Gender Violence at the U.S.--Mexico Border
Gender Violence at the U.S.--Mexico Border

Author: HŽctor Dom’nguez-Ruvalcaba

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2010-03-15

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0816527121

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The U.S.ÐMexico border is frequently presented by contemporary media as a violent and dangerous place. But that is not a new perception. For decades the border has been constructed as a topographic metaphor for all forms of illegality, in which an ineffable link between space and violence is somehow assumed. The sociological and cultural implications of violence have recently emerged at the forefront of academic discussions about the border. And yet few studies have been devoted to one of its most disturbing manifestations: gender violence. This book analyzes this pervasive phenomenon, including the femicides in Ciudad Ju‡rez that have come to exemplify, at least for the media, its most extreme manifestation. Contributors to this volume propose that the study of gender-motivated violence requires interpretive and analytical strategies that draw on methods reaching across the divide between the social sciences and the humanities. Through such an interdisciplinary conversation, the book examines how such violence is (re)presented in oral narratives, newspaper reports, films and documentaries, novels, TV series, and legal discourse. It also examines the role that the media have played in this process, as well as the legal initiatives that might address this pressing social problem. Together these essays offer a new perspective on the implications of, and connections between, gendered forms of violence and topics such as mechanisms of social violence, the micro-social effects of economic models, the asymmetries of power in local, national, and transnational configurations, and the particular rhetoric, aesthetics, and ethics of discourses that represent violence.

Human Rights along the U.S.–Mexico Border
Human Rights along the U.S.–Mexico Border

Author: Kathleen Staudt

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2009-11-15

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780816528059

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Much political oratory has been devoted to safeguarding America’s boundary with Mexico, but policies that militarize the border and criminalize immigrants have overshadowed the region’s widespread violence against women, the increase in crossing deaths, and the lingering poverty that spurs people to set out on dangerous northward treks. This book addresses those concerns by focusing on gender-based violence, security, and human rights from the perspective of women who live with both violence and poverty. From the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, scholars from both sides of the 2,000-mile border reflect expertise in disciplines ranging from international relations to criminal justice, conveying a more complex picture of the region than that presented in other studies. Initial chapters offer an overview of routine sexual assaults on women migrants, the harassment of Central American immigrants at the hands of authorities and residents, corruption and counterfeiting along the border, and near-death experiences of border crossers. Subsequent chapters then connect analysis with solutions in the form of institutional change, social movement activism, policy reform, and the spread of international norms that respect human rights as well as good governance. These chapters show how all facets of the border situation—globalization, NAFTA, economic inequality, organized crime, political corruption, rampant patriarchy—promote gendered violence and other expressions of hyper-masculinity. They also show that U.S. immigration policy exacerbates the problems of border violence—in marked contrast to the border policies of European countries. By focusing on women’s everyday experiences in order to understand human security issues, these contributions offer broad-based alternative approaches and solutions that address everyday violence and inattention to public safety, inequalities, poverty, and human rights. And by presenting a social and democratic international feminist framework to address these issues, they offer the opportunity to transform today’s security debate in constructive ways.

Violence and Activism at the Border
Violence and Activism at the Border

Author: Kathleen Staudt

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2009-06-03

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 0292773439

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Between 1993 and 2003, more than 370 girls and women were murdered and their often-mutilated bodies dumped outside Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, Mexico. The murders have continued at a rate of approximately thirty per year, yet law enforcement officials have made no breakthroughs in finding the perpetrator(s). Drawing on in-depth surveys, workshops, and interviews of Juárez women and border activists, Violence and Activism at the Border provides crucial links between these disturbing crimes and a broader history of violence against women in Mexico. In addition, the ways in which local feminist activists used the Juárez murders to create international publicity and expose police impunity provides a unique case study of social movements in the borderlands, especially as statistics reveal that the rates of femicide in Juárez are actually similar to other regions of Mexico. Also examining how non-governmental organizations have responded in the face of Mexican law enforcement's "normalization" of domestic violence, Staudt's study is a landmark development in the realm of global human rights.

Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas
Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas

Author: Michelle Téllez

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0816542473

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Near Tijuana, Baja California, the autonomous community of Maclovio Rojas demonstrates what is possible for urban place-based political movements. More than a community, Maclovio Rojas is a women-led social movement that works for economic and political autonomy to address issues of health, education, housing, nutrition, and security. Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas tells the story of the community’s struggle to carve out space for survival and thriving in the shadows of the U.S.-Mexico geopolitical border. This ethnography by Michelle Téllez demonstrates the state’s neglect in providing social services and local infrastructure. This neglect exacerbates the structural violence endemic to the border region—a continuation of colonial systems of power on the urban, rural, and racialized poor. Téllez shows that in creating the community of Maclovio Rojas, residents have challenged prescriptive notions of nation and belonging. Through women’s active participation and leadership, a women’s political subjectivity has emerged—Maclovianas. These border women both contest and invoke their citizenship as they struggle to have their land rights recognized, and they transform traditional political roles into that of agency and responsibility. This book highlights the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a space of resistance, conviviality, agency, and creative community building where transformative politics can take place. It shows hope, struggle, and possibility in the context of gendered violences of racial capitalism on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Gendered Violence Along and at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Gendered Violence Along and at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Author: Kimberly Lis Valladares

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 18

ISBN-13:

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In search for economic prosperity or better living conditions, Mexican women often search for work in maquiladoras (factories) along the Mexico border or migrate across to the United States. During this pursuit, many are physically, emotionally, and psychologically violated by various actors and are criminalized for migrating. Considering this, I will provide an analysis that examines the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the responses from (or lack thereof) the U.S. and Mexico governments regarding the migration of Mexican immigrant women. It is evident that, through undocumented and underpaid labor that benefits the U.S., and remittances that can bolster Mexico's economy, both states directly benefit from migration-- regardless of the immigrants being authorized or unauthorized by the state. Subsequently, this paper will examine how the U.S. and Mexico is complicit in the gendered violence along and at the U.S.-Mexico border. Using existing scholarship, I contribute to emerging immigration literature that examines gendered violence Mexican immigrant women experiences as a continuous cycle that extends throughout their entire journey, and often, continues once they are in the United States. Unlike past scholarship, these women's migration should not be investigated in isolation, but rather, through a holistic examination as they live and cross the borderlands. I find that this phenomenon repeatedly occurs to Mexican immigrant women when working at maquiladoras, extending to their interactions at the actual border because the U.S. and Mexican governments fail to sufficiently redress the issue, thus their compliance in this violence.

Women and Change at the U.S.–Mexico Border
Women and Change at the U.S.–Mexico Border

Author: Doreen J. Mattingly

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2022-06-21

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0816549931

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There’s no denying that the U.S.–Mexico border region has changed in the past twenty years. With the emergence of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the curtailment of welfare programs, and more aggressive efforts by the United States to seal the border against undocumented migrants, the prospect of seeking a livelihood—particularly for women—has become more tenuous in the twenty-first century. In the face of the ironic juxtaposition of free trade and limited mobility, this book takes a new look at women on both sides of the border to portray them as active participants in the changing structures of life, often engaging in political struggles. The contributions—including several chapters by Mexican as well as U.S. scholars—examine environmental and socioeconomic conditions on the border as they shape and are shaped by both daily life at the local level and the global economy. The contributors focus on issues related to migration, both short- and long-term; empowerment, especially reflecting shifts in women’s consciousness in the workplace; and political and social activism in border communities. The chapters consider a broad range of topics, such as the changing gender composition of the maquiladora work force over the past decade and border women’s non-governmental organizations and political activism. In most of the studies, both sides of the border are considered to provide insights into differences created by an international boundary and similarities produced by cross-border interactions. Together, these chapters show the border region to be a dynamic social, economic, cultural, and political context in which women face both obstacles and opportunities for change—and make clear the vital role that women play in shaping the border region and their own lives. This collection builds on Susan Tiano and Vicki Ruiz’s groundbreaking volume Women on the U.S.–Mexico Border by continuing to show the human face of changes wrought by manufacturing and militarization. By illustrating the current state of social science research on gender and women’s lives in the region, it offers fresh perspectives on the material reality of women’s daily lives in this culturally and historically rich region.

Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border
Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border

Author: Nuala Finnegan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-07-18

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1351058819

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Since the early 1990s, the repeated murders of women from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico have become something of a global cause célèbre. Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border examines creative responses to these acts of violence. It reveals how theatre, art, film, fiction and other popular cultural forms seek to remember and mourn the female victims of violent death in the city at the same time as they interrogate the political, legal and societal structures that produce the crimes. Different chapters examine the varying art forms to engage with Ciudad Juárez’s feminicidal wave. Finnegan discusses Àlex Rigola’s theatrical adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666 by Teatre Lliure in Barcelona as well as painting about the victims of feminicidio by Irish painter Brian Maguire. There is analysis of documentary film about Ciudad Juárez, including Lourdes Portillo’s acclaimed Señorita Extraviada (2001). The final chapter turns its attention to writing about feminicide and examines testimonial and crime fiction narratives like the mystery novel Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, among other examples. By drawing on a range of artistic responses to the murders in Ciudad Juárez, Cultural Representations of Feminicidio at the US-Mexico Border shows how art, film, theatre and fiction can unsettle official narratives about the crimes and undo the static paradigms that are frequently used to interpret them.

Women On The U.S.-Mexico Border
Women On The U.S.-Mexico Border

Author: Vicki Ruiz

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-06-11

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1000003213

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This book illuminates the reality of border women's lives and challenges the conventional notion that women need not work for wages because they are economically supported by men. It offers insight into the lives of undocumented women.

Social Justice in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region
Social Justice in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region

Author: Mark Lusk

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-06-12

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9400741502

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The U.S.-Mexico Border Region is among the poorest geographical areas in the United States. The region has been long characterized by dual development, poor infrastructure, weak schools, health disparities and low-wage employment. More recently, the region has been affected by the violence associated with a drug and crime war in Mexico. The premise of this book is that the U.S.-Mexico Border Region is subject to systematic oppression and that the so-called social pathologies that we see in the region are by-products of social and economic injustice in the form of labor exploitation, environmental racism, immigration militarism, institutional sexism and discrimination, health inequities, a political economy based on low-wage labor, and the globalization of labor and capital. The chapters address a variety of examples of injustice in the areas of environment, health disparity, migration unemployment, citizenship, women and gender violence, mental health, and drug violence. The book proposes a pathway to development.