The University of Arizona Press

July 10, 2025

Michelle Téllez author of Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas, spoke with Desert Laboratory at Tumamoc Hill Director Elise Gornish in the spring as part of the Tumamoc Author Series. In this Southwest Center video of the event, hear Téllez read a short excerpt from her book, then talk about the book with Gornish. Asked about the transnational lens through which she tells the stories of the women of Maclovio Rojas, Téllez responded, “Maclovio not just a place or location, it’s embedded in longer histories, colonial histories, economic histories that shape the lives of people who live there. So when I say transnational that’s what I mean.”

Watch the video here.

The event was presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center.

Michelle Téllez, an associate professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, writes about transnational community formations, Chicana feminism, and gendered migration. 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 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.