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The historic experience of international migration in the nahua communities of Guerrero involves the creation of new social categories for migrant men and women. This conception is sustained in ritual practices incorporated into the collective symbolic experience and allows recognition of certain attributes and values in those who participate in the "non-authorized" transit through the Mexico- United States border. In this paper it is proposed that this event is a "crossing ritual" or "rite of passage" consisting of three stages: "the farewell" (separation phase), "the journey" (threshold phase) and "the reception" (aggregation phase). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]