Fires on the Border: The Passionate Politics of Labor Organizing on the Mexican Frontera

Acknowledgments

« 227 » Acknowledgments This book was a long time in the making and would not have been possible without the generous support of many people and organizations . Principally, I thank the workers and organizers from grassroots groups along the northern Mexican border and in central and southern Mexico who welcomed me into their lives and shared their struggles. In addition to the individuals who appear in the book and those who gave their testimony anonymously, I thank members of the following groups for their conversations, insights, and support: residents of the colonia Blanca Navidad, Nuevo Laredo; Centro de Trabajadores (CETRAC), Nuevo Laredo; Custom-Trim/Auto-Trim Workers, Valle Hermoso; the Duro Workers’ Collective (DUROO), Río Bravo; Derechos Obreros y Democracia Sindical (DODS), Reynosa; Key Safety System Workers, Valle Hermoso; the Lajat Workers’ Coalition, Gómez Palacio; Las Abejas, Chiapas; LG Workers , Reynosa; the Zapatista autonomous communities of Oventic and Morelia, Chiapas; the newspaper El Mañana, Nuevo Laredo; Pastoral Juvenil Obrero (PJO), Matamoros and Juárez; Servicio, Desarrollo , y Paz (SEDEPAC), Monclova and Frontera; Factor X, Tijuana; and Youth with Justice, Río Bravo. I am deeply indebted to the staff of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM), who introduced me to these organizations and who were an enormous asset to my research, giving me countless hours of their expertise. Cynthia Uribe was especially helpful with the transcription of interviews. Funding from various sources enabled my research, and I thank the following for their support: the National Endowment for the Humanities ’ summer institute at Texas State University–San Marcos on Traversing Borders: History and Cultures of the Southwest (2000); the Rockefeller Humanities Residency Fellowship Program at the University of Arizona–Tucson (2001–2); the University at Albany–SUNY « 228 » Acknowledgments for a travel grant (2002), a College of Arts and Sciences Research Development Grant (2003–4), and a Faculty Research Award (2003–4); and a United University Professions Individual Development Award (2003). Sabbatical leaves from the University at Albany–SUNY in fall 2001 and fall 2005 and from Rice University in 2011–12 gave me time to research and write at crucial stages of the project. I am grateful to colleagues at Rice for giving their time and thoughtful commentary to this book’s manuscript. The Feminist Research Group of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality was a valuable resource, and I am indebted to those who attended the seminar on drafts of selected chapters and shared their readings and helpful suggestions: José Aranda, Sergio Chávez, Krista Comer, Julie Fette, Rebecca Hester, Betty Joseph, Susan Lurie, Courtney Morris, Martha Ojeda, Robin Paige, Nanxiu Qian, and Abigail Rosas. I owe a very special thank you to Melissa Wright, who read the book proposal and the final manuscript multiple times and led the seminar. Her generous and wise suggestions at each step of the way refined and deepened my arguments. Whatever flaws remain are mine. I am also indebted to Miranda Joseph for believing in the potential of this project before any of it was written and for hosting me in 2001 as I began the research as a fellow in the Rockefeller Residency Program that she directed at the University of Arizona–Tucson. Over the years many other colleagues read or published or listened to parts of what became the manuscript. Their interest prompted me to clarify my arguments, and the opportunities for discussion they offered provided helpful commentary that sharpened my thinking on material for several chapters. Among them are Tina Chen and David Churchill, Susan Comfort, Davina Cooper and Didi Herman, Ann Ferguson, Frigga Haug, Stevi Jackson, Anna Jónasdóttir, Liz Kennedy , David McNally, Breny Mendoza, Paula Rabinowitz, Diane Richardson, Janice Mc Laughlin, Mark Casey, and Joan Sangster. I am grateful for the opportunities given to me by many individ­ uals and organizations to present portions of the book as it was taking shape. I thank Julie Rak and the Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Alberta–Edmonton; Rahel Jaeggi and Daniel Loick of the Rethinking Marx Conference, Berlin; Christina Kaindl, Acknowledgments « 229 » Christoph Lieber, Oliver Nachtwey, Rainer Rilling, and Tobias ten Brink of the Capitalism Reloaded Conference, Berlin; Murat Aydemir and the School for Cultural Analysis, Amsterdam; Anna Jónasdóttir and the GEXcel Center for Gender Excellence, Örebro, Sweden; Christian Klasse, Susie Jacobs, and the Feminism and Political Economy Workshop at Manchester University, United Kingdom; Gordon...