Narrates and analyzes the experiences of migrant Mexican ranchers originally from Huejuquilla, Jalisco, who now reside in metropolitan Chicago. Through documentation of life histories, the author shows how social processes and migrant experiences affect identity and consciousness. She pays special attention to gender and the ways in which migrants use patriarchal arrangements to justify their behavior, thus preserving a "macho" culture even in Chicago. Offers an extended discussion of the subjective nature of consciousness: how it emerges and transforms under constant movement between Chicago to Huejuquilla and back, and how cognition is affected by the constant interplay of familiar and strange scenarios. Argues that migrants should be viewed as active agents rather than as enslaved by the hardships they experience, despite cautioning that the migrant experience is fundamentally transformative.