La fiesta del pueblo: Reflections on migration, rituals and identities in a Mexican migrant community.

This paper analyzes the dynamics of visiting migrants and the local community, based on their daily interaction, through rituals, in their hometown of Cenotillo during the festivity of Patron Saint Clare of Assisi. The fiesta of Santa Clara de Asis is celebrated every year, the second week of August. Yucatan, Mexico has particular communities with high index of migrant population who live in the United States and regularly try to visit home. Through formal and informal interviews and conversations and observations, this study analyze the impact of rituals on both, local people and migrants through which women and men produce and reproduce feelings of home, belonging and cultural identity. Although the study is mainly interested in the adjustment of the peoples' identities based on the phenomenon of migration during the festivity, discussions and interviews will not be confined to return migrants only, it will include a wide range of female and male from different backgrounds, who have returned especially for the patron saint festivity of Cenotillo and those people who are currently living in the community. This study explores women and men migrants’ self-defined identities, who visit their hometown and compare to those people who stay and adapt their lives during those days of celebration. Questions about ‘belonging’ and ‘home’ will be focused at as a way of understanding the rituals and identity formation among such populations.