Migration, woodcarving, and engendered identities in San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

This chapter offers a perspective on gender relations in a predominantly male migrant-sending community in Mexico. The aim is to bring to the fore the impacts of migration as lived in the sender community and their implications for social justice and human security. The case of the indigenous rural municipality of San Martín Ticlajete in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, a male migrant-sending community, is examined, drawing on methods of critical feminist ethnography and social representations theory to illustrate the changes for the women who stay behind. Parallel to migration, the community has also experienced important transformations due to the development of a woodcrafts trade and increasing tourist activity. Very gradual changes in gender representations and empowerment have taken place, with women becoming de facto household heads, as well as craft makers and retailers, educators, administrators, agricultural producers, social figures, and civil servants. Nevertheless, detailed narrations of women’s experiences show that their new roles and responsibilities do not nec essarily translate into greater social, political, and economic autonomy, or recognition of the invisible material and emotional costs linked to migration.