Reflecting on the concept of frontera madre(hood) as both a methodological and theoretical framework, this collection embodies the challenges and resiliency of mothering along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. More than thirty contributors examine how mothering is shaped by the geopolitics of border zones, which also transcends biological, sociological, or cultural and gendered tropes regarding ideas of motherhood, who can mother, and what mothering personifies.

The topic of mothers and mothering transcends all spaces, from popular culture to intellectual thought and critique. This collection of essays bridges both methodological and theoretical frameworks to explore forms of mothering that challenge hegemonic understandings of parenting and traditional notions of Latinx womxnhood. It articulates the collective experiences of Latinx, Black, and Indigenous mothering from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Thirty contributors discuss their lived experiences, research, or community work challenging multiple layers of oppression, including militarization of the border, border security propaganda, feminicides, drug war and colonial violence, grieving and loss of a child, challenges and forms of resistance by Indigenous mothers, working mothers in maquiladoras, queer mothering, academia and motherhood, and institutional barriers by government systems to access affordable health care and environmental justice. Also central to this collection are questions on how migration and detention restructure forms of mothering. Overall, this collection encapsulates how mothering is shaped by the geopolitics of border zones, which also transcends biological, sociological, or cultural and gendered tropes regarding ideas of motherhood, who can mother, and what mothering personifies. Contributors Elva M. Arredondo Cynthia Bejarano Bertha A. Bermúdez Tapia Margaret Brown Vega Macrina Cárdenas Montaño Claudia Yolanda Casillas Luz Estela (Lucha) Castro Marisa Elena Duarte Taide Elena Sylvia Fernández Quintanilla Paula Flores Bonilla Judith Flores Carmona Sandra Gutiérrez Ma. Eugenia Hernández Sánchez Irene Lara Leticia López Manzano Mariana Martinez Maria Cristina Morales Paola Isabel Nava Gonzales Olga Odgers-Ortiz Priscilla Pérez Silvia Quintanilla Moreno Cirila Quintero Ramírez Felicia Rangel-Samponaro Coda Rayo-Garza Shamma Rayo-Gutierrez Marisol Rodríguez Sosa Brenda Rubio Ariana Saludares Victoria M. Telles Michelle Téllez Marisa S. Torres Edith Treviño Espinosa Mariela Vásquez Tobon Hilda Villegas

Danzirly is a stunning bilingual poetry collection that considers multigenerational Latinx identities in the rapidly changing United States. Winner of the Academy of American Poets' Ambroggio Prize, Gloria Muñoz's collection is an unforgettable reckoning of the grief and beauty that pulses through twenty-first-century America.

As the major driver of U.S. demographic change, Latinos are reshaping key aspects of the social, economic, political, and cultural landscape of the country. In the process, Latinos are challenging the longstanding black/white paradigm that has been used as a lens to understand racial and ethnic matters in the United States. In this book, Sáenz and Morales provide one of the broadest sociological examinations of Latinos in the United States. The book focuses on the numerous diverse groups that constitute the Latino population and the role that the U.S. government has played in establishing immigration from Latin America to the United States. The book highlights the experiences of Latinos in a variety of domains including education, political engagement, work and economic life, family, religion, health and health care, crime and victimization, and mass media. To address these issues in each chapter the authors engage sociological perspectives, present data examining major trends for both native-born and immigrant populations, and engage readers in thinking about the major issues that Latinos are facing in each of these dimensions. The book clearly illustrates the diverse experiences of the array of Latino groups in the United States, with some of these groups succeeding socially and economically, while other groups continue to experience major social and economic challenges. The book concludes with a discussion of what the future holds for Latinos. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students, social scientists, and policymakers interested in Latinos and their place in contemporary society.

Angel was born in Arizona and is part of the in-crowd. She likes clubbing, dancing, and going to car shows. Betzayra is from Mexico City and, despite polio-related disabilities, is the confident group leader of the Mexican girls. Arturo is also from Mexico City; he dresses more fashionably than most other boys and is taunted by the Chicanos. Evelyn was born in Arizona, but her mother was from Mexico and she hangs out with Mexican kids because she thinks theyÕre nicer than Chicanos. How these and some two dozen other young Latinas and Latinos interact forms the basis of a penetrating new study of identity formation among Mexican-origin border youths, taking readers directly into their world to reveal the labyrinth they navigate to shape their identities. For Latina/o adolescents who already find life challenging, the borderland is a place that presents continual affirmations of and contradictions about identityÑquestions of who is more Mexican than American or vice versa. This book analyzes the construction of Mexicana/o and Chicana/o identities through a four-year ethnographic study in a representative American high school. It reveals how identity politics impacts young peopleÕs forms of communication and the cultural spaces they occupy in the school setting. By showing how identities are created and directly influenced by the complexities of geopolitics and sociocultural influences, it stresses the largely unexplored divisions among youths whose identities are located along a wide continuum of ÒMexicanness.Ó Through in-depth interviews and focus groups with both Mexicana/o and Chicana/o students, Cynthia Bejarano explores such topics as the creation of distinct styles that reinforce differences between the two groups; the use of language to further distinguish themselves from one another; and social stratification perpetuated by internal colonialism and the ÒOtheringÓ process. These and other issues are shown to complicate how Latinas/os ethnically identify as Mexicanas/os or Chicanas/os and help explain how they get to this point. In contrast to research that views identity as a reflection of immigration or educational experiences, this study embraces border theory to frame the complex and conflicted relations of adolescents as a result of their identity-making processes. This intimate glimpse into their lives provides valuable information about the diversity among youths and their constant efforts to create, define, and shape their identities according to cultural and social structures.

All communities are teeming with energy, spirit, and knowledge, and Spiral to the Stars taps into and activates this dynamism to discuss Indigenous community planning from a Mvskoke perspective. This book poses questions about what community is, how to reclaim community, and how to embark on the process of envisioning what and where the community can be. Geographer Laura Harjo demonstrates that Mvskoke communities have what they need to dream, imagine, speculate, and activate the wishes of ancestors, contemporary kin, and future relatives—all in a present temporality—which is Indigenous futurity. Organized around four methodologies—radical sovereignty, community knowledge, collective power, and emergence geographies—Spiral to the Stars provides a path that departs from traditional community-making strategies, which are often extensions of the settler state. Readers are provided a set of methodologies to build genuine community relationships, knowledge, power, and spaces for themselves. Communities don’t have to wait on experts because this book helps them activate their own possibilities and expertise. A detailed final chapter provides participatory tools that can be used in workshop settings or one on one. This book offers a critical and concrete map for community making that leverages Indigenous way-finding tools. Mvskoke narratives thread throughout the text, vividly demonstrating that theories come from lived and felt experiences. This is a must-have book for community organizers, radical pedagogists, and anyone wishing to empower and advocate for their community.

The Chicana M(other)work Anthology weaves together emerging scholarship and testimonios by and about self-identified Chicana and Women of Color mother-scholars, activists, and allies who center mothering as transformative labor through an intersectional lens. Contributors provide narratives that make feminized labor visible and that prioritize collective action and holistic healing for mother-scholars of color, their children, and their communities within and outside academia. The volume is organized in four parts: (1) separation, migration, state violence, and detention; (2) Chicana/Latina/WOC mother-activists; (3) intergenerational mothering; and (4) loss, reproductive justice, and holistic pregnancy. Contributors offer a just framework for Chicana and Women of Color mother-scholars, activists, and allies to thrive within and outside of the academy. They describe a new interpretation of motherwork that addresses the layers of care work needed for collective resistance to structural oppression and inequality. This anthology is a call to action for justice. Contributions are both theoretical and epistemological, and they offer an understanding of motherwork through Chicana and Women of Color experiences.