Latina Activists Across Borders: Women’s Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas (review)

What does Latina women’s grassroots activism look like in Texas and Mexico? How do local, national, and international political realities and social contexts shape Latina activists strategies? What are the limitations and opportunities in women’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) activism? These are the important questions sociologist Peña raises in her book Latina Activists Across Borders: Women’s Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas. In five chapters, Peña paints portraits of diverse Latina activisms in their respective communities. Pena’s main argument is that “women’s NGOs and specific struggles for connecting health, education, social, political, economic and environmental concerns for human rights is an important contribution of grassroots women’s activism” (149).

Peña shatters controlling images of Latina women as docile pawns of patriarchy and showcases the everyday feminist praxis of working class, indigenous, and immigrant Mexican-heritage women. While their sisters in Mexico successfully forge networks with Latina activists at the local, national and international levels, women working in NGOs on the Texas border are more focused on day-to-day survival at the neighborhood level. In spite of the fact that women on the United States-Mexican border live in constant fear of deportation, “colonial women are the ones who organize their communities, who help to bring water and drainage to their communities, and are the main movers to make meetings happen” (97). In the multifaceted global feminist struggle NGOs function as safe spaces for chispa (152) where personal crisis sparks not only gender consciousness but also access to broader communities that connect diverse Latina activists to local, national, and global activist networks.

Peña positions herself as a bilingual, bicultural Latina feminist, activist, and scholar. Drawing on feminist theories, theories of intersectionality, social movements, and globalization, Peña extends the work of feminist scholars such as Gloria Anzaldua, Patricia Zavella, Mary Romero, Ruth Trinidad-Galvan, Denise Segura, Christine Sierra, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, and Patricia Hill Collins. A fundamental assumption of Pena’s work is that “the patriarchal machista system inherited from Iberian colonialism . . . are the forces that bring Latinas together and the motivate us to challenge dominance that controls us in our homes and in society at large” (23).

Peña’s research design is rooted in feminist research methodologies, including oral histories and conversations, with over 40 Latina leaders in NGOs. As a transnational and comparative community study, field work took place in two sites: the Mexican state of Michoacán (January to July 1995), and the U.S.-Mexican border area of Greater El Paso and Ciudad Juárez (Spring 1998 to Summer 1999). Peña provides thick description of how these two communities respond to the dynamics of global capitalism. Peña also reviewed reports and other written materials produced by the NGOs, as well as United Nations official documents, including reports by the UN Commission for the Advancement of Women.

In her first chapter, “Women’s Activism in Michoacán, Peña illustrates how women’s NGOs flourished after the 1980s when the United Nations proclaimed women’s issues as human rights issues. The First National Women’s Gathering in Mexico City in 1980 created the space for unprecedented dialogues among diverse Mexican women. Indigenous women leaders emerged as national activists that brought attention to issues of ethnicity, race and culture; they focused on literacy and cooperatives where women sell their weavings as well as practice alternative medicine. Ecofeminists led some NGOs to focus on education for sustainability and health. Eventually some NGOs branched out to include work on domestic violence, using multiple venues for outreach, including radio and newspapers. All these factors contribute to the forging of new connections and social movements among diverse women’s NGOs within Mexico as well outside of Mexico with international global feminist networks. Peña underscores that preparations for the 1995 UN-sponsored Beijing conference further contributed to the border crossings between the academic feminism...