Migration paths and country of origin local television consumption within the framework of a transnational community

• Main Author: Hugo García Álvarez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Autonoma de Baja California 2011-01-01
• Series: Estudios Fronterizos
• Subjects: migración; consumo cultural; televisión; identidad regional; comunidad transnacional
• Online Access: http://ref.uabc.mx/ojs/index.php/ref/article/view/114

The paper explores the role a regional Mexican television channel has in the maintenance of cultural identity and cultural links with their home city of former Monterrey, Mexico, between inhabitants who migrated to Houston, Texas. Through interviews it was possible to identify some strategies for TV viewers to reinforce their sense of belonging to their former local community and avoid their emotional distancing from it and deal with the border. The cases described here show how some people search their identity as Mexican–Americans and the role this TV signal can play, along with the dynamics the border impose on them. The study concludes that in addition to the initial social and familiar networks that facilitated the arrival of newcomers, the availability of “Canal 12” helps to understand a community in a transnational setting as a manifestation of the conditions of border relations and the continuity that this bi–national space provide to maintain strong cultural and symbolic ties with their home region in Northeast Mexico.