ABSTRACT
Following a dynamic historical relationship between the local economy, migrant labour opportunities, and US immigration policy, a village population of 500 disproportionately elderly Mixtec Indigenous people is linked to communities of migrants in the US and Mexico numbering about 5000. Many of those migrants support the religious and civic functions of the village through participation in a hometown association, which leverages Mexican governmental matching grants for collective remittances. Some return to serve cargos. Thus, the village of Santa María Tindú is the visible, rooted tip of a much larger translocal community. However, as US-based migrants age and their families in the US become more and more firmly rooted in their California and Oregon communities, migrants’ organizations are beginning to shift their focus away from the village of origin and more toward their US-based communities. Meanwhile, declining population and a reduction in agriculture has opened up opportunities for conservation in a rugged area no longer used for milpa agriculture or for grazing goats.
