Rancheros in Chicagoacán: Language and Identity in a Transnational Community.

Marcia Farr. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. 342 pp.

Reviewed by: Janelle Johnson

Starting with its witty title, this ethnographic text focusing on language use and
identity construction among a transnational mexicano community of rancheros living in
Chicago and their ranchos in Michoacán is substantive, well organized, and a delightful
academic read. Although it intersects linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics and the
field of language and literacy, Farr makes no assumptions that readers are experts in any
particular discipline. Sociopolitical, historical, cultural, linguistic, and economic strands
are woven together to contextualize the two distant but closely linked multigenerational
communities, who work to define themselves and their identity through their language
practices. The transnational spaces they inhabit both affect the topics and style of their
discourse; “such talk reinforces the social bonds that include all those within the
transnational community, whether they are in Chicago or in Mexico at the time” (p. 60).

The book’s nine chapters flow seamlessly, but can also be read individually by
those researching a specific topic. Chapter one does a great deal more than just guiding
the reader through the other chapters; it provides a clear overview and a rationale for the
study. It presents a brief but relevant review of the bodies of research that frame the
study, and provides the scope of the study itself, which was carried out over a decade.
Chapter two describes the historical establishment of the ranchos in western Mexico,
which helps to clarify the rancheros’ social positioning and value system, crucial to
understanding their contemporary language practices. The third and fourth chapters
provide a portrait of the transnational spaces that this extended community inhabits, its
economic activities, and how traditions are shared across and between generations and
genders. An important distinction is made in chapter five about Mexican identity, and the
homogenizing effects of past scholarly work; here Farr highlights the benefits of her
particular ethnography’s rich descriptions of the rancheros, conspicuously absent from
scholarly, political, and media representations of Mexicans. The following three chapters
are organized around ranchero ways of speaking and their uniquely expressed ideologies
and values, as well as the ongoing transformative processes contained within their
discourse. Farr’s conclusions in chapter nine emphasize the rancheros’ exclusion from
scholarly discourse and foreground the community’s rich oral traditions, both factors with
implications for education.

This study of a particular transnational social network draws on both historically

established and contemporary researchers. The extended family depends on their shared
funds of knowledge (Gonzalez et al. 2005) when they “turn to each other for information,
knowledge, and advice bearing on specific problems and situations” (p. 101). Farr brings
together broad yet coherent sources such as Hymes’s ethnography of communication,
Bakhtin’s verbal frames, Massey’s discussion of push-and-pull migration forces, and
Valdes’s consejo genre, with discussion ranging from the geographic constraints of
Michoacán to the immigration momentum increased by the Bracero program. Farr notes
the contrasts of the Mexican government’s postrevolutionary nationalist identity based on
indigenous heritage with the class-based hierarchical discrimination that puts indigenous
peoples firmly at the bottom of the social structure—the rancheros actively seek to
distinguish themselves from both the urban elite and indigenous Mexicans. Racial
discourse categories in the U.S. have also failed to sufficiently describe the rancheros’
heritage, especially since they are a distinct group even among Mexicans; they inhabit an
intermediate space both economically and socially, which shapes their lives and language
practices, paradoxically scorned by elites yet romanticized within Mexican cinema and
music. The rancheros’ rich oral traditions and linguistic performances serve as text within
the network; Farr consciously interrogates the orality-literacy and illiteracy-literacy
dichotomies.

Farr’s methodology lends the book credibility as well as flavor. Audiotapes were
recorded both with and without the author’s presence in Michoacán, Chicago, and in
transit between the two ends of the transnational circuit, where the “transmigrants
transformed both western Mexico and Chicago, imprinting themselves and their practices
on the built environment” (p. 61). Family members and graduate assistants transcribed
the 130 tapes, and the data analysis was facilitated with Ethnograph. Farr carefully
explains her own positioning in the study, resulting practically in a greater emphasis on
women’s networks since that was where she was accepted most thoroughly. Her
discussion of the rancheros’ three main speech genres: franqueza, respeto, and echando
relajo (frank, respectful, and informal) encompasses the larger discussion of values,
tradition, and transformation thoroughly and insightfully. She is careful to remain loyal to
her friends/participants, yet maintains the integrity of this long-term study. The
diagrammatic mapping of the social network and the photos are helpful additions to the
text.

Although this book would be beneficial for pre-service teachers, especially with
its insights to the language and literacy practices of a vast number of students in U.S.
schools, it is perhaps more appropriate for readers familiar with theoretical foundations.
Scholars (whether formal or not) in many fields would appreciate the insights offered by
this textured narrative be they anthropologists, educators, border scholars, sociolinguists,
historians, Latin American scholars, sociologists. . . anyone attuned to the dynamically
evolving cultural and linguistic milieu within the context of globalization.

References cited
Farr, Marcia. (2006). Rancheros in Chicagoacán: Language and Identity in a
Transnational Community. Austin: University of Texas Press.
González, Norma; Moll, Luis; & Amanti, Cathy, Eds. (2005). Funds of Knowledge:
Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.