The Emotional Trauma and Embodied Impacts of Migration from Mexico to Tucson, Arizona
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
"Sadness is a Great Pain for the Body": The Emotional Trauma and Embodied Impacts of Migration from Mexico to Tucson, Arizona Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Crocker, Rebecca Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 02/10/2021 04:40:29 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621356 “SADNESS IS A GREAT PAIN FOR THE BODY:” THE EMOTIONAL TRAUMA AND EMBODIED IMPACTS OF MIGRATION FROM MEXICO TO TUCSON, ARIZONA by Rebecca Crocker __________________________ Copyright © Rebecca Crocker 2016 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Anthropology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 1 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Rebecca Crocker, “Sadness is a Great Pain for the Body:” The Emotional Trauma and Embodied Impacts of Migration from Mexico to Tucson, Arizona and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 6, 2016 Thomas E Sheridan, Chair _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 6, 2016 Ivy Pike _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 6, 2016 Patrisia Gonzales _______________________________________________________________________ Date: May 6, 2016 Susan Shaw Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: (May 6, 2016) Dissertation Director: Thomas E Sheridan 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Rebecca Masten Crocker 3 Acknowledgements: To My Committee: Tom, for your gentle guidance and for your brilliance in telling the whole story; to Ivy for sending me down this road, your keen reader’s eye, and for getting it; for Patrisia for grounding me in the spirit of things; and Susan for helping me anchor my study methodologically and conceptually. To my research community, especially the Southside Worker’s Center, Clinica Amistad, and Casa Maria. Gracias for opening your hearts and homes to me, for guiding me through your words and what you couldn’t say. You made this work come to life. And to everyone is Tucson working toward a more just and welcoming community for all Tucsonenses. To UA colleagues: Dale Brenneman and the OER team, especially Lucero, Megan, and Monica for your intellectual guidance and your on-going friendship. And to Ignacio Martinez for asking me about loneliness. Thanks Martha Few for grounding me in the historical context of Mexican medicine. To Robin Reineke, Melanie Madeiros, Sofy Gomez, Priscilla Macgrath, and Danielle Johnson for your support in helping me see that each next step was possible and for your friendship. To Jill de Zapien, Sam Sabo and my other colleagues in the College of Public Health for helping me get this work to an applied audience of practitioners. To Diane Austin, for supporting my family when life felt impossible, for your integrity and actions, and for the amazing learning experience you afford through BARA. To my family, for raising me curious and open-eyed, and for schlepping me around the world on Wild adventures. For giving me such a grounding in safety and love. For all you do to fill in this hole in our lives. Especially to dad, for your example of integrated and creative academic work with applied value. And to Ren for your artistic contributions! And to Mary Sagarin, for encouraging me and reminding me that I could still do this. 4 And to my daughters, Ella and Rosa, for being my inspiration in life. For being so patient with this long process, for washing dishes and cooking dinner. For believing in me with your brave warrior hearts. For Rafe Sagarin, I Wouldn’t be up here if not for you. Thank you for pushing me to find my voice, for your ability to think across space and time, for grounding me in what matters, and for your humor. Thanks for taking a chance on AZ so I could study at the UA, for printing thousands of papers and reading all of mine. Thank you for all your love and all that we learned together. I sure hope you can see me now. Thanks to my few loyal funders: SBSRI, PIMSA, BARA, and the School of Anthropology. 5 Table of Contents: Abstract 7 Introduction 8 A Conceptual Framework for Considering the Role of Emotional Hardship in Health Declines Amongst Mexican Immigrants in Tucson, Arizona Conclusions 78 Making Space for Emotion in the Conversation about Immigrant Health Declines References 93 Appendices 102 Appendix A Published Manuscript I 102 Appendix B Published Manuscript II 129 Appendix C Manuscript III 141 6 Abstract: A considerable body of evidence links social and economic inequities to poor health. One of the means through which these inequities are translated to the body is via negative emotions, which carry known psychological and physiological responses. This thesis is a historically contextualized study of how migration from Mexico to southern Arizona is experienced at the site of the body. In this dissertation, I outline the ethno-historical background of traditional medicinal usage and concepts of health and healing in northern Mexico, the primary sending region to southern Arizona. This historical grounding enables a richer exploration of how Mexicans understand migration to effect their physical and mental health. I then examine migration- related psychosocial stressors impacting first-generation Mexican immigrants in southern Arizona, and report on the primary emotional experiences immigrants associate with these stressors. Finally, I use the illness narratives of my participants to move more deeply into the connections between these experiences of emotional suffering and physical health. Here I employ immigrants’ own words to draw a link between group level epidemiological data on health declines in the immigrant community and established research in biological anthropology and neurobiology that identifies individual emotional hardship as a biological pathway to disease. Given the heavy emotional toll of migration and the direct impact that regional legislation and border security has had on well-being, this thesis argues that emotion be considered an important mechanism for health declines in the immigrant community. 7 Dissertation Introduction A Conceptual Framework for Considering the Role of Emotional Hardship in Health Declines Amongst Mexican Immigrants in Tucson, Arizona On the south side of Tucson, Arizona, a medium sized metropolitan area lying 70 miles north of the international border, thousands of Mexican immigrants live in a state of poverty, fear, and marginalization. They lack access to most state services, face high rates of underemployment, and suffer from anti-immigrant hostility fueled by recent exclusionary legislation and border militarization. Multiple overlapping jurisdictions of law enforcement lead undocumented immigrants to live in constant fear of arrest and deportation, causing social isolation and high levels of stress. Many families are split across the border, unable to reunite due to the surging costs and dangers of the border crossing. In the mornings, immigrant laborers gather to seek work in the shadows of a long- standing immigrant friendly church that serves as a de facto sanctuary, While local soup kitchens feed hundreds of hungry migrants on a daily basis. 8 Just getting from Mexico to southern Arizona has become a hazard in itself over the past two decades. Since 1998, more than 6,330 men, women, and children have died during the border crossing, a tragic end for desperate migrants trying to evade detection by traversing ever more harsh and remote terrain (Colibrí Center for Human Right). In 2013, approximately 11.6 million Mexican immigrants resided in the United States and 522,000 of them lived in the state of Arizona, the majority of whom endured the harrowing experience of the desert crossing. For those who make it through the desert alive, the dreams of American life are thwarted by the inability to find regular and safe employment without immigration papers, the pain of loneliness and separation from loved ones, and the daily anxiety and fear over the very real possibility of imprisonment or deportation. As Raquel, a 43 year-old research participant, states: “We wanted a better life: We got