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6-10-02 AVirtual Diasporas and Global Problem
Solving@ Conference and book manuscript. Nautilus
Institute, Berkeley, CA. Actual
and Possible Uses of Cyberspace by and among States, Diasporas and Migrants. By
Robert Smith Sociology
Department, Barnard College rsmith@barnard.edu 212 854 3663 tel. This
paper analyzes and reflects on the actual and possible uses of cyberspace by
and among states, diasporas and migrants.
In particular, I analyze the use of the internet as it figures into
state-diaspora and intra-migrant relations among and between Latin American
sending states and their migrants, drawing mainly on the Mexican case. I analyze various uses of the internet and
related technologies: how states have used and are planning to use the internet
to help create or serve diasporas among their migrants, or to resolve domestic
political problems or pursue a globalization strategy; how migrants and
dissidents have used these technologies to circumvent the states control over
public forums; and how migrants and others in home and host countries have used
these technologies in their daily lives.
Part of the reason for the focus on use of the
internet and related technologies within the context of diaspora-state
relations is to avoid the internet=s seductive promise of a
modern world of limitless possibilities.
Many have already fallen prey to the image of unboundedness that the
internet offers. The internet has been
heralded as a force that will promote democratization and human rights, the
spread of capitalism and entrepreneurship, and help create a global civil society that so effortlessly
spans nation-state borders as to make them irrelevant. Similarly, some argue that the internet and the larger forces of
transnationalization stemming from migration will help create a kind of Athird space@ for migrants between
sending and receiving nations, enabling them to exist partly outside the nation
state system. And it may well play
important roles in addressing these serious global issues. But many authors assume that the internet
will become part of the daily lives of migrants, enhancing their ability to
stay connected to their home towns, countries and each other, or that it will
enhance their ability to participate in democracy, but do not actually present
evidence of such usage or how it affects other processes (Gabrial, 2001). This A>technological frame=... is passed on from
scholar to scholar (without) attempt(ing) to illustrate and explain in what
ways these technological underpinnings help to create, configure and sustain
transnationalism, and in what way their sues may be problematic.@ (Courtright, 2002: 4;
Bijker, 1995; Orlinkowski and Gash, 1994).
While the internet and related technologies, such as cell phones, videos
and faxes, do create certain kinds of
opportunities, the evaluation of their
actual or possible impacts must be done it the local and larger contexts. I also attempt to avoid taking the other extreme, or
treating these technologies as unimportant because they are Anot alive@ and hence being unable to
change our social world (see Mato, 1997). While of course technology is a tool
that acquires importance only in use by humans, what that tool enables humans
to do matters because it helps them transform their social and material
world. What is possible with a PC and
access to the net is much different than what was possible with a typewriter,
though in both cases the real work of writing and analyzing is done by the
human using the tool. The paper is intended to speak to two overlapping
groups: those analyzing how diasporas and the internet function, and those
attempting to use them for positive ends B policy makers, non profit
organizations, and activists, and other
Aglobal problem solvers@.
The paper proceeds in two parts.
The first part lays out some dimensions of the internet
infrastructure and usage in Latin
America and among Latin American migrant populations in the US and Latin America,
and offers brief definitions and theoretical concerns. The second part analyzes some actual and
potential uses of the internet and related technologies among Mexican migrants
in the US and Mexico and by the Mexican state. The conclusion reflects on the
theoretical and policy implications of the analysis[1].
The Internet in Latin America
and Among Migrant Diasporas: Definitions and Dimensions For
clarity, it makes sense to define which social actors or technologies I will
focus on in this paper, and to say briefly how these definitions matter. The internet, as I use it, has three
parts: email, chat rooms, and web sites.
While I will use the covering term internet in most cases, each of these three technologies has different actual and possible uses in
terms of diasporas, states and migrants, and hence I identify and discuss each
separately where the analysis warrants.
By cyberspace, I describe the social space and human relationships made
possible by the use of the internet and related technology. These can include personal, social or
political relationships between and among individuals, groups, states or other
institutions. The notion of diaspora I use in this paper is
somewhat different than the classical notion of a forcibly dispersed people who
maintain their sense of peoplehood in exile over a long period of time. The Jews are the classic example; the
Armenians are another. The diasporas I
analyze here do not result from forcible expulsion, but rather from labor
migration to the US of such magnitude that it has produced a population among
which significant sectors have come to think of themselves as part of a
diaspora, and are seen by the sending state as a diaspora. Their settlement is understood by both sides
to be permanent for most migrants and their children. Moreover, my research has discerned a pattern by which Latin
American sending states, and others, are attempting to create a diasporic
consciousness among their migrants for a variety of reasons, including to
continue to the flow of remittances, and to create for themselves a more
powerful constituency in the US, along the lines of how they envision the lobby
of Israel and American Jews to function.
They have done this to bolster their own domestic political fortunes,
and as part of a larger effort to integrate themselves into the world economy
via closer links with the US, as well as due to the pressures they have faced
from migrants living abroad, typically for greater democratization (see Smith,
2003). It is within these complex
state-diaspora and intra-migrant relations that I set my analysis of the usage
of the internet. The internet matters for at least three theoretical
and practical reasons, both of which are related to the territoriality of the
state and migrant transnational social fields. First, the internet enhances the possibilities for simultaneity
and community among migrants residing in different locations, inside and
outside their country of origin.
Benedict Anderson (1991) discusses how the emergence of print media
helped create the national imagined communities necessary for modern nations by
enabling people sitting down in distant parts of a nation-state to, for
example, open a newspaper and get their understanding of the world at the same
time, through the same national lens.
Some have overextended in arguing that electronic capitalism B of which the net is an
integral part B is necessary for transnational life (Ribeiro, 1996;
see Courtright, 2002: 4). I argue that
several technologies facilitate this sense of simultaneity, which fosters
communal sentiment and action among migrants.
These include the internet, but also and especially cell phones and the
radio, and land line phones, videos and faxes.
As the internet becomes more widely available, its simultaneity
enhancing capacity, and its related ability to reinforce identities and
attendant practices, should also increase.
I also note that the communication between migrants within the host
society is just as important a usage of the internet and related technologies
as those between migrants and their relatives in the home state, or
migrant-sending state relations. The second two reasons have to do with the
state. The internet and related
technology will increase the ability of the state to act like states towards
their diasporic population B to deliver services, to offer recognition
and give political meaning to their activities, and to channel political,
social and economic participation.
Another reason the internet will
matter more in the future is that it creates a public forum that the
migrant sending state cannot completely control. It is precisely in this function that the error of the more
extreme position B that the internet will make territoriality not
matter, and make states irrelevant B becomes clear. The internet and related technologies
create public forums and private means of communication over long distances
that the state cannot control, and which are relatively cheap for individuals
to use. The devolution of this power
to create public fora matters, among other reasons, because it enables migrants
to engage in two kinds of political activity.
First, it enables those outside
the country of origin to gain access to media and other resources and to pursue
opposition politics without fear of immediate political repression by the
sending state, because they reside outside it. Second, it enables those living in the sending state who can be
subjected to repression by the state to access support outside the state B including not just other
migrants, but also human rights organizations
B to access support networks and thus raise the costs
of that repression for the sending state.
Weber=s (year) definition of the state is relevant here B that human community with a
monopoly over the legitimate use of violence within a given territory. Being outside the state=s territory but being able
to get back into it via the internet and related technologies, or being inside
that territory but being able to reach back out of it, show how the reality of
states and territories are two factors that give the internet and related
technologies their importance. Dimensions of Internet
Infrastructure and Potential in Latin America The
internet and the cyberspace it creates are fairly recent developments, even in
the developed world. From its
inception in the late 1960s in restricted military and research sectors of the
US government, to its growth into a Anetwork of networks@ by 1992, access to the
internet was fairly limited. However,
by the early 1990s, the commercial
sector began to grow, and Aexploded onto the scene@ with the World Wide Web in
1993-4. By 1995, the late coming
commercial sector (.com) had outgrown the government (.gov), military,
educational (.edu) and organizational (.org) sectors (Molloy, 2001:1). The internet has become as routine a part
of many households as a phone book; primary school children use it to do their
homework and for recreation. This
reality for some in the developed countries hides a Adigital divide@ between those who have
computers B and hence the income and class position to support
them B and those who do not. In Latin America, the web has, predictably, spread
much more slowly, though it potential importance is greater than its current
capacity to disseminate information.
Part of the limitation is due to what may be comparatively called the Adigital chasm@ between the haves and have
nots in Latin America, which reflect chasm like income disparities greater than
in the developed world. A quick sense
of the magnitude of this inequality in Latin America can be gained by looking
at the table below, which, alas, suffers from the incomplete data
available.
(Source:
TILAN, Trends in Latin American Networking.
http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/tilan) These
statistics of the internet=s sparse coverage of most of the population
in Latin America is reflected in the analysis of business and governmental
leaders assessing the region=s potential for e-commerce. According to a report from a conference on AThe Internet in Latin
America: Investigating the Boom.@
(www.latinnews.com/consem_images) held during fall 2001, the stark inequalities
in the region greatly restrict the Aaddressable market@ for e-commerce. First, the e-commerce market really only
consists of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, and only among the top income
brackets. This converts to an estimated
addressable market of some 50-60 million in 2003 people out of more than 400
million in the region, and most of this growth is likely
to come from business to business and not business to consumer
transactions. Still the report notes
that the number of Latin American internet users has grown strongly, from some
4.8 million in 1998 to an estimated 28 million in 2002, and 37 million in
2003. It is worth noting how far
Haiti is behind the rest of the region; the lack of dispersed technology
throughout the country is one indication of how far it has fallen. These statistics indicate that the internet is far
from ubiquitous in Latin America, notwithstanding popular images of it reaching
everywhere, even to the rainforests of Chiapas, as a medium for subComandante
Marcos to address a worldwide audience (see Delgado P.,2002; also article on
Marcos, 1994?). Yet some Latin American
governments are attempting to make immediate use of the internet in governance
and service delivery B so called, e-government. Argentina has instituted Atransparency initiatives
that enable taxpayers to monitor how their monies are being spent@ (www.cristal.gov.ar),
and has begun its own fully online university that has students dispersed
throughout Argentina, Latin America, the US and even Japan. Brazil has had a system for receiving income
taxes on line since 1997, and expects 80% of all filings to be done this
way. It has also embarked on an
ambitious experiment in electronic voting, which they hope to initiate in
presidential elections this year. They also have begun a program of installing
internet connections at neighborhood kiosks throughout the country, such that
each county in the country will have at least one internet link. The plan is to hook these kiosks up as Avirtual merchants@ and also link up public
libraries all over the country (www.latinnews.com: p. 2).
The most ambitious plan for universal access are
underway in Peru through it Red Cientificia Peruano (RCP or Peruvian Scientific
Network). As of 2001, it had
established more than 1000 cabinas, or public kiosk internet sites, each with a
few PCs, and accounts for roughly 40% of the country=s internet use. While this attempt to democratize access to
the internet is worthwhile, Peruvian researchers report that the main use is Arecreational@, and mainly confined to the
use of low cost email access. Yet
establishing this infrastructure lays creates the possibilities of further
uses. Particularly interesting is the
fact that El Salavador is creating the same system with the help of the people
who run the RCP (www.latinnews.com: p2; Varon
Gabai, cited in Block, 2001: 25). The Dominican Presidential elections of 1996 and
subsequent use of the internet by the winner, Leonel Fernandez, are one of the
first cases of the use of the internet by states and diasporas to be studied as
such, as detailed in the work of Pamela Graham[2]
(1998; forthcoming). Fernandez
unseated the 89 year old, nearly blind, former dictator Joaquin Balaguer in the
election. His was a victory for the
Dominican diaspora too. Not only did he campaign in the US and have his mother
in the Dominican Republic appeal to those in the US via television advertisements,
he was also a migrant himself, who had attended the New York City public
schools and held a US green card. His
election was both the result of and a catalyst for further mobilization of
Dominicans in the US. A significant
development in the use of the internet was the establishment of a website by
the Central Electoral Board (Junta Central Electora) or CEB. This website posted hourly results from the
election, and pictures of the voting, and data from previous elections. In
addition, political parties established websites, and several commercial sites
for conveying news were developed. These included Hispanet, which posted
digests of Dominican news, and Diario Electronico Dominico (Electronic Daily
Dominican) or DEDOM. As with other cases, different kinds of internet
technologies played different roles in facilitating diasporic politics. The websites established by the Dominican
state and political parties were important sources of information about
elections, candidates and other developments.
A second layer of interactions occurred in newsgroups, or chatrooms,
which some people call the Usenet. This
cyberspace functions as a public forum for the discussion of particular topics,
within which conduct and postings are governed by group norms and subject to
censure. In addition, mailing lists and
email were used extensively. In addition, the Dominican government is
discussing creating an intra-net that would create an inter-consular web not
open to the general public. Graham
observes that the internet helps to create public spaces that are easily
accessible and that can facilitate the conduct of transnational politics, but
also wane with decreased immediate
interest in large political events. She
found that postings to the newsgroup soc.culture.dominican-rep about the themes
of political parties and citizenship or nationality newsgroup fell
significantly in 1997 to 629 from 766 the year before, and then to 168 in the
first five months of 1998 (Graham, 2001: 6).
She notes that these spaces were interactive public spaces, where
mobilized actors debated many themes, including the futures of Dominicans in
the US in American and Dominican politics.
She also raises two important questions. The first is about the ephemeral nature of this public
space. She notes that most of the
websites covering the 1994 presidential elections no longer exist, and that
information can be posted to and from the internet virtually at will and
without review. Second, she observes
that some 85% of the Dominicans in the New York do not use the internet, and
many in the Republic lack basic necessities.
As one critic put it B what does it matter if the president uses
email to communicate with those in the US if so many Dominicans do not have
electricity? While the internet is not as pervasive as the media=s depictions or the popular
imagination would have it, the above cited example of subComandante Marcos is
instructive. The internet and related
technologies need not be available to a mass public for them to be important
for politics and social change. Rather, other tasks also matter: they must only
help create experiences of simultaneity and arenas for public debate while
escaping a repressive state, or to enhance communications within the diaspora,
between migrants, or between a sending state and its diaspora. While universal access would enhance the
internet=s ability to help foster democracy, it is not
necessary for the work of migrants, states and diasporas to matter or to be
influenced by the internet. With this
point in mind, I now turn to some actual and potential uses of the internet and
related technology in the Mexican case.
Actual and Possible Uses of
the Internet and Related Technologies in Mexico The
internet and related technologies are used quite extensively by those in the
Mexican diaspora, as well as by the Mexican state in its attempts to create a
diaspora among its Mexican migrants in the US and their US born children. Here I offer a quick recapping of why the
Mexican state wanted to create this diaspora, and then offer an examination of
how it has used internet and other technologies in doing so, and then reflect
on other uses to which the web might be put in the future. Let me also post the caveat that some form
of diasporic consciousness would very likely have emerged in the Mexican case
regardless of what the Mexican state did, but the fact that they purposefully
tried to form a diaspora has greatly increased its influence in Mexico a decade
later. Mexico=s desire to create a diaspora among its migrants
stemmed from several factors (Smith, 2003).
First, Mexico was shocked by the long term settlement of so many of its
citizens in the US when afforded the opportunity by the 1986 Immigration Reform
and Control Act; this settlement converted the image of migrants from permanent
sojourners to settlers in the mind=s of Mexico=s elite. Second, the political elite began to
realize then extent of the economic contribution by migrants to the national
economy. Currently, Mexico receives
between 6- billion US dollars in remittances each year, making it one of the
largest sectors in the economy, bigger than export agriculture and
maquiladoras. Third, the PRI
(Revolutionary Action Party) that had been in power continuously until it lost
the presidential elections of 2000, began to increase its outreach to Mexicans
in the US in part in reaction to the efforts of opposition leaders during the
1988 presidential elections. In
particular, Cuahuatemoc Cardenas broke
with the PRI in 1988 to run for president and form the left of center PRD
(Party of the Democratic Revolution), and had campaigned to enthusiastic
receptions in the US. This scared the
PRI, and alerted it to both the depth of anger at it among migrants and to the
great potential for organizing the opposition that the US afforded. As a result, the PRI started a project of acercamiento, or closer relations, with
Mexicans in the US, in an attempt to quiet and neutralize the opposition in the
US. This project included the Program for
Mexican Communities Abroad, in addition to other programs. The other component of acercamiento was to
integrate more closely economically and politically with the US, via NAFTA. The closer relations with Mexicans in the US
helped quiet opposition to NAFTA by Mexican groups, for example. Among the explicit goals of the project of
acercamiento was to create a Mexican diaspora where one had not existed
before. There has always been Mexican
migration to the US, but starting in 1990 the Mexican state made it a policy
goal to cultivate closer links with migrants in the US, and to create or
reinforce a sense of belonging to the Mexican nation among them and their US
born children. We can call this a
diasporic policy and the state apparatus used to implement it a diasporic state
agency. These terms merit a moment=s reflection because the
classical notion of diaspora implies stateless dispersal. In this case, the nation is dispersed beyond
the state, but the state attempts to create another layer or form of membership
and belonging for them B a diasporic belonging, usually understood in
terms of the relationship between American Jews and Israel. Despite these efforts, migrants in the US
continued to mobilize against the PRI, helped by the increasingly strong
opposition in Mexican domestic politics, which, among other measures, forced a
change in the Mexican constitution making permissible for Mexicans in the US
vote (NOTE). The end result was that
migrant influence in the 2000 election went heavily in favor of ultimate
winner, Vicente Fox. What are the possible and actual uses of the
internet and related technologies in the history of Mexico-Mexican migrant
relations? A first concrete outcome
has been the increased use of the internet and related technologies by the
Mexican government, and plans for further use. Mexican Consular offices throughout the US now have websites
that offer instructions on the kinds of services they offer and how to secure
them, and information about a variety of other things from immigration law to
English classes to the Mexican Cultural Institutes. Email and other such technologies are routinely used for
communication between the Consulates in the US and a variety of Mexican
institutions, including schools, municipal authorities, and the police. These are especially important institutions
for migrants because of the need for birth and baptismal certificates, police
and military records, and the like.
There are plans to create websites for the Consulates that would make
many of these services more available from anywhere in the US or Mexico, and
decrease wait times and otherwise improve service B a Consular intra-net. There are even discussions of creating
secure websites via which migrants would be given a password and be able to
sign on to get access to such documents themselves. There is also a great deal of previously hard to obtain public
information available on the internet.
For example, the Federal Electoral Institute in Mexico maintains a good
website where one can get electoral results down to the municipal
(municipality) level for the entire country.
Another kind of internet use involves that which
sustains the ties of transnational communities and transnational politics. For example, among some local or regional
community leaders, email and cell phones are routinely used to keep in contact
with those living in Mexico. Moreover,
many community of origin clubs in the
US have set up their own websites, or have pressured the municipal government of
their home town to set up a website.
Such sites have become increasingly important because they provide
public forums for recognition, declaration, and contestation, three
analytically separate but related kinds of public performance. One case in point is that of the ATomato King@ Andres Bermudez, a Mexican
migrant who became a wealthy tomato grower in the US and a US citizen, and then
ran for and won the post of mayor of his native city of Jerez in the Mexican
state of Zacatecas (Smith, forthcoming).
He was encouraged to run by both the governor of the state, Ricardo
Monreal, and the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox. He won the election but was
stripped of his victory because he had not been resident back in Mexico for the
required full year before he ran. His
supporters used internet technology to organize and publicize knowledge of the
case and their opposition to it. They
posted websites with documents related to the case, including statements by
Bermudez himself decrying his treatment as a second class citizen. They also used email and listserves
extensively to disseminate awareness of what was happening and of the
websites. The PRI, which opposed
Bermudez, also posted articles on its websites that not only explained their
support for the electoral court=s decision, but also attached Bermudez
character and his previous lack of participation in politics in Mexico. Here, the internet is used an alternative
public forum to dispute a decision by the Mexican state that migrants disliked;
it was seen as important enough that Bermudez= opponents saw it as
necessary to respond directly to the message they were putting out via this
medium. The municipio of Jerez in the state of Zacatecas
offers other interesting examples of how the web can be used. One is that it is possible to check on the
web the progress of the public works to which one has contributed. A main activity of the community of origin
clubs in the US is to contribute money to the completion of public works. These contributions help the municipio by
tapping into the considerable earnings potential of US residing migrants, and
helps the migrants by according them the honor and perhaps even political
influence in Mexico and within the
immigrant community in the US, that goes with such service. It is now possible for one to log onto the
Jerez website and see pictures of the progress of the work you are
supporting. At the very least, the need
to post pictures of progress puts pressure on those in Mexico to produce
results, and more quickly. Cases abound
throughout Mexico where local officials have stolen some or all of the money,
and were aided in these activities by the fact that those residing in the US
had little way to check the concrete progress on the public work in
question. A second activity involves the reinas or beauty queens in Mexico and in the US. The institution building, and gender and
political work that goes on in the production of one of the certamenes or
pageants is remarkable. To give a very
brief example, for the last fifteen years, the governor of Zacatecas and a
large number of municipal presidents have come to Los Angeles for the certamen
for Miss Zacatecas of Los Angeles. This
pageant is proceeded by a ten day Acampaign@ like tour of the young
women throughout Zacatecas, where they and their adult chaperons meet local
political and cultural officials in key towns. The proceedings from the pageant, including statements from the
women, are available on the web, posted to the website of the organizing club or
federation, or in some cases, that of the municipality of Jerez itself. There are other such pageants in Jerez
organized by and for those living in Jerez, which are also posted on the web. That these images and messages are widely
available in the US and Mexico helps to create a sense of belonging and
continuity among those participating in them.
That they have a website also gives their activities some measure of
added public legitimacy, as if they really controlled a public space. That they have the governor and much of the
state government attending their events in Los Angeles speaks to the migrants
political importance, and that these things are put up on their website
represents one important public representation of their power and legitimacy. The establishment and use of the web by migrants
from municipio of Tulcingo del Valle, Puebla, offer another interesting
case. Here, both the creation of the
website (Tulcingo.com) and its subsequent use are social and political
acts. The website was funded by a
migrant from Tulcingo, Jaime Lucero,
who became a very successful businessman, with operations in the US and
in Mexico, including in his home state of Puebla. He also sponsors an important non profit organization in New
York, Casa Puebla, which has close ties to the state government of Puebla and
regularly hosts high level leaders from the Mexican President=s office and others who come
to the US to meet with migrants. For
the inauguration of the website, there was a celebration at Casa Puebla at
which this businessman welcomed a literal who=s who of migrant related
leaders among Mexican politicians, including Dr. Juan Hernandez, the head of
Presidents Office for Immigrant Affairs, Mario Riestra, the head of the
Naitonal Coordinating Office for State Offices of Immigrant Affairs, as well as
more than 100 local Mexican leaders in New York. The two developers of the web site were a Mexican immigrant who
came here as a young man, and youth
who came here very young, grew up and went to college as an undocumented
immigrant, finally got his residency a couple of years before. Here we have the internet as a symbolic but
also functioning link between dispersed members of a community, including
between those living in the host society.
It also provides an alternative public sphere in which to visually and
in written terms define what it means to be Mexican in New York. The inauguration of the website served a number of
purposes. It gave Casa Puebla a
concrete accomplishment to show the immigrant community in New York, especially
but not only those from Tulcingo. It
also showed Casa Puebla as an important link between the community in New York
and powerful Mexican actors, including the President=s office. And it gave, and
continues to give, these powerful Mexican actors an arena for manifesting their
concerns. For example, a visiting
delegation of Mexican politicians B including members from all
three main parties, the PRI, PAN and PRD B and bureaucrats came to Casa Puebla in 2001 on their way back
from meeting with US lawmakers in California and negotiating how it might be
possible to actually implement the right to vote from abroad in presidential
elections for Mexicans in the next elections.
The speeches at the inauguration, and the layout of the website, sent
two messages simultaneously: we are still connected to our beloved pueblo
(hometown), but we are also as modern and connected as the Big Apple. Juan Hernandez talked about how Tulcingo.com
was a perfect expression of Mexican President=s feelings towards migrants B they may have had to come
to the US to make their living, but they are still part of Mexico in their
hearts, and in Mexico=s heart, and hence were Mexico=s heroes. The website itself is very interesting. On its main page it has two statements that
express the sentiments of its developers and founders. The first is AFor we the founders it is a
proud thing to be able, through this medium, to unite our people in a community
that despite the distance stays very active contributing to the progress of our
land.@. The second is AWe want make Tulcingo.com to
be your house in cyberspace. If you have photos, new or stories of your
communities, you can send them, we will publish them with pleasure.@. On this main page there is also a menu that offers access to the
history of Tulcingo and of tulcingo.com; a list of community events in New York
or Tulcingo that people ask to have posted;
a section for sports, including pictures of a recent match in Tulcingo
between the Pumas team from Tulcingo with the Pumas of New York that traveled
home and competed with their namesake in their home town; a Agallery@ of pictures that people
want to post; a section for news, including both US and Puebla based news, with
links to Puebla newspapers on the web and some stories from the US; a section
for New York, including links to a youth group formed by US born or raised or
youth migrant Tulcinguenses and a chat
room that one can enter; and a section for services, including sending money
back to Mexico. There is also a message
posting board, on which most messages were posted by young users, both in
Puebla and in New York. Many of those
in Puebla were non migrants, teen agers in high school or young twenties in
college, who were excited about the webpage.
Those posting from New York included some members of the youth group, as
well as youth who traced their roots to neighboring towns, but signed on here
because their town did not have a website yet. There was even a posting from a member of a new Mexican gang
formed in New York City, giving a nonworking website that had the name of their
gang in it. So this particular usage
of the website was mainly confined to youth. There is an entirely different usage of other parts of the website. For example, there are pictures on the website of the new hospital in Tulcingo, to which Tulcinguenses living in the US contributed. The website showed the results of their labor. There are also shots of various ceremonies related to people and works in Tulcingo and in New York, including shots of the parade of public officials who attended the inauguration (in which I am also listed in one photo). Finally, the gallery shows lots of shots of recent events in New York, and seems oriented as much towards showing those in New York of the growing Mexican presence in the city as to keeping in touch with those in Mexico. For example, they showed pictures of huge crowds, estimated at more than 100,000, attending a Mexican independence day celebration in Queens. Here we have the internet as a virtual space that various social groups and political actors can | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||