The University of Arizona Press
Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Time: 4 – 5 pm PST
Where: University Library, 3rd floor in the Grand Reading Room, Cal Poly Pomona, 3801 W. Temple Ave., Pomona, CA
Dr. Michelle Téllez discusses her book, Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas in “The Chicana Insurgencies and Transborder Activism” event for the Ethnic & Women’s Studies Department at Cal Poly Pomona. Michelle Téllez is 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. The free event will be held in-person and online. Registration for both in-person and online is required. Zoom link will be sent after confirming registration.
About the book:
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 by Michelle 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. Téllez shows that in creating the community of Maclovio Rojas, residents have challenged prescriptive notions of nation and belonging. Through women’s active participation and leadership, a women’s political subjectivity has emerged—Maclovianas. These border women both contest and invoke their citizenship as they struggle to have their land rights recognized, and they transform traditional political roles into that of agency and responsibility.
