Vol.:(0123456789) Latino Studies https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-020-00246-8 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Creating home, claiming place: Latina immigrant mothers and the production of belonging Jennifer Bickham Mendez 1  · Natalia Deeb‑Sossa 2 © Springer Nature Limited 2020 Abstract This comparative analysis of Latina immigrant mothers’ experiences in “Squire Town,” a farmworker community in Northern California, and Williamsburg, a recent Latina/o destination in Eastern Virginia, employs a gender lens to analyze how these women make claims to place, belonging, and inclusion through their sustained indi- vidual and collective struggles to ensure the well-being of their families. In Wil- liamsburg they created attachment to place through resilience in facing restricted access to services and housing and overcoming fear to navigate unfamiliar physical and institutional settings. Mothers in Squire Town made politicized claims to inclu- sion by advocating for services in their community. Women in both sites developed support networks to assist them in obtaining or collectively demanding resources and services for their families. These mothers’ responses to exclusionary conditions in these two contexts reveal gendered, place-specifc dimensions of belonging and women’s contribution to its production. Keywords Belonging · Farmworkers · Gender · Immigration · Motherhood Crear un hogar, reclamar un lugar: Madres inmigrantes latinas y la producción de la pertenencia Resumen Este análisis comparativo de las experiencias de madres inmigrantes latinas en “Squire Town”, una comunidad de trabajadoras/es agrícolas en el norte de California, y Williamsburg, un destino reciente para latinas y latinos en el este de Virginia, em- * Jennifer Bickham Mendez jbmend@wm.edu Natalia Deeb-Sossa ndeebsossa@ucdavis.edu 1 William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA 2 University of California, Davis, USA