A product of archival research across the United States and Mexico, my dissertation traces the history of guanajuatense  migration to the U.S. throughout the twentieth-century. It argues that even though much has been written about Mexican migration, there is still surprisingly little known about how its history looks from and in sending communities. By beginning the story in early twentieth-century Guanajuato, one of Mexico’s most prolific (but often overlooked) sending states, my work illuminates previously ignored long-term push factors of mass migration. The project’s focus on the lived experiences of migrants whose transborder histories extend far beyond the singular focus of their arrival in the U.S. deepens scholar’s and the broader public’s understandings of the ways in which the local and regional shaped the migrant journey.