While some of the discourses the book unpacks do seem to be words of passage, the power of Dick's work lies in having captured them in their historical and social context, creating a roadmap for contemporary researchers to examine new discourses that circulate now.
— American Anthropologist
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in migration issues because it does an excellent job of focusing on the actual experience of peoples affected by migration.
— AmeriQuests
[Words of Passage] provides novel and astute insight into the dynamics of the well-examined sphere of Mexican migration…[Dick] demonstrates that physical movement is perhaps less important than it might seem, and that going deeper is as important as going farther.
— Great Plains Research
Words of Passage offers a rich, insightful, and thought-provoking analysis of the processes that inform working-class Mexicans' imaginaries about national belonging and Mexicanidad.
— American Journal of Sociology
Words of Passage is a well-researched, tightly written book that offers new insights into how migration discourse reflects cultural attitudes.
— Journal of Latin American Geography
Far from a mere analysis of the phenomenon of Mexico-US migration, [Words of Passage] offers a novel approach with broad implications: instead of focusing on migrants per se, it is their imagined lives that take center stage in this study...Words of Passage masterfully and creatively expands our comprehension of the ethico-moral dimensions of social imaginaries, the centrality of migration even beyond the act of movement across borders, the effective pragmatics of gendered discursive strategies, and the ways these all intersect in processes of nation building that feature variegation at their core. It will likely be a touchstone for an array of scholars concerned with analyzing and theorizing each of these issues.
— American Ethnologist
Dick’s highly readable account, filled with more examples and vignettes than a review can capture, will find its place on syllabuses in courses on gender, race, nationalism, migration, and ethics, as well as in regionally focused courses on Mexico and the United States...Words of Passage will foster new streams of thinking in linguistic anthropology and beyond.
— Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
Words of Passage makes a linguistic anthropological intervention into today’s pressing scholarly and public debates on migration that absolutely cannot be ignored.
— Anthropos
An excellent book that links the micro-level discourse of ordinary Mexicans with ideals of mexicanidad (Mexican-ness) promoted by the nation state (and taken up variously by different people). This linkage is crucial for understanding struggles over identities among Mexican-origin people, whether they reside in Mexico or outside of it. The author’s use of ‘imaginaries’ thoughtfully connects both national and local discourse to national belonging.
— Marcia Farr, Ohio State University, author of Rancheros in Chicagoacán: Language and Identity in a Transnational Community
A very important and innovative work and a compelling read. Dick argues that Mexican migration to the USA is at the core of Mexican nation-state formation, not a response to its failing.
— Valentina Napolitano, University of Toronto, author of Migrant Hearts and the Atlantic Return: Transnationalism and the Roman Catholic Church