Chicana Insurgencies and Transborder Activism

Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas tells the story of the community's struggle to carve out space for survival and thrive in the shadows of the U.S.-Mexico geopolitical border. Near Tijuana, Baja California, the autonomous community of Maclovio Rojoas 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 health, education, housing, nutrition, and security issues. Through a feminist ethnography, 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.
Dr. Michelle Téllez, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Mexican American Studies Department at the University of Arizona. Dr. Téllez co-edited The Chicana M(other)work Anthology: Porque Sin Madres No Hay Revolución, and is the author of Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas: Autonomy in the Spaces of Neoliberal Neglect.