Mexicalifornia: Mexican Immigrant Women at the Tijuana—San Diego Border

Abstract

This chapter introduces the sociocultural context of Mexican immigrant women in Southern California. The first section discusses the visibility and agency of Mexican immigrant women in the settlement process in San Diego, including decisions regarding their English proficiency. The second section focuses on the role of language ideologies surrounding the communicative challenges faced by these women. The final section discusses the initial stages of doing fieldwork in La Clase Mágica, the bilingual/ bicultural community-based after-school program from which I recruited the women in this study. I explain how I entered the field, negotiated my position as a researcher, and came up with the research questions around which my study was organized. I end this chapter with an overview of the structure and main contents of the book.