensive Day of the Dead festivities. I based the entry on the descriptions several informants gave me of the celebrations in Michoacán, including on the descriptions of two informants who had actually visited this place specifically to experience the Day of the Dead celebrations.

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fascinating to watch, but it is hard to ignore all the tourists. The celebration of the Day of the Dead in Tzintzuntzan has become so well-known that there are tourists, Mexican and international, everywhere: you see many people taking photos and elbowing their friend and then pointing at something. Even though it is the evening, it is still 20 degrees centigrade and the air feels warm on your skin. People will stay here all night, singing and celebrating life and death.

November 2, 2012 – Rotterdam, The Netherlands

It was 6 degrees centigrade and it was a dark, cloudy, rainy day. It is not very similar to the weather conditions in Mexico and many people prefer to stay in. There are no big markets dedicated to the Day of the Dead products and produce, it is not a national holiday, it is not a special day to go to mass or to visit the graves of loved ones. It seems to be an average day with nothing special happening. I wonder if Mexican migrants would still celebrate the Day of the Dead here, and if so, how?

I contacted the Mexican embassy in The Hague with my question and they gave me the October issue of their Boletín Cultural in return. Among a list of activities to do this month is a promotion for a calaveritas (poems for the Day of the Dead) contest, prefaced by a quote by José Guadalupe Posada: ‘La muerte, es democrática, ya que a fin de cuentas, güera, morena, rica o pobre, toda la gente acaba siendo calavera’ [‘Death is democratic, because after all, light-skinned, brown, rich or poor, everyone ends up a skull’] (Embajada de México en Países Bajos 2012: 5). Mexicans and their friends could send in their poems to celebrate the Day of the Dead. The organisers of the event aimed to ‘promote this fun Mexican tradition’ [‘Este certamen tiene como objetivo fomentar esta divertida tradición Mexicana’] (Ibid.). The poems of the winners would be presented at the ofrenda at the Day of the Dead concert in Rotterdam on November 2, 2012. The next page in the bulletin promoted the concert, organised by La Asociación Hispanoamericana de Rotterdam (Association of Hispanic-Americans in Rotterdam) and the Mexican embassy: ‘La Muerte Canta’ [‘Death sings’] by Tulish, a Mexican-Dutch band performing traditional Mexican music (Ibid.: 6). I decided to go to this event to experience how Mexican migrants get together and celebrate the Day of the Dead in a foreign country.

Wearing my winter coat, a scarf, gloves and a woolly hat, I rode my bicycle to the nearest train station to get the train to Rotterdam Central. I arrived in Rotterdam at 18.40h, in time for the concert to start at 19.00h. Walking from the station to the small community centre

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where the event was held, I crossed empty streets, apart from a few people cycling by quickly. It was cold and dark, and I could see my breath every time I exhaled. I tried to imagine what today would look like in Mexico. I imagined it to be warm, with bright colours everywhere. I imagined the families adding the deceased’s favourite dish to the ofrenda, that they had spent all day preparing. I imagined the cemeteries to be filled with candles, flowers, food, music and a nice little buzz. I arrived at the venue, a small place on the ground floor of a large office building opposite the Grote Kerk. I opened the door to a small corridor and right in front of me was the first ofrenda I had ever seen (see figure 2). There were three animated skeletons stuck to the wall: in the middle La Catrina, wearing a large hat and a black dress, and to her right side Madero, a masculine skeleton wearing a sombrero holding a bottle of alcohol, and to her left side another Catrina, this time wearing a colourful dress and a hat with cempasúchil on the top. The three skeletons were smiling and looked happy, which is very different from images of death I have seen being raised in The Netherlands. Below the skeletons were two black and white photos of men. Surrounding the photos were small candles, cempasúchils, and yellow and pink sunflowers. There were also small sugar skulls, calaveras, with names written on them. I would find out later that these were intended for the children in attendance. There were colourful paper cut-outs, papel picado, with images of La Catrina and skulls. Three Mexican people were taking photos of the ofrenda, which made me feel safe to take photos too without standing out too much. I could hear people speaking loudly in Spanish and I could smell deep fried food and spicy salsa coming from the open kitchen around the corner. I walked into the room where people were waiting for the doors to the concert hall to open. I went to stand by the window next to the kitchen counter where people were buying Mexican snacks. On the menu I saw tamales and tacos among other things. There were three calaveritas posted on the windows. It was fairly busy in the small waiting area and there were small groups of people standing in circles, laughing and chatting in Spanish to each other. The vast majority of people were, I assume, Mexican, as they were speaking in Spanish and a few wore traditional Mayan costumes, and most of them were women. I noticed two white men standing near me speaking Dutch. I wondered why they were here. Were they here out of

Figure 2 Part of the ofrenda at the concert in honour of the Day of the Dead in Rotterdam on November 2, 2012. Photo

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interest or maybe they were doing research on the Day of the Dead, like me? Then two Mexican women with two children walked over and hugged them, while the men picked up the children. I assumed that they were couples and they came here with their wives. Then a Mexican couple walked to the window where I was standing. The man looked at the poems and let out a disappointed sigh. He saw me looking at him and he introduced himself to me, Eduardo.3 He was fluent in Dutch and told me that the poems were from the winners of a contest he had entered in and found out just now that he did not win. Then he walked to the far back of the room and greeted many people along the way. It looked as if most people knew each other, as they smiled, hugged and gave two kisses on the cheeks when they saw each other.

I looked over to the other side of the room and spotted a group of eight women standing in a circle chatting. I wondered who they were and how they knew each other. I walked over to the corner, feeling a bit uncomfortable on my own, but did not get much time to observe. A lady noticed me standing there, walked over to me and introduced herself. Her name was Maria and she had lived in The Netherlands for over fifteen years. We chatted for a bit and I explained that I was here to learn more about the celebration. She took out her mobile phone and showed me a photo of an ofrenda she made at home. She looked very proud of it and showed it to the women standing around us as well. She asked the lady she was with if she had made an ofrenda and she replied, looking down to her shoes, almost a bit embarrassed, that she did not have the time to make one, but that she will try and do it next year.

It was about 19:15h and the doors to the concert hall opened. I saw people walking in quickly trying to get a good seat near the stage. I sat next to a Dutch lady and her Mexican husband. She looked very happy and kept sitting up to have a good look at the stage, while her husband kept walking over to people and chatting with them. I asked her why they were here and she replied that she really loved Mexican culture and music, while her husband ‘is just here to socialise and see his old friends, he does not really care about the tradition, like most people here I would say’. I was surprised; a Mexican man came to the Day of the Dead celebrations to socialise and not to actually celebrate the tradition? After a short introduction by the organisers of the event, the lights dimmed and a lady wearing a big black dress with a pink scarf and a big black hat with colourful feathers walked on with her back towards the audience. She then turned around to reveal the make-up on her face: white and black like a

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skull. She asked the crowd (in English) ‘Do you know who I am?’ to which several women on the front row shouted out ‘La Catrina!’ to which she replied knowingly ‘I thought I was famous’. She grabbed her ukulele, placed her left foot on a chair and began strumming the strings. She had all my attention, when, from the back of the room, I heard a trumpet. I looked over my shoulder and saw two men in black suits, top hats, and the skull face-paint walking down the aisle and onto the stage. Between each song, the band members would banter with the audience. At one occasion La Catrina addressed the feelings people might have when they lose a loved one: ‘Sometimes people get nostalgic when I take people with me, but don’t be nostalgic: I’m a lot of fun!’.

The concert would last nearly an hour and a half. They played different kinds of music, not just Mexican music, but also American blues with a Mexican spin. After the concert I exchanged contact details with several people, who I would be interviewing later. By attending this event I witnessed several possibilities as to how and why Mexican migrants celebrate the Day of the Dead in The Netherlands: there was a calaveritas contest which aimed to promote this fun Mexican tradition; for some it was seen as an occasion to socialise; there was an ofrenda at the venue and one lady showed me a photo of the ofrenda she had in her home, while another lady looked embarrassed to say that she did not make one this year; the band was painted to look like skulls; and there was plenty of Mexican food.

All these different ways made me curious to find out how the Day of the Dead was celebrated in The Netherlands, individually and communally.

1.2 Relevance

I believe that this research has theoretical and social relevance. With my research I aim to contribute to the larger debates on transnationalism and the effect migration has on rituals and national identities. I will show how and why traditions, specifically the Day of the Dead, transform when they are deterritorialised from Mexico and reterritorialised in The Netherlands.

Moreover, I have previously done research on the social position of the indigenous population in Mexico. Part of this research touched upon the Day of the Dead tradition as a way for mestizo Mexicans to explore their indigenous roots while treasuring their contemporary mestizo- identity, as I will elaborate on in chapter three. It would be interesting to see if the meaning of the tradition changes for Mexican migrants in The Netherlands. Also, the Mexican migrant community is a relatively small and new migrant group in The Netherlands. While there is an extensive body of work on the Mexican migration to the

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United States of America, not a lot of research has been done on this migrant group in The Netherlands yet, and I aim to help fill this gap with my research.

1.3 Theoretical framework

The main concept I will use in my thesis is transnationalism. Other important concepts that I will link to are tradition and collective memory. I will now briefly explain the relevance of these concepts, and I will expand on these in the following chapter.

As mentioned briefly in section 1.3, there has been a lot of anthropological research done on Mexican migration to the United States of America, by American and Mexican anthropologists alike. Because of the interest in this specific flow of migration, the anthropologists researching Mexican migration to the United States of America have been leaders in the development of the concept transnationalism, as argued by anthropologist Heyman (2006a: 1590). He defines transnationalism as ‘mobile communities of people [who] have social, cultural, and political presence in more than one nation at a given time’, (2006b; 1600). My research focuses on first generation Mexicans celebrating a Mexican tradition in The Netherlands, which means that they are indeed part of a mobile community of people who stay connected with their home country in their host country through performing this tradition. Moreover, as I will show in chapters 3 and 4, their host country also influences how and why they celebrate the tradition. This concept leaves the way open for de-syncretisation, de/re-territorialisation, different interpretations of the celebration, and hybridity. Therefore, transnationalism is very suitable as the main concept of my theoretical framework.

The next concept I will discuss is tradition. British Marxist historian Hobsbawm argues that rituals and traditions have often come in existence relatively recent, even when they seem very old. The roots of the Day of the Dead may be from pre-Columbian past, but the performance of the tradition has changed drastically over time. Hobsbawm argues that ‘[i]nventing traditions... is essentially a process of formalization and ritualization, characterised by reference to the past, if only by imposing repetition’ (1983: 4). This process is at the core of the Mexican tradition. The performance has not just changed over time in Mexico, but to the first generation Mexicans in The Netherlands it is now also influenced and affected by outside forces, such as their migration and the Dutch context.

Sociologist, and follower of Durkheim, Maurice Halbwachs developed the concept collective memory which denotes that ‘the specific character that a person derives from belonging to a distinct society and culture is not seen to maintain itself for generations as a result of phylogenetic evolution, but rather as a result of socialization and customs’ (Assman

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1995: 125). Collective memory is, thus, a result of the cultural framework that a person exists in. Inspired by Durkheim’s view on solidarity and social cohesion, Halbwachs argued that collective memory serves to strengthen social bonds that link people together. Specifically Halbwachs notion of historical memory is relevant to my research. Memories from times passed can only reach a social actor in the present through recordings of events. These memories could be kept alive through, for example, commemorations and festive enactments, much like the Day of the Dead (Halbwachs 1992 [1952]: 23-24).

All three concepts, transnationalism, tradition and collective memory, are related and tied to each other in my research of the Day of the Dead celebrations by first generation Mexican migrants in The Netherlands.

1.4 Main research question and sub-questions

The main question guiding this research is: How and why do first generation Mexican migrants in The Netherlands celebrate the Day of the Dead?

By first generation Mexican migrants I refer to Mexicans who were born and raised in Mexico and who then migrated to The Netherlands as adults.

By celebrate I mean the expression of the related practices and traditions to the Day of the Dead, such as: putting up the ofrenda, the use of cempasúchil flowers, sharing stories about the deceased, preparing pan de muertos. I have chosen to use the verb celebrate, as that is how the majority of informants and literary sources refer to it. However, the informants might refer to this expression in a different way. For example, several informants I interviewed referred to these practices as commemorating (commemorar).

By practices and traditions related to the Day of the Dead I mean, influenced by the historian Hobsbawm, the ritualization and annual repetition of events during the Day of the Dead period. I will expand on this in the third chapter.

To answer the research question I have formulated the following sub-questions:  Who are the Mexican migrants in The Netherlands?

 What practices and traditions are related to the Day of the Dead?

 How did the first generation Mexican migrants in The Netherlands celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico?

 How do the first generation Mexican migrants celebrate the Day of the Dead in The Netherlands?

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I will answer sub-questions 1 and 2 in chapter three, when I discuss the setting and population of my research and I contextualise the tradition in Mexican society. Sub-questions 3 to 5 will be answered in chapter four, when I present the results of my fieldwork and my findings.

1.5 Setting and population

The actors I want to research are first generation Mexican migrants in The Netherlands, specifically in the Randstad, as this is where the majority of Mexican organisations are based and many Mexican and Day of the Dead-related events take place. The activity is celebrating the Mexican tradition Día de los Muertos, including their perception of this celebration. I will expand on the setting and population, as well as the traditions and practices related to the Day of the Dead in chapter three.

1.6 Methodology

I attended four events in honour of Día de los Muertos last November. According to sociologist Gold’s classification of participant observation roles, I acted as an observing-participant at these events, because I was an observer who had minimal involvement in the social setting and I was mainly an interviewer (Bryman 2008: 410-411). At these events I exchanged contact details with several Mexicans there and after I interviewed them, some of them would put me in contact with their friends. Snowball sampling has been a very valuable research sampling technique, as informants then introduced me to their friends. I was also helped immensely by the president of the Asociación Mexicanos y Amigos de México en Holanda, Dr. Martha Montero-Sieburth, who put me in contact with many more people. Even though I tried to interview a wide circle of informants, demographically and socially, there was a case of pre-selection, by me and by informants who introduced me to others. The downside of this method, however, is that I was introduced into a few small social circles. This also explains the high number of women I interviewed. Even though only 60.4% of first generation Mexicans in The Netherlands is female, the majority of my small sample of informants was female. The social circles I was introduced to consisted of (mostly) women, thus when an informant referred to one of their friends, they were usually female and of similar age.

The conduction of semi-structured interviews was the main research method I used to gather data to answer the main question and sub-questions, as well as statistics from Centraal Bureau Statistiek (CBS) and literature on the Day of the Dead celebrations. I have conducted 19 semi-structured interviews in total, with three men and sixteen women. I would meet the

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informants wherever and whenever was convenient for them, usually at their homes, but I have also met several informants outside of their homes in cafes, a library and in a cafeteria of the informant’s workplace in The Hague. The interviews took between 1½ and 3½ hours, depending on whether the informant had the time and whether they had photos, books and other cultural artefacts related to the tradition to show me. The interviews were conducted in either Dutch or English. As the informants had lived in The Netherlands for over a decade on average, they were fluent in either language, which lowered the risk of things getting lost in translation. However, it still added another level of interpretation, because what the informant said in Dutch or English was an interpretation of what they would have said in Spanish, which makes my interpretation another level of interpretation.

An important research method I used was Geertz’s notion of thick description. He stated that culture is neither a reified power nor a reduction of a pattern of behaviours (1973: 11). Instead, he argued that culture ‘denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life’ and believed that it was the anthropologist’s aim to interpret the informants’ interpretations of these symbols. (Bryman 2008: 368, 387; Geertz 1973: 14, 89). The behaviours, values and understandings that the Mexican migrants have in relation to the Day of the Dead tradition need to be understood in context. A thick description of the social settings, events, and individuals helped me uncover and understand this context.

I used the grounded theory approach as my framework for gathering and analysing the qualitative data. Even though it was my intent from the start of my research to contribute to the larger debates on transnationalism, I did not begin with a preconceived theory with existing concepts in mind. By theoretical sampling, coding, conceptualising, categorising and the constant comparison between the methods and outcomes, the theory emerged through the content analysis of data (Bryman 2008: 275). Ground theory proved to be a useful approach, as Strauss and Corbin argued: ‘In this method, data collection, analysis, and eventual theory stand in close relationship to one another’ (Strauss & Corbin 1998: 12). By using this approach I was more focussed on building theory than testing theory.

In the next chapter, I will first present the literary framework of my thesis by discussing the concepts transnationalism, tradition and collective memory. These concepts are related and tied to each other, and are crucial for a deeper understanding of the findings of my research. Then, I will elaborate on the setting, population and traditions and practices related

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to the Day of the Dead in chapter three. In chapter four, I will present a case study about Sofia, an informant who did celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico, but does not celebrate in The Netherlands. In this chapter I will answer sub-questions 3 to 6, answering the questions how and why she celebrated in Mexico but not in her host country. In chapter five I will present another case study, this time on Celia, an informant who did not grow up celebrating the Day of the Dead in Mexico, but has chosen to celebrate it in The Netherlands. Again I will answer sub-questions 3 to 5, but now relating to her experiences. And I will conclude my master thesis by linking my findings to the existing theories of transnationalism and by answering the main research question.

2 Theoretical framework

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter I will discuss the theoretical debates on the three main concepts that I connect my findings to. I will start with transnationalism, followed by a brief discussion of the importance of multi-sited research when studying transnationalism, after which I will discuss the concept of tradition, and lastly the concept collective memory. I will finish this chapter with a brief conclusion of the main arguments and the relevance to my research.

2.2 Transnational migration

In his article An Inconstant Profession: The Anthropological Life in Interesting Times (2002), Clifford Geertz reflects on the history of anthropology as a discipline and his own anthropological career. He notes that interest in transnationalism only developed in the 1990s, since before then these studies ‘were not thought to be part of anthropology's purview’ (2002: 2, 13). As a result, the prominent debates and definitions of transnationalism are relatively recent.

In their article Transnational Migration Studies: Past Development and Future Trends (2007), sociologists Levitt & Jaworsky give an overview of transnational migration perspectives and give examples of problems that may arise when studying transnationalism. In the article, Basch et al. are quoted as defining transnationalism as ‘the processes by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement’ (2007: 131). There are many processes, of which celebrating the Day of the Dead in The Netherlands is one, where Mexican migrants link their relation with Mexico to their location of settlement. Anthropologist King argues that this is a recent

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development, because ‘where previous generations of migrants tended toward making a “clean break” with their societies of origin, many contemporary migrants continue to have ongoing ties with the communities from which they migrated’ (2006: 2220). She contributes this to new technologies that make it easier to stay in contact with the homeland, such as e-mail and relatively cheap airplane tickets. This corresponds to my findings, since most Mexicans I interviewed stated that they are constantly communicating with their family and friends in Mexico through Skype, texts messages and e-mail.

Social-cultural anthropologist Burrell discusses how the Day of the Dead celebrations by transnational migrants in Guatemala have become transnational social fields on account of transnational migration. As a result of the multi-stranded relations, the fiestas have ‘become the ground on which concepts of community and family are renegotiated and enacted and terms of belonging are (re)established’ (Burrell 2005: 13). She continues that cultural practices and celebrations are both global and local, as they are part of global integration processes and they challenge the assumption that ‘cultures are subordinated to processes of globalization’ (ibid.). She shows how specific events that are part of the fiesta in Guatemala have changed between 1940 and the present, and links the changes to transnationalism. Transnational migrants return to their hometowns with new knowledge and experiences and actively express these in the celebrations. The migrants and people in their homeland share a common past, but a differentiated present. Consequently, they transform the character and meaning of social, historic, and traditional relationships inherent to the celebration (ibid.: 15).

Levitt & Jaworsky (2007) introduce the concept of hybridity when arguing that the relationships that transnational migrants have with their country of origin and their host country do not stay separate, bound and static; instead, the meeting and mixing of cultural traits form a ‘hybridity continuum’ (2007: 139). The hybridity continuum includes multiple and hybrid identities. For example, they argue that it is difficult to separate culture from religion, and Mexicanness from Catholicism (ibid.: 140). This opened my mind, because trying to separate and define culture from religion was exactly what I tried to do and failed. They state that mixed times and spaces and the hybridity of traditions are a result of deterritorialisation, namely that when rituals and traditions are moved back and forth with transnational migrants, ‘they are deterritorialized from their localities of origin and reterritorialized—that is, relocalized, mixed, and brought into juxtaposition with modern and postmodern discourse and practices. The result... [is] tiempos y espacios mixtos y híbridicos [mixed and hybrid times and spaces]’ (ibid.).

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Argentinean anthropologist Néstor García Canclini writes in his Hybrid Cultures that he favours the concept of hybridity, because it ‘includes diverse intercultural mixtures - not only the racial ones... - and because it permits the inclusion of the modern forms of hybridization better than does "syncretism," a term that almost always refers to religious fusions or traditional symbolic movements’ (2005 [1989]: 11). This is relevant to my research, because the Day of the Dead is a melting pot of many different elements. The tradition originated out of the mixture of indigenous and Spanish culture, and is a mix between Aztec and Christian beliefs. In this research the elements of migration and transnationalism are also introduced, which makes hybridity an accurate term to describe this tradition.

Sociologist Faist also views hybridity as an outcome of transnational migration, but sees it as part of transnational syncretism. He argues that there are three cultural concepts to analyse the adaption of immigrants in the host country, namely: acculturation, as a result of assimilation by a complete adaption of values and behaviour that’s part of the new country; cultural retention, where collective identities are maintained in a new context; transnational syncretism, which refers to a diffusion of cultures, hybrid cultural practices and a birth of new, mixed identities (2000: 201). The latter concept is fundamental to my research. The identities of Mexican migrants in The Netherlands are related to at least two nation-states. This means that the celebration of the Day of the Dead is a result of the de/re-territorialisation of the nation, the people and the celebration.

Social anthropologists Glick Schiller et al. (1995) go further and argue that transmigration contests and transgresses national borders and boundaries. Meanwhile, the assumption is that processes of globalisation, which transnationalism is a part of, will lead to the demise of nation-states and the expansion of world cities. However, transnational migrants offer a new paradox: while the global interconnectedness of economic and social processes grows and intensifies, there is a revival of the politics of differentiation (1995: 50). The public identities of transnational migrants are interconnected across national borders and constructed in relation to multiple nation-states. The authors argue that this has led to ‘deterritorialized nation-states’, where the borders of a state are social instead of geographical (ibid.: 58). Thus, the state borders include all emigrated migrants, wherever they may be.

Anthropologist Kearney agrees with the definition of transnationalism, namely that transnational communities cross two nation-states with ties to their homeland. They then construct transnational spaces, in which the deterritorialisation of people and identities result in a deterritorialisation of rituals. He refers to Glick Schiller’s deterritorialized nation-states,

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but goes further by putting transnational migrants from deterritorialized nation-states opposite members of a diaspora, as people part of a diaspora view themselves as being a nation outside of their country of origin, as opposed to still being part of their country of origin (Kearney 1995: 553). Kearney refers to anthropologist Marcus to express that these transnational spaces are difficult to research, which I will discuss in more detail in the next paragraph.

2.3 Multi-sited research

It is challenging to study transnational migration effectively, which is why usually only the host country is researched. Anthropologist Marcus (1995) argues that cultures cannot be viewed as bound and static, but have global interconnections. Consequently, it has become challenging to ethnographically represent transnational spaces, transnational migrants and transnational communities. Marcus references social-cultural anthropologist Appadurai, when stating that cultures can no longer be located in places. When studying transnational migrants, it is impossible to solely study the local and the present. Therefore, contemporary multi-sited ethnographies, especially on transnationalism, cannot develop within the genres of Marxist anthropology, political economy, and history, because the world system is no longer perceived to be a ‘theoretically constituted holistic frame that gives context to the contemporary study of people or local subjects closely observed by ethnographers, but it... [has become] integral to and embedded in discontinuous, multi-sited objects of study’ (Marcus 1995: 97). This means that research and ethnographies must be interdisciplinary and multi-sited.

Levitt & Jaworsky (2007) refer to Marcus’ theory of multi-sited ethnography, but offer the critique that the incorporation of the home country in multi-sited research is only for background information, while the focus is still on the host country. Instead, they suggest that the ideal way to study transnational migration is to make ‘a thick and empirically rich mapping of how global, macro-level processes interact with local lived experiences… that are representative of broader trends’ (2007: 143). They argue that researching transnational migration is not just about researching different places; instead, they argue it is about researching transnational networks by studying the migrants, the people in their homeland and the people in their new country of residence. This way the transnational flows and their effects on different groups of people can be captured (ibid.).

18 2.4 The invention of tradition

The previous articles dealt with transnationalism and the related deterritorialisation of nation-states, traditions and rituals, and identities. Social-cultural anthropologist Faubion explores the perception of history in anthropology and finds the consequences of migration, globalisation and transnationalism. He expresses that history has become an authority in anthropology, where concepts of synchronicity and insularity have been overturned when describing the history of a people or a culture (1993: 35). Related to the earlier discussion of transnationalism, history has been affected by internal and external influences, and global interconnectedness. This affects the idea of timeless religious and ritual performances. This leads to the concept of the invention of tradition, as ‘the lines between the reproduction and invention of tradition..., and between myth and historia... have grown increasingly asymptotic’ (ibid.: 44). He argues that anthropologists, and their subjects alike, have, grudgingly, come to accept that tradition has been invented (ibid.: 36). The research perspective that the tradition of celebrating the Day of the Dead has not always existed in its present form and has been invented is crucial to my research. Faubion refers to Hobsbawm, whom I have briefly discussed in section 1.6, who goes into the concept tradition much deeper with The Invention of Tradition (1983).

British Marxist historian Hobsbawm argues that rituals and traditions in its present form have often come in existence relatively recent, even when they seem very old. He argues that ‘[i]nventing traditions... is essentially a process of formalization and ritualization, characterised by reference to the past, if only by imposing repetition’ (1983: 4). This process is at the core of the Mexican tradition, with the influence of transnationalism and the related concepts I have discussed. Burrell also found this in her research on the Day of the Dead celebrations in Guatemala when she argues that traditions ‘associated with the fiesta are central to processes of culture, identity, and community and tie people in complex ways to a significant past’ (2005: 15). The celebration is an opportunity to (re)construct the notions of belonging, inclusion and exclusion. While Burrell studies transnational migrants in their home country and I will study them in their host country, I will be studying the effects of transnationalism on the celebration as well and need to take the same processes into account.

Many of the sources I have discussed refer to Appadurai’s work, while Appadurai refers to Hobsbawm. Appadurai calls today’s global cultural economy a ‘complex transnational construction of imaginary landscapes’ with overlaps and ‘fundamental disjunctures between economy, culture and politics’ (1990: 4, 6). He argues that there are several related dimensions of global cultural flows: constructions that are changed by

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historical, linguistic and political contexts. And it is in and through these disjunctured dimensions that global flows occur, with the result that these disjunctures are currently in the middle of the politics of global culture (ibid.: 11). Even though all dimensions are related to each other and affect each other, the dimension that is closest related to my thesis subject is the ethnoscape: the landscape of people moving or wanting to move within or outside their nation-state, such as Mexicans in The Netherlands (ibid.: 7). Appadurai argues that deterritorialisation is a key force in the modern world, as the connection between the home country and host country creates new and intensified sentiments of either wanting to create a new life in the new land or to long back to the old land. The imagined home country is a different landscape: a mediascape, an image that deterritorialized groups have of their roots (ibid.: 11-12). If we accept Brandes’ argument that the Day of the Dead can be inherently linked to the nation-state Mexico and to Mexicanness, then when Mexicans in The Netherlands celebrate the fiesta they represent their image of their homeland. This image, in turn, is related to and material for the ideoscape, a national ideology. Appadurai argues that global cultural flows have resulted in a situation where the ability of primordia, like traditions such as the Day of the Dead, to ‘ignite intimacy into a political sentiment and turn locality into a staging ground for identity, have become spread over vast and irregular spaces as groups move, yet stay linked to one another through sophisticated media capabilities’ (ibid.: 15). He does not criticize Hobsbawm’s argument that traditions are invented, but argues that what previously had been viewed as local has now become global: it is no longer contained by state borders.

2.5 Collective memory

In order to explain the origin of a (national) character of a group of people, sociologist Halbwachs developed the concept collective memory. He rejected the biological notion that this character was passed on for generations as an inheritable ‘racial memory’, as was previously thought, but instead argued that this character was the result of the culture one was raised in, through socialisation and customs (Assman 1995: 125). Thus, collective memory does not come naturally, but is a socially constructed concept. Halbwachs proceeds to explain that the collective memory of a group has been constructed by the members for a long period of time. It is important to understand that, even though ‘the collective memory endures and draws strength from its base in a coherent body of people, it is individuals as group members who remember’ (Halbwachs 1980: 48). What follows is that the individuals, existing in a specific group context, need to ‘draw on that context to remember or recreate the past’

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(Halbwachs 1992: 22). In other words, as the collective memory is not a given but socially constructed, the individuals need to be reminded of these memories for they will otherwise be forgotten. In return, to properly understand an individual’s memory, its meaning and context, it is vital to view the memory in relation to the group.

Halbwachs identifies two different kinds of memory: autobiographical memory and historical memory. Autobiographical memory can be described as personal memory: memories of events that an individual has personally experienced in the past. These events are shared with others and, as such, the memories are usually rooted in other people. Only the group members who experienced the events will remember, and the memories will die with them (Halbwachs 1992: 24). Historical memories, also described as social memory, on the other hand, are memories of events in the past that the individual group member has not experienced. The memories can only reach a social actor in the present:

...in indirect ways through reading or listening or in commemoration and festive occasions when people gather together to remember in common the deeds and accomplishments of long-departed members of the group. In this case, the past is stored and interpreted by social institutions (ibid.).

These memories can be kept alive through, for example, commemorations and festive enactments, much like the Day of the Dead. Each celebration of the Day of the Dead reinforces the memory of past events, from the Aztecs in pre-Columbian times, to the colonisation in the introduction of Catholic beliefs and traditions by the Spaniards, to the mixed mestizo celebration and related politics of today. The memories of these events help to shape the beliefs and national character of ‘The Mexican’, and improve solidarity and social cohesion. I will get back to this in chapter 5 when I discuss that many informants stated that celebrating the Day of the Dead reminds them of Mexico’s long history and that this makes them feel proud of their country.

Group members of the current generation prevent the past events from being forgotten through commemoration and by being passed on by the elders of society to the young. People’s ideas about the past are affected by the context of the present. This results in a collective historical memory that has both cumulative aspects, as the memories have been passed on throughout history from generation to generation, and present-day aspects, as the current generation represents the commemoration and adjusts it to the current state of society. Linking back to the previously discussed invention of tradition, the Day of the Dead is part of

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a process of ritualisation with reference to the past, but has actually evolved greatly since the pre-Columbian times, the colonisation and the current mixed form it is presented and celebrated in. In order to not lose the memories, the collective historical memory of a group:

...needs continuous feeding from collective sources and is sustained by social and moral props. Just like God needs us, so memory needs others. But those who are led to give an account of the past in terms of present guideposts will generally be also aware that history is made of continuity as well as change (1992: 34).

The Day of the Dead is a collective tradition that represents and is shaped by collective social beliefs, but it is influenced by knowledge of the present, by Mexicans in and out of Mexico.

Historian Confino criticises studies on collective memory that do not place a representation of the past, such as a commemoration, within the symbolic universe that a society has to offer. The representations are, then, symbolically isolated. Collective memory, he argues, is the result of a combination of a representation of the past and a representation of symbolism in a specific cultural context. Confino explains:

This view posits the study of memory as the relationship between the whole and its component parts, seeing society as a global entity - social, symbolic, political - where different memories interact. This approach also seeks to reconstruct the meaning of a given collective memory by using an intertwined, double move: placing it within a global historical context and a global symbolic universe, and analyzing the ideas, values, and practices embedded in and symbolized by its particular imagery (1997: 1391).

Confino agrees with Halbwachs belief that the memory of an individual needs to be viewed in relation to the cultural context and specific group that he exists in. This way, the collective historical memory is studied as a mix of representation, reception and beliefs, instead of focussing on just one aspect. One cannot solely focus on the presentation and assume to understand the meaning and reception. The representation of a memory might not be the same as the social experience, the reception, of a memory, and the beliefs might be differently interpreted. This definition makes it possible to view a memory in its political, social and cultural context (1997: 1392, 1399). Any given memory is completely engrossed in a culture

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that consists of practices and representations. The memories construct a notion of the past through a process of invention and appropriation, similarly to Hobsbawm’s argument about the construction of traditions.

Halbwachs argued that the commemorations tighten social bonds, even as far as on a national level. Confino states that national memory consists of several, often opposing, memories that construct a sense of ‘common denominators that overcome on the symbolic level real social and political differences to create an imagined community’ (1997: 1399-1400). This shows that memories within a society cannot be studied within taking society and identity into account. I discussed before that the Day of the Dead celebrations represent a past of pre-Columbian times, Spanish colonisation, and a recent mestizo society. The mestizo identity and history is being celebrated, but ignores the past and current conflicts caused by this concept. These conflicts are not obvious when you view the Day of the Dead celebrations on its own, without the specific context of past and current society. As Confino states:

People construct representations of the nation that conceal through symbols real friction in their society (1997: 1400).

Exactly because memories are imperfect representations of facts, it is possible to shape and adapt them in unexpected ways. Political scientist Benedict Anderson shows that nationalist movements in the Americas turned to history to unite members of an imagined community: the idea of a shared past unites people, even if the idea differs from facts (2006: 197). This is why Confino stresses the importance of studying the full picture, all the aspects of a collective memory: the representation, the reception and the beliefs; the political, the cultural and the social, within a larger context.

2.6 Summary

The concept transnationalism takes in a central position in my theoretical framework. Firstly, I discussed works by several authors who have different and overlapping theories about transnationalism. Levitt & Jaworsky introduce the concept of hybridity, which Faist, in turn, incorporates in his concept of transnational syncretism. Both the articles by Levitt & Jaworsky and Faist, as well as the articles by Kearney and Glick Schiller et al., discuss the concept deterritorialisation at length. Burrell studied the effects of transnationalism and deterritorialisation at a micro-level, by studying the fiesta in the homeland of transnational migrants. Meanwhile, Faubion and Hobsbawm put history back in the present by showing that

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internal and external influences and global interconnectedness affect how traditions are created and developed, and what place they hold in society. I discussed Appadurai, who argued that global cultural flows occur in and through different -scapes. It would be wrong to assume that only people, i.e. the ethnoscape, are relevant when researching transnational flows of culture and tradition. Appadurai shows that all landscapes are related, complex and overlapping. Lastly, I discussed Halbwachs notion of collective memory, and specifically collective historical memory. He argues that the character of an individual is shaped by the cultural framework he exists in, and that the collective memory serves to tighten social bonds within a group. Historical memory can be passed on for generations through commemorations and celebrations, such as the Day of the Dead. However, the memories and reconstructions of past events will be influenced by present-day context and knowledge. Confino agreed with this and, accordingly, stressed the importance to view a national memory within a larger political, social and cultural context of representation, reception and beliefs.

In the following chapter, I will answer the first two sub-questions I proposed in section 1.4, namely: Who are the Mexican migrants in The Netherlands? and What practices and traditions are related to the Day of the Dead? by first elaborating on the setting and population of my research and, then, by contextualising the tradition in past and present-day Mexico and by exploring the practices and traditions that are typically related to the Day of the Dead.

3 Setting, population, and the Day of the Dead

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter I will elaborate on the setting and population of my research and answer the first two sub-questions, namely: Who are the Mexican migrants in the Netherlands? and What practices and traditions are related to the Day of the Dead? I will begin with the setting and population, then I will answer the first sub-question by elaborating on the background of the Mexican migrants in the Netherlands, after which I will focus on the second sub-question by contextualising the tradition in past and present-day Mexico and by exploring the practices and traditions that are typically related to the Day of the Dead. I will conclude this chapter by briefly reflecting on the main findings.

24 3.2 Setting and population

I have attended four different events related to the Day of the Dead that took place in three different cities in the west of the Netherlands. The people I spoke to were from towns near these places. Columbian anthropologist Sandoval shows in her article, however, that the highest concentration of Mexicans is in Maastricht, in the very south of the Netherlands (2008: 10). This means that Mexican migrants are spread out over the country, as opposed to being concentrated in a specific area. Therefore, I could not choose one city to do my fieldwork, but instead chose to focus on the west of the Netherlands: the Randstad, an area consisting of the country’s four biggest cities and the surrounding areas (see figure 3). This means I will be conducting multi-sited research, as

argued by Marcus, but on a much smaller scale. I have decided to focus on this area, because several Mexican organisations are based here, such as the organisations that organised the Day of the Dead events that I have attended as an observing-participant. Namely:

 Asociación Mexicanos y Amigos de México en Holanda (Association of Mexicans and Friends of Mexico in the Netherlands), which aims to ‘promote, diffuse, link and interchange social, cultural and economic development activities between Mexico and The Netherlands for and with Mexicans, friends of Mexico and their future generations’4

;  Yo Soy 132-Holanda, which organised a politicised memorial remembering the ‘Death of Democracy’ as a result of the recent controversial elections in Mexico on Dam Square on November 3rd (for information on the election fraud, see: Blackstone 2012; Pelzer 2012; Weisbrot 2012);

 Asociación Hispano-Americana de Rotterdam (Association of Hispanic-Americans in Rotterdam), which organised a Day of the Dead concert in cooperation with the Mexican embassy;

4 _{As stated on the organisation’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MexNl/info (20/10/2012).}

Figure 3 Randstad in The Netherlands. (Randstadmonitor 2010: 2).

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 Mexicanos en Holanda por la Paz en México (Mexicans in The Netherlands for Peace in Mexico), which organised a Day of the Dead event to commemorate the 72 journalists that have been murdered in the last six years as a result of the drug wars in Mexico in cooperation with Casa Migrante in Amsterdam.

Three out of four organisations were politically tied, with YoSoy132 and Mexicanos en Holanda por la Paz en México were highly critical of the Mexican government and the Asociación Hispano-Americana de Rotterdam co-organised the event with the Mexican embassy. I found that the Mexican community is fragmented based on their preferences in Mexican politics. The Asociación Mexicanos y Amigos de México en Holanda was the only Mexican organisation I encountered without political links. In my interview5 with Dr. Martha Montero-Sieburth, the president of the association, she told me that her primary motivation for starting the association was to preserve the Mexican traditions and to offer a place for Mexicans to unite regardless of politics.

The least amount of people were present at the two events that protested the Mexican government, while the cultural event had the most visitors. What stood out for me was that at several events close to half of the people in attendance were Dutch, mostly Dutch men. The majority seemed to be there with their Mexican partners and young children, as I will elaborate on in the next section.

On January 1st 2012 there were 4659 Mexican migrants in The Netherlands, of which 3141 (67%) were first generation migrants and 1518 (33%) were second generation migrants (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek 2012a; see table 3 in section 3.3 for a more elaborate table). The following table shows that the majority of Mexican migrants in The Netherlands were female (57%), and between 20 and 65 years of age (65.8%) in 2012:

Table 1 Population; sex and age of Mexican migrants in The Netherlands on January 1st, 2012 (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek 2012a).

Male Female Total

0 – 20 years old 777 751 1528

20 – 65 years old 1212 1856 3068

65+ years old 17 46 63

5 _{Conducted on 13/06/2013.}

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Total 2006 2653 4659

As discussed in the previous chapter, I attended four events in honour of Día de los Muertos last November and I have conducted 19 semi-structured interviews in total, with three men and sixteen women (see appendix 1). All my informants were first generation Mexican migrants and I can organize them in mainly two categories based on the reason for coming to The Netherlands, namely for education/work or for love. The first category includes three people who were all under 30 years of age and moved here to do their Master’s and/or PhD, and have lived here for roughly five years. Christina and Nadia now had Dutch partners and were thinking of settling down here, while Daniel had a Mexican girlfriend and is planning on leaving The Netherlands. The informants in the other category were 35+ years of age and came here for their (Dutch) partners. They have lived here for an average of 14 years and either have or are starting a family. The majority of my informants came from Mexico City and currently lived in the Randstad. Most of them were employed (including voluntary work). Fortunately, all contacts were fluent in either Dutch or English, and as a result I did not need to use an interpreter.

3.3 Who are the Mexican migrants in The Netherlands?

In this section I will briefly elaborate on the demographics of the Mexican migrants in The Netherlands.

Sandoval distinguishes three causes to Latin American migration to The Netherlands, namely: political refugees as a result of dictatorial regimes in Chile, Argentina and Paraguay in the 1970s; poor socio-economic conditions caused by neo-liberalism and globalisation between the 1980s and 2000s; and more recently, the events of September 11, 2001 that made it more difficult to migrate to the United States of America (2008: 9). The vast majority (97 percent) of first generation Mexican migrants live in the United States of America (Pew Hispanic Center 2011: 4). Most of them chose to migrate for economic reasons and came from rural areas (Portes 1979: 428; Rosenblum et al. 2012: 9). The majority of my informants, however, were higher educated and originated from urbanised communities, such as Mexico City and the surrounding area.

As I have mentioned before, the Mexicans are a relatively new and small migrant group in The Netherlands, compared to, for example, the Turks, which is the largest migrant group in The Netherlands, and the Brazilians, the largest Latin American migrant group (Sandoval 2008: 8-9). To compare: in 2012 the Turks accounted for 392,923 migrants, the

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Brazilians for 19,102 and the Mexicans for 4,659 migrants in The Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek 2012a). Of the three nationalities, the Mexican migrant population has been expanding the fastest relatively, judging by table 2, as the population has nearly quadrupled:

Table 2 The origins of migrants in The Netherlands 1996-2012 (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek 2012b).

1996 2003 2012 Relative growth between 1996-2012

Turkey 271,514 341,400 392,923 1.45%

Brazil 6,589 10,900 19,102 2.90%

Mexico 1,251 2,458 4,659 3.73%

What stands out, however, is the feminisation of Latin American migration: while the majority of Turkish migrants are male, the majority of Mexican and Brazilian migrants are female (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek 2012b). Migration to The Netherlands is convenient for Latin American women, as Sandoval argues: ‘The large majority (75 percent) of culturally mixed couples consist of a Latin American woman and a Dutch man; in addition, the labour market attracts women in the sectors of care giving, house cleaning and sex work’ (2008: 10). Of the 19 Mexicans migrants I interviewed, 14 migrated to The Netherlands to be with their partner and 12 of these partners were Dutch: three Mexican men migrated for their Dutch wife and nine Mexican women migrated for their Dutch husband. The other informants migrated to The Netherlands for their studies or work. One couple I interviewed, both the man and woman were Mexican, were planning to stay in The Netherlands indefinitely. The man, Eduardo, wished to go back to Mexico eventually (and had even bought a grave in Mexico), but his wife, Adriana, refuses to go back because of Mexico’s machismo and general misogyny. She stated that she feels much safer and happier as a woman in The Netherlands compared to when she lived in Mexico City.

Since the Mexican migrant population is relatively new in The Netherlands, the second generation6 Mexicans are relatively young in age, as shown in table 3. The majority of

6

The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) defines a member of the first generation as a ‘person born abroad to at least one parent who was born abroad’ and defines a member of the second generation as a ‘person who was born in The Netherlands to at least one parent who was born abroad’ (CBS 2012a). Many academics have argued for different definitions of first and second generation migrants, such as sociologist Rumbaut. He argued that members of the first generation are persons who immigrate after adolescence, because those who migrate before the age of 18 are in a different life stages than adults and are closer to the second generation in terms of