Definition

Hayandose,as defined by Lourdes Gutiérrez-Nájera, a cultural anthropologist and assistant professor of anthropology at Dartmouth, entails a process of creating ethnically-marked spaces among migrants in an effort to combat feelings of marginalization

Marginalization

In sociology, marginalisation , or marginalization , is the social process of becoming or being made marginal or relegated to the fringe of society e.g.; "the marginalization of the underclass", "marginalisation of intellect", etc.-Individual:Marginalization at the individual level results in an...

 and displacement

Displacement

-Physics:*Displacement , the difference between the path of the initial and final position covered by a moving object**Particle displacement, a measurement of distance of the movement of a particle in a medium as it transmits a wave...

 in a host country. These established spaces allow a migrant

Migrant

Migrant may refer to:*Immigration and emigration, the migration of humans*Bird migration*Migrant worker*Migrant literature...

, struggling with separation from their home country and racist stigmatization in their host country, to engage in a “meaningful practice of belonging” in which they are able to express their cultural membership. Usually a process inclusive of other people that have moved from the same place or nearby places of origin, Hayandose marks the point at which people finally feel as though they belong through the discovery of themselves in a foreign place.

Zapotecs/Gutiérrez-Nájera

Gutiérrez-Nájera uses Zapotecs as an example of migrants who originate from Oaxaca

Oaxaca

Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...

, México

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and form their own spaces of belonging in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, specifically in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. The Zapotecs that Gutiérrez-Najera writes about are from Yalálag, a small rural town in the heart of Oaxaca. The community of Yalaltecos in Los Angeles comes together collectively and participates in festivals, ceremonies, tandas and other small gatherings where they can gossip in Zapotec, share food, dance, financially and emotionally support one another, and engage in other customs

Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

 and traditions from their place of origin. The existence and practice of customs and traditions that were once thought to be exclusive to Yalálag, but that have now permeated American society, demonstrates the transnational

International

----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...

 character of Yalaltecos indigeneity that makes possible the process of Hayandose through the seizure and declaration of these ethnically-marked spaces. Yalaltecos living in Los Angeles have invoked their cultural identity

Cultural identity

Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics....

 hundreds of miles from home and have used it as a tool to resist the push for assimilation

Assimilation

Assimilation may refer to:*Assimilation , a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound...

 and marginalization within the United States. Therefore, the transmission and continuity of culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 across national borders are essential for Yalaltecos to mark their own space and ultimately find themselves in a hostile environment far from their home country. With this new-found sense of belonging, the opportunity for “rally[ing] for indigenous rights and the development of hometown communities in Oaxaca, as well as to organize in the United States around immigrant legislation” no longer remains out of reach. This claim is reaffirmed by another scholar, Annice Jacoby, who argues that the affirmation of transnational identities allows “borders of ownership, space, and social agency” to be challenged. Once a migrant se hayan, or finds themselves, they have gained a sense of belonging by affirming their cultural membership and confronting their marginalization and displacement within a space collectively or individually marked as their own in the host country. This phenomenon then acts as a bridge for migrants to gain social ascendancy and acknowledgment that has the potential to improve lives in the home and host country alike.

de/territorialization

Hayandose is also reflective of a contemporary cultural process known as de/territorialization. When emigrants moved to the United States they and their culture became deterritorialized. Once they moved, however, they are simultaneously reterritorialized as they begin to form a space for themselves and practice their customs and traditions as they did in their home country. The theory of de/territorialization can be seen in the Yalalteco community in Los Angeles through the perseverance of their cultural solidarity from Oaxaca to California, and the maintenance of community ties that traverse national boundaries. The theories of De/territorialization and Hayandose entail the movement of culture from one place to another, and thus reveal the “multiple centers” culture can obtain, as opposed to just a single "center" being the place of origin. Because migration

Human migration

Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...

causes displacement among emigrants who are forced to adapt to a new environment, culture, and way of living, bringing the culture and customs that they practiced in their places of origin to their new location helps to combat these negative feelings and also adds an additional “center” to their particular culture. In regards to Gutiérrez-Nájera’s example, Yalaltecos adopted Los Angeles as an additional “center” where their customs and traditions could be expressed as they would have been in Yalálag. This sharing of cultures creates a cultural flow between the United States and Oaxacan communities that have allowed emigrants not to lose their culture and sense of who they are, but to maintain it and ultimately use it as a powerful tool to engage in practices of belonging that resist sentiments of marginalization and displacement in new locations.