Reworking Notions of Citizenship and Culture: Post-Katrina Migrant Workers and their Return to Honduras

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1 Sarah Fouts Tinker Foundation and Stone Center for Latin American Studies Grant September 1, 2013 Introduction Reworking Notions of Citizenship and Culture: Post-Katrina Migrant Workers and their Return to Honduras Going into this feasibility study, I had several different potential approaches. Each of which I sought to explore, but none of which proved fruitful in the ways I expected. From my experience, preconceived expectations are one of the few things that should never be expected. Fruitful, instead, ending up being parallels between New Orleans and Honduras, deportation detention center conditions, desire yet uncertainty to travel to USA to reunite/work, and a permeating presence of the impacts of separation on the families. Leading up to this study I looked for two specific things: 1) the presence of New Orleans material culture in the sending families households and in their knowledge of New Orleans and/or 2) An ability to gauge an increase in levels of civic engagement prior to and/or post New Orleans residence. The following section examines the ways in which I approached answering these two questions. Research Process The actual research process for this study shifted from visiting three sending communities in Honduras La Ceiba, San Pedro Sula, and Santa Barbara--to visiting five. The addition of Renacer, Choluteca and Catacamas, Olancho was not originally written into the Tinker Grant; however, the need emerged when further identifying families and individuals for interviews. Identifying the participants for this research happened with the assistance of members of the Congress of Day Laborers during one of their weekly meetings. The Congress of Day Laborers is a community based civil rights group comprised of over 300 members that include post-katrina

2 reconstruction workers and their families from Latin America. Over half of these individuals are originally from Honduras. The Honduran immigrant population in New Orleans is the sixth highest population of Hondurans in the United States. Of the twenty members that provided me with information on their families and friends as potential contacts, I selected six different families from the aforementioned communities. I selected these families for simple reasons such as they followed up with me after first offering their family/friends names and/or their family simply answered the phone when I called Honduras. At least four potential interviews were cancelled. First, I was unfortunately unable to visit the mother of one of the Congress of Day Laborer members in Tegucigalpa due to time constraints. Second, I was unable to visit a second family in the Santa Barbara region because of my error I thought that the family lived in a neighborhood in the city of Santa Barbara, rather they lived approximately four hours from the city in a small town in the department of Santa Barbara well beyond my mapped limits. Lastly, it is of note that before I arrived, two of the original interviewees identified during the initial grant application process in March left Honduras in separate attempts to enter/reenter the USA. This absence will be discussed in the findings. Only two snowball interviews occurred during the process. During my three weeks in Honduras, in this ethnographic feasibility study, a total of six semi-structured recorded interviews were conducted and an additional five informal (nonrecorded interviews). Approximately 100 hours of participant observation was achieved. Furthermore, approximately twenty items of material culture were analyzed photographs, postcards, gifts, etc. During the research process, there were no significant setbacks and only one interviewee did not want to be recorded; however he willingly answered the interview questions. 2

3 My samples included two different sets of N. One group of interviewees consists of adult family members of people with family living or that have lived in New Orleans. The second group of interviewees consists of individuals who have lived in New Orleans and have returned. This group includes both people who had been deported or returned on their own. Findings Parallels Between New Orleans and Honduras As I rode in a taxi cab across a small bridge in Tegucigalpa, a mural depicting several individuals grabbed my attention. Featured prominently among five or six other figures unbeknown to me, was a painting of Louis Armstrong playing his trumpet. Satchmo in Honduras. Does Satchmo have such transnational credibility that he would be featured on a bridge in Honduras? Or, is the trumpet player a remnant of the transnational connections between New Orleans and Honduras? As a part of this research I wanted to attempt to assess what the ties are of migrant workers toward his or her host community by looking at representations of New Orleans in Honduras. Halfway into my research, I had seen very little evidence of a New Orleans and Honduras relationship within my sample, and was therefore surprised to see Louis Armstrong and his trumpet. Through conversations with the individuals that had lived in New Orleans and through conversations with their family members, I found much less evidence than I had anticipated and I found the results to be varied amongst the participants. The evidence I did find including an alligator stuffed animal in San Pedro Sula. The family said that their mother had sent it to her daughter because it is representative of the animals that are in New Orleans. In the same household I also found evidence of this attachment to and sharing of New Orleans local culture via photographs taken by the parents that are from iconic places and symbols of new Orleans in front of the streetcar, in front of a restaurant that 3

4 featured a large crawfish, and a photograph of the father with a landscape shot of New Orleans in the background. In this case the parents still reside in New Orleans and the four children were left behind in San Pedro Sula. In Atima, Santa Barabra, I found little evidence of the families knowledge of New Orleans. Dennis, who had lived in New Orleans for six years, shared little about the city itself; however, his sisters and parents were well aware of the organizing and activism that Dennis had done in New Orleans. However, the sisters did mention that Dennis regular watches New Orleans Saints football games, which Dennis confirmed, saying that while he prefers to watch soccer, especially Honduran national team, living in New Orleans instilled in him an attachment for the Saints. In Choluteca, I found little to no evidence of New Orleans local cultural knowledge. The family of Santos was well aware of his activism and leadership with the Congress of Day Laborers; however, he did not share much specific knowledge of the city and its charm. On the contrary, in Catacamas, the family of Ilda had some knowledge of New Orleans because Ilda would oftentimes send boxes of goods, used clothing, and trinkets. In the package that Ilda sent with me to give to her children there was also evidence of this cultural representation. Ilda, who still resides in New Orleans, sent her family a New Orleans key chain and city scape postcards of New Orleans. With such a small sample size, it is difficult to make large generalizations and interpretations of these findings; however, it can be inferred as a reinforcement of the importance that these families and the individuals abroad put on the economic side of these transnational processes. Simply, the people whom I interviewed admitted to participating in and enjoying events like Mardi Gras; however, there was little mention of this part of the migrant experience 4

5 with their families at home. While this does seem intuitive, considering financial reasons are the number one motivation for emigrating, yet despite the fact that the individuals in New Orleans speak with their families at least once a week (some daily), they are focused more on the events occurring at home and the health of families in Honduras. Furthermore, it could also signify some dualities that exist in a decision not to share the social aspects of New Orleans with the families back at home and, instead, share and maintain these experiences in New Orleans within the new social units created through these migrant worker communities. This aspect of these social units definitely merits further exploration. Civic Engagement Post Migration For this section of the research I only interviewed individuals who had been living in New Orleans and had participated as members of the Congress of Day Laborers. Their levels of participation varied significantly from one serving as an organizer to one only have had been to the monthly meetings held on the day laborer corners. I hypothesized that their civic participation would increase after having worked on the campaigns in New Orleans; however, due to factors like high unemployment and the dangers of living in Honduras (Honduras ranks as the country with the highest murder rate in world), the interviewees said that they have not been able to be as civically engaged as they would have liked. For example, Dennis, in Atima, said that he had attempted to organize for the left leaning labor oriented party for the upcoming elections in Honduras; however, due to threats from the incumbent parties and high corruption levels in the country, he said that it was difficult and too risky to organize politically. Some of the other interviewees said that they attend church and soccer leagues; however, there was little evidence of other civic engagement. This minimal civic 5

6 engagement levels are attributed to the lack of outlet for airing these types of grievances as well as the general corrupt and violent state of the nation. Future Research Throughout the research, themes of border privilege, detention center hardships during deportation processes, reasons for migrating, individuals who were unsuccessful in crossing the border, and separation of families were emergent themes that are beyond the scope of this research; however, these topics could definitely merit future investigation. Overall, while I did not find significant amounts of evidence that I had expected to find, I was able to gain a much better perspective of the situation of these individuals and their families. Furthermore, it allowed me to better grasp the motivations for leaving the country. The fact the two of my initial potential interviewees had already left for the U.S. to attempt to cross the border before I even arrived as well as one individual who migrated to the U.S. right after I had arrived, signifies that emigration is still occurring at high rates. 6