Latina Activists across Borders: Women's Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas

Over the past twenty-five years, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) run by women and devoted to advancing women's well-being have proliferated in Mexico and along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. In this sociological analysis of grassroots activism, Milagros Pe a compares women's NGOs in two regions-the state of Michoac n in central Mexico and the border region encompassing El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Ju rez, Mexico. In both Michoac n and the border region, women have organized to confront a variety of concerns, including domestic violence, the growing number of single women who are heads of households, and exploitive labor conditions. By comparing women's activism in two distinct areas, Pe a illuminates their different motivations, alliances, and organizational strategies in relation to local conditions and national and international activist networks.

Drawing on interviews with the leaders of more than two dozen women's NGOs in Michoac n and El Paso/Ciudad Ju rez, Pe a examines the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and liberation theology on Latina activism, and she describes how activist affiliations increasingly cross ethnic, racial, and class lines. Women's NGOs in Michoac n put an enormous amount of energy into preparations for the 1995 United Nations-sponsored World Conference on Women in Beijing, and they developed extensive activist networks as a result. As Pe a demonstrates, activists in El Paso/Ciudad Ju rez were less interested in the Beijing conference; they were intensely focused on issues related to immigration and to the murders and disappearances of scores of women in Ciudad Ju rez. Ultimately, Pe a's study highlights the consciousness-raising work done by NGOs run by and for Mexican and Mexican American women: they encourage Latinas to connect their personal lives to the broader political, economic, social, and cultural issues affecting them.

Author: Milagros Peña
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 04/01/2007
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.59lbs
Size: 6.14h x 8.97w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9780822339519

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2008 pg. 1248

About the Author

Milagros Peña is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research at the University of Florida. She is the author of Theologies and Liberation in Peru: The Role of Ideas in Social Movements; a coauthor of Punk Rockers' Revolution: A Pedagogy of Race, Class and Gender; and a coeditor of Emerging Voices, Urgent Choices: Essays on Latino/a Religious Leadership.