Turning friends into objects: A letter struggling with analytic distance in the New Latino Diaspora.

Ethnographic research requires that social scientists build relationships with the people whose lives they describe. Sometimes these relationships become friendships. Disseminating the results of that research typically requires analytic distance, however, describing these same people in ways that one would not do with other friends. How can ethnographers do both things at once-build ethical and human relationships with research participants while also describing these people's lives and contexts in scientifically useful ways? This contribution addresses the question with reference to a decade-long ethnographic project which included both research and friendship. It describes the developing relationship between an ethnographer and a family of Mexican immigrants to the U.S., illustrating the tension between scientist and friend.