Compartiendo historias de fronteras: Cuerpos, géneros, generaciones y salud (review)

This edited volume analyzes various projects conducted under the auspices of the bi-national Transborder Consortium for Research and Action into Gender and Health on the Mexico-United States Border. The goal of this Consortium is to establish a new model of academic collaboration with the border community, by adopting a gendered perspective and directed by community health workers and scholars on both sides of the border. Thus, this book addresses the diverse interconnections of places, borders, gender constructions, and health. The seven chapters highlight the multiplicity of women's migratory experiences and present the results and practical recommendations from five different participatory-action projects authored by different groups from the US and Mexico involved in the Consortium. The Consortium's objective of breaking down political and geographic barriers between researchers, community workers, and the participants in the study areas is carried throughout all of the chapters.

The experience of the editors in participatory-action research is evident throughout the volume. The strength of the editors is reflected in the strong feminist theoretical strand that binds together what first seem like disparate projects with diverse study populations. While socio-linguistics and political economy may seem like very different perspectives to study health and migration, the editors are able to combine these chapters in a way that makes the book flow well from one chapter to the next. Another strong aspect of this volume is that it provides a roadmap to create strong international and interdisciplinary academic teams and bi-national collaborative projects. And in particularly timely fashion, this book highlights the bonds between Mexico and the United States, during a time when illegal immigration is under attack in the US.

Each of the five chapters (excluding the introduction and conclusion) has the goal of improving women's health in the US-Mexico border region through participatory-action research. For example, the first chapter analyzes a research-action project directed to protecting the reproductive health of female indigenous migrants (mainly farm workers) from southern and central Mexico who migrate to Baja California. The author proposes a theme that is carried throughout the volume—that in order for a project to increase women's health and well-being more generally, the research topics and concerns must come from the culture that is being studied (essentially, a grassroots approach) instead of being set by outsiders.

The second chapter also examines the migration of female farm workers, but in this case Mexican farm workers in the US. This project "analyzes the ways in which agricultural workers redefine their bodies during the migration process, constructing, on one hand, the notions of modesty and appearance, and on the other, independence" (p. 78). Despite their strong economic contribution, female farm workers are often marginalized from mainstream society and become victims of racial and class discrimination, which facilitate the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, like HIV.

The next chapter is a socio-linguistic analysis of how Spanish-speaking women talk about their experiences of breast cancer screening in Austin, Texas. This chapter deconstructs the idea of group homogeneity that is often used by public health programs.

The fourth chapter examines concepts of relationships and masculinity in Sonora, Mexico, in older men, demonstrating that gender for these researchers and the Consortium goes beyond "women's issues." A novel program resulted from this study, whereby men were targeted for community workshops around themes of reproductive health in men, emotional health, sexuality, masculinity and violence, STIs and HIV, and aging. This type of project could be replicated in other Mexican and Mexican-American communities.

The final project analysis addresses risk for cervical-uterine cancer in post-menopausal women in Sonora and those born in Mexico and currently living in Tucson, Arizona. For geographers, the most pertinent part of this chapter is the final analysis about how deep understanding of a location is important in...