This paper examines the challenges of “Native anthropology,” as brown skinned, formerly undocumented, first-gen, Mexican transborder immigrant woman. In my anthropological encounters in both Mexico and the U.S., I am sometimes given insider status, while at other times I am given outsider status. My positionality affects not only how my interlocutors see me in the field but also how I am read by outsiders, particularly by representatives within state institutions.