El transnacionalismo y la movilización colectiva de la comunidad maya en Júpiter, Florida Ambigüedades en la identidad transnacional y la religión vivida

Resumen

Algunos elementos de la religión vivida ayudan a los inmigrantes mayas en Júpiter,Florida, Estados Unidos, a reconstruir simbólica y prácticamente la noción de“hogar”, dando un sentido de identidad colectiva, lo cual ha facilitado la accióncomunitaria. La homogeneidad étnica y lingüística, la comunidad de origen común y la fuerza de una sola tradición religiosa, combinados con bajos niveles de aceptación cultural/social de los inmigrantes en Júpiter da como resultado lo que Alejandro Portes llama una etnicidad reactiva. Pero la relación entre identidad y acción colectiva es mucho más compleja y ambigua. Cuando los factores contextuales no son favorables, divisiones y otras barreras obstaculizan la creación de una identidad colectiva, lo cual limita la posibilidad de la acción comunitaria. Además, los mismos factores que crean un sentido de identidad colectiva a un nivel específico (de aldeas, iglesias y grupos étnicos) pueden probablemente llevar a divisiones que inhiben la acción colectiva en un ámbito más general (a niveles de identidad maya, hispana o inmigrante). La etnicidad reactiva puede afectar de manera negativa el grado de aceptación social en la comunidad de destino y también el desarrollo de los conflictos interétnicos.AbstractCertain elements of lived religion assist Jacaltec Mayan immigrants in Jupiter to symbolically and practically recreate conceptions of ‘home,’ thereby providing a sense of aggregate identity that has facilitated collective action. A common sending community, ethnic and linguistic homogeneity, and the dominance of a single religious tradition combine with low levels of social/cultural acceptance of Jupiter’s immigrants to produce what Alejandro Portes has called reactive ethnicity. But the relationship between identity and collective action is much more complex and ambiguous. When contextual factors are not favorable, divisions and other barriers to collective identity formation limit the possibility for collective action and expose differences within immigrant conceptions of home. Furthermore, the very factors that provide a sense of collective identity at the level of village, church, and ethnic group are likely to lead to divisions that inhibit collective action at an expanded level of identity (Mayan, Hispanic, or immigrant). Thus, reactive ethnicity can negatively affect the social acceptance of immigrants in receiving communities and add to levels of inter-ethnic conflict.

Imagen de portada

Palabras clave

• transnacional
• religión vivida
• etnicidad reactiva
• Júpiter
• Florida
• Jacaltenango
• Guatemala

Cómo citar

Citas

1. Al-Ali, Nadje y Khalid Koser, edits., New Approaches to Migration? Transnational Communities and the Transformation of Home, London y New York, Routledge, 2002.
2. Ammerman, Nancy, Congregation and Community, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1997.
3. Burns, Allan, “Identities in Diaspora: Mayan Culture and Community Today”, en Liliana Goldin, edit., Identities on the Move: Transnational Processes in north America and the Caribbean Basin, Albany, Suny Press, 1999.
4. _______, Maya in Exile: Guatemalans in Florida, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1993.
5. Brettel, Caroline, Anthropology and Migration: Essays on Transnationalism, Ethnicity and Identity, Walnut Creek, AltaMira Press, 2003.
6. Canache, Anya, “The Maya in Jupiter Florida: Remittances and Immigrant Perceptions of Change in the Home Community”, Honors Thesis, Harriet L. Wilkes, Honors College of Florida, Atlantic University, May 2003.
7. Ebaugh, Helen Rose y Janet Salzman Chafetz, Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations, Walnut Creek, AltaMira Press, 2000.
8. Fink, Leon, The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
9. Forbes, Bruce y Jeffrey Mahan, Religion and Popular Culture in America, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2000.
10. _______, Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference, Oxford, Blackwell, 1996.
11. Hall, David, edit., Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997.
12. Levine, Daniel, Popular Voices in Latin American Catholicism, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1992.
13. Levitt, Peggy, “Between god, Ethnicity, and Country: An Approach to the Study of Transnational Religion”, documento enviado a The Center for Migration and Development, Princeton University, 2001, en <http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/working%20papers/Levitt.pdf>.
14. ________, The Transnational Villagers, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001.
15. ________, “You Know, Abraham Was Really the First Immigrant: Religion and Transnational Migration”, International Immigration Review 37, 2003, pp. 847-873.
16. Mahler, Sarah J., American Dreaming: Immigrant Life on the Margins, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1995.
17. _______, “Theoretical and Empirical Contributions Toward a Research Agenda for Transnationalism”, en Michael P. Smith y L. Guarnizo, edits., Transnationalism from Below: Comparative Urban and Community Research, vol. 6, New Brunswick, New Jersey y London, Transaction Publishers, 1998.
18. McAdam, Doug, Sidney Tarrow y Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
19. McDannell, Colleen, Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995.
20. Morris, A. D. y C. M. Mueller, edits., Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1992.
21. Nash, Manning, The Cauldron of Ethnicity in the Modern World, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1989.
22. Orsi, Robert, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Communityin Italian Harlem, 1880-1950, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1985.
23. ________, “Eveyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion”, en David D. Hall, Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997.
24. ________, edit., Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1999.
25. Palma, Irene, Coral Girón y Timothy J. Steigenga., “De Jacaltenango a Júpiter: Negociando el concepto de familia en espacio transnacional y el tiempo”, en Manuela Camus, edit., Comunidades en movimiento. La migración internacional en el norte de Huehuetenango, Guatemala-incedes, 2007, pp. 171-204.
26. Peterson, Anna L., Manuel A. Vasquez y Philip J. Williams, edits., Christianity, Social Change, and Globalization in the Americas, New Brunswick, New Jersey y London, Rutgers University Press, 2001.
27. Popkin, Eric, “Guatemalan Mayan Migration to Los Angeles: Constructing Transnational Linkages in the Context of the Settlement Process”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22, vol. 2, 1999, pp. 267-289.
28. Portes, Alejandro, “Conclusion: Towards a New World: The Origins and Effect of Transnational Activities”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22, vol. 2, 1999, pp. 463-478.
29. _______, Luis Guarnizo y Patricia Landolt, “Introduction: Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 22, vol. 2, 1999, pp. 217-238.
30. _______ y Rubén Rumbaut, Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001.
31. Ruiz Baía, Larissa, “Rethinking Transnationalism: National Identities
32. among Peruvian Catholics in New Jersey”, en Anna L. Peterson, Manuel A. Vasquez y Philip J. Williams, edits., Christianity, Social Change, and Globalization in the Americas, New
33. Brunswick, New Jersey y London, Rutgers University Press,
35. Smith, Michael P. y Luis E. Guarnizo, “The Locations of Transnationalism”, en Michael P. Smith y Luis E. Guarnizo, edits.,Transnationalism From Below, 3-31, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Transaction Publishers, 1998.
36. _______, edits., Transnationalism from Below: Comparative Urban and Community Research, vol. 6, New Brunswick, New Jersey and London, Transaction Publishers, 2001.
37. Tax, Sol, Heritage of Conquest: The Ethnology of Middle America, Glencoe, IL, Free Press, 1952.
38. Tweed, Thomas, Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
39. US Census Bureau, State & County Quickfacts, Palm Beach, County, en , consultado el 25 de enero de 2007.
40. Universidad de Florida, Latin American Inmigrants in the New South, “Inmigrantes Latinos en Florida: religión vivida, espacio y Poder”, disponible en <http://latam.ufl.edu/newfordprojectsite/indexsp.shtml>.
41. ________,“On Moving Across: Translocative Religion and the Interpreter’s Position”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 70, vol. 2, 2002, pp. 253-277.
42. Wagley, Charles, The Social and Religious Life of a Guatemalan Village, Memoires of the American Anthropological Association, núm. 71, Menasha, WI, American Anthropological Association, 1949.
43. Warner, R. Stephen y Judith G. Wittner, edits., Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration, Philadelphia,Temple University Press, 1998.
44. Fecha de recepción: 4 de julio de 2007
45. Fecha de aceptación: 7 de febrero de 2008