Migration is a fundamental element of population dynamics in colonial Mexico, but has only recently begun to receive the sort of attention that was previously reserved for mortality. Robinson's work on the Yucatan and Northern Mexico persuasively argues that “those who counterpose a stable past against the mobile present belie the facts as they were so assiduously recorded.” While a number of studies demonstrate that migration was of greater significance than previously suspected, much of the focus remains on the magnitude of migration rather than its meaning for the individual. Greenow's informative analysis of five parishes in Nueva Galicia from 1759 to 1810 offers a convincing typology of migration flows distinguishing between Indian parishes with relatively low rates of exogamy (10 percent), mixed parishes (10–20 percent), and regional centers with high exogamy (30–50 percent) but the focus is on purely aggregative processes. The growing body of work on spatial exogamy using birthplace data contained in marriage documents shows considerable variation in the degree of migration through space and time, although its significance from the perspective of the migrant remains far from clear. Much of this research relies on patterns derived from aggregate data with little attention to the individual or the net effects of migration on the community. What did migration or place mean to migrants or, for that matter, non-migrants? Was migration primarily a response to regionally integrated labor markets, or more or less aimless drifting? To what extent were migrants seeking a place to settle down, as suggested by the phrase “ánimo de morar aquí,” and to what degree were their intentions frustrated?.