This dissertation examines the immigrant experience of Mexican families residing in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), a borderlands region geographically located along the Mexico-U.S. international border. From both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, this research explores factors affecting immigrant family life. Specifically, this study examines how and to what extent Mexican and U.S. state-adopted policies, gender arrangements, and family relations entice LRGV immigrant families to engage Mexican or U.S.-based resources -- and why they are more involved in one option rather than another. Two approaches are employed to theoretically capture the behavior of two distinct types of immigrant families: a transnational model focusing on how family life is shaped by numerous external conditions that transcend national borders, and a settler model that examines how family life is shaped within the U.S. This study uses qualitative data gathered between winter 2009 and fall 2010 in the South Texas-Tamaulipas border corridor. Twenty-nine in-depth interviews among ten Mexican immigrant families were conducted; in the field, five local nongovernmental and governmental organizations representatives were also interviewed. This study found that all ten families engaged themselves in politics in varied ways, from embracing Mexican political activism to simply coping with Mexican institutional corruption and institutional racism in the U.S. This research also concludes that urban families, with greater access to education and labor opportunities, are more egalitarian than families from rural environments. The geographical proximity between the rural communities of Tamaulipas and LRGV fosters a constant flow of rural gendered values and practices from Mexico into the Valley. Finally, data reveal that Mexican-focused families benefit from their transnational extended family resources to reconcile work and parenting demands. Of particular significance is the emotional, financial, and childcare support abuelas (grandmothers) residing in Mexico provide to immigrant families living in South Texas.
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