El Tequio : Social capital,civic advocacy journalism and the construction of a transnational public sphere by Mexican indigenous migrants in the US

Abstract

This paper discusses the importance of transnational communication and civic practices of indigenous Mexican immigrants in the US. Using a content analysis of El Tequio, a magazine produced by a pan-ethnic and multi-sited organization called the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations, it shows what Alexis de Tocqueville deemed to be the fundamental relationship between the production of media and civic participation. El Tequio is the expression of transnational communicative action and the creation of self-representation and civic advocacy journalism among marginalized communities. Stories in El Tequio are not only a “bilocal” connection between immigrants’ sending and receiving communities, but part of a transnational dialogue of global voices. This analysis demonstrates how communication practices across borders have helped in the development of bonding and bridging social capital, and have enabled the participation of marginalized minorities in at least two national public spheres through communicative action executed through immigrant networks.