American Gitanos in Mexico City

This book provides a detailed and comprehensive description of the Gitano community of Mexico City. The ethnographic study showcases the interplay between cultural reproduction, economic reproduction, and the Gitano / non-Gitano opposition. The first part of the book discusses how the cultural identity of this community is reproduced based on migratory processes, social relations and the dynamics of kinship and gender roles to understand the contradiction between value systems and practices in a patriarchal society. In the second part, emphasis is placed on the economic dynamism of this group in its interactions with the majority society in the context of informal economy and the group’s articulation with space and mobility in the territory. The analysis problematizes territorial mobility and circulation regimes based on fieldwork carried out in the process of active participation with Gitano families selling textile clothes and accessories through the country. David Lagunas is a Tenured Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Seville, Spain