ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the significant mobility experience of La Granja’s families along different migratory cycles. Economic opportunities and constrains are the main factors that have prompted the migratory flows. In order to maximize economic benefits and job opportunities, local families have developed strategies of seasonal migratory patterns following economic and productive cycles and have established a dense network along the region, connecting the country and the city in a fluid manner. Current mining development has presented new opportunities in the local area, has turned La Granja into a place of reception, and has altered regional productive and trading nodes. In addition, along with broader national changes in the average family size and urbanization rates, these processes are fostering higher female mobility. Higher levels of female autonomy are altering the previous patriarchal system of male dominance; nevertheless, on many occasions this challenge is met with resistance and gender violence. Although it does not exactly fit with the main features of the examined case, the concept of diaspora encapsulates the dimensions of coercion, unfairness, nostalgia, and the formation of a sense of belonging and uprooting, which are substantial components of the history of mining-induced mobility processes.
