The study of female migration, and particularly those undertaken by indigenous women, is still an unexplored issue. In this article, we examined some factors that allow us to explain the urban rural movements of indigenous women, based on a gender analysis and empirical information obtained from interviews with mazahuas women based in Mexico City. We take the view that both indigenous men and women live alongside national society under colonial domination relationships and ethnic and racial discrimination. In addition to this condition, it is also located among marginalised and extremely poor sectors in a classified, increasingly hierarchical and polarised social structure.