The study of migration is not new in Mexican anthropology. Indeed, the long tradition of people moving in search of better living conditions began to be recorded in the works of Manuel Gamio in the late 1920s.1 Much more recent, however, is an interest in exploring the specific impact of migration on the lives of women.2 Whether women remain in their places of origin or migrate to other locations, researchers on both sides of the border have been paying more and more attention to the effect of specific gender issues related to women and migration.3 In this article, I portray the impact of international work-related migration on a sphere that is considered one of society’s most private: sexuality, intimate relations, and emotions. My universe of analysis is a rural community in the state of Veracruz, which only recently has begun to participate in the flows of migrant workers to the United States. Migration, understood as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon, affects various social spheres, with direct and immediate effects on the families whose members go away, sometimes for indefinite periods.
