Christopher Carter
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044120
- eISBN:
- 9780252053061
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044120.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This book suggests that the genesis of Black American foodways, and soul food in particular, was the survival and preservation of the Black community. However, if soul food is to remain a response to ...
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This book suggests that the genesis of Black American foodways, and soul food in particular, was the survival and preservation of the Black community. However, if soul food is to remain a response to social and food injustice in the Black community, given the myriad of ways industrial agriculture harms Black people—economically, environmentally, ideologically—what should soul food look like today? In seeking to answer this question, this book explores the relationship between and among food, Christian, and cultural identity among African Americans by examining the U.S. food system and the impact that current policies and practices have on Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Using liberation theology and decolonial methods, the book argues for and constructs an anti-oppressive theological anthropology that serves as the foundation for liberatory Black foodways. The book concludes by offering three theologically grounded food practices as a way to begin addressing food injustice and to move toward food sovereignty in Black and other marginalized communities: soulfull eating (of which an agent and context specific black veganism is seen as ideal), seeking justice for food workers, and caring for the earth.Less
This book suggests that the genesis of Black American foodways, and soul food in particular, was the survival and preservation of the Black community. However, if soul food is to remain a response to social and food injustice in the Black community, given the myriad of ways industrial agriculture harms Black people—economically, environmentally, ideologically—what should soul food look like today? In seeking to answer this question, this book explores the relationship between and among food, Christian, and cultural identity among African Americans by examining the U.S. food system and the impact that current policies and practices have on Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Using liberation theology and decolonial methods, the book argues for and constructs an anti-oppressive theological anthropology that serves as the foundation for liberatory Black foodways. The book concludes by offering three theologically grounded food practices as a way to begin addressing food injustice and to move toward food sovereignty in Black and other marginalized communities: soulfull eating (of which an agent and context specific black veganism is seen as ideal), seeking justice for food workers, and caring for the earth.
Alejandro L. Madrid
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252043949
- eISBN:
- 9780252052873
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043949.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
More than a simple biography, this book is an affective exploration of the life and works of Cuban American composer Tania León in relation to questions of identity politics, nostalgia, ethnicity, ...
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More than a simple biography, this book is an affective exploration of the life and works of Cuban American composer Tania León in relation to questions of identity politics, nostalgia, ethnicity, absence, and diaspora. The book explores the composer’s upbringing in Cuba, the reasons to leave the island at a complicated political moment after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, her adaptation to U.S. culture through her involvement in a number of historically important African American artistic projects at the end of the civil rights movement, and the development of her unique compositional voice. Attention is paid to the current process of canonization of León and her music vis-à-vis issues of identity, representation, and self-representation that are often at odds. By focusing on León’s extraordinary life, this book provides a point of entry into understanding how regular folks have experienced apparently impersonal historical events such as the Cuban revolution, the Cold War, the struggle for civil rights, or identity politics in everyday U.S. life.Less
More than a simple biography, this book is an affective exploration of the life and works of Cuban American composer Tania León in relation to questions of identity politics, nostalgia, ethnicity, absence, and diaspora. The book explores the composer’s upbringing in Cuba, the reasons to leave the island at a complicated political moment after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, her adaptation to U.S. culture through her involvement in a number of historically important African American artistic projects at the end of the civil rights movement, and the development of her unique compositional voice. Attention is paid to the current process of canonization of León and her music vis-à-vis issues of identity, representation, and self-representation that are often at odds. By focusing on León’s extraordinary life, this book provides a point of entry into understanding how regular folks have experienced apparently impersonal historical events such as the Cuban revolution, the Cold War, the struggle for civil rights, or identity politics in everyday U.S. life.
Gibb Schreffler
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044076
- eISBN:
- 9780252053016
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044076.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
In the early twenty-first century, the Punjab region’s traditional drummers, dholis, were experiencing “the toughest time ever.” Concurrently, their instrument, the iconic barrel-drum dhol, was ...
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In the early twenty-first century, the Punjab region’s traditional drummers, dholis, were experiencing “the toughest time ever.” Concurrently, their instrument, the iconic barrel-drum dhol, was experiencing unprecedented global popularity. This book uncovers why, notwithstanding the emblematic status of dhol for Punjabis, the dholis’ local communities are facing existential crisis. The pursuit of a national identity—which aids in political representation and maintaining historical consciousness during change—has led modern Punjabis to make particular economic, social, and artistic choices. A casualty of this pursuit has been the disenfranchisement of dholis, who do not find representation despite the symbolic import of dhol to that national identity. Through the example of dhol’s subtle appropriation, the book argues that the empowerment gained by bolstering Punjabi identity in the global arena works at the expense of people on Punjabi society’s margins. At its core are the hereditary-professional drummers who, while members of society’s low-status “outcaste” population, created and maintained dhol traditions over centuries. Exacerbated by a cultural nationalist discourse that downplays ethnic diversity, their subaltern ethnic identities have been rendered invisible. Recognizing their diverse ethnic affiliations, however, is only the first step towards hearing hitherto absent perspectives of individual musicians. As a work of advocacy, this book draws on two decades of ethnography of Indian, Pakistani, and diasporic Punjabi drummers to center their experiences in the story of modern Punjab.Less
In the early twenty-first century, the Punjab region’s traditional drummers, dholis, were experiencing “the toughest time ever.” Concurrently, their instrument, the iconic barrel-drum dhol, was experiencing unprecedented global popularity. This book uncovers why, notwithstanding the emblematic status of dhol for Punjabis, the dholis’ local communities are facing existential crisis. The pursuit of a national identity—which aids in political representation and maintaining historical consciousness during change—has led modern Punjabis to make particular economic, social, and artistic choices. A casualty of this pursuit has been the disenfranchisement of dholis, who do not find representation despite the symbolic import of dhol to that national identity. Through the example of dhol’s subtle appropriation, the book argues that the empowerment gained by bolstering Punjabi identity in the global arena works at the expense of people on Punjabi society’s margins. At its core are the hereditary-professional drummers who, while members of society’s low-status “outcaste” population, created and maintained dhol traditions over centuries. Exacerbated by a cultural nationalist discourse that downplays ethnic diversity, their subaltern ethnic identities have been rendered invisible. Recognizing their diverse ethnic affiliations, however, is only the first step towards hearing hitherto absent perspectives of individual musicians. As a work of advocacy, this book draws on two decades of ethnography of Indian, Pakistani, and diasporic Punjabi drummers to center their experiences in the story of modern Punjab.
Ayana Contreras
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044069
- eISBN:
- 9780252053009
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044069.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Black Chicago in the post–civil rights era was constantly refreshed by an influx of newcomers from the American South via the Great Migration. Chicago was a beacon, disseminating a fresh, powerful ...
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Black Chicago in the post–civil rights era was constantly refreshed by an influx of newcomers from the American South via the Great Migration. Chicago was a beacon, disseminating a fresh, powerful definition of Black identity primarily through music, art, and entrepreneurship and mass media. This book uses ruminations on oft-undervalued found ephemeral materials (like a fan club pamphlet or a creamy-white Curtis Mayfield record) and a variety of in-depth original and archival interviews to unearth tales of the aspiration, will, courage, and imagination born in Black Chicago. It also questions what vestiges of our past we choose to value in this digital age.
These stories serve as homespun folktales of hope to counter darker popular narratives about the South and West Sides of the city. They also express the ongoing quest for identity and self-determination, a quest that fueled the earlier Black Arts Movement, and is again at the heart of the Black Arts renaissance currently blossoming in Black Chicago, from genre-spanning musicians like Chance the Rapper, Noname, the Juju Exchange, and Makaya McCraven, and from visual artists like Theaster Gates and Kerry James Marshall, and up-and-comers like Brandon Breaux. Meanwhile, many of the creative giants of previous generations are struggling (Ebony magazine and the groundbreaking DuSable Museum among them). But this text asserts that energy never dies, and creativity will live on beyond this juncture, regardless of the outcome.Less
Black Chicago in the post–civil rights era was constantly refreshed by an influx of newcomers from the American South via the Great Migration. Chicago was a beacon, disseminating a fresh, powerful definition of Black identity primarily through music, art, and entrepreneurship and mass media. This book uses ruminations on oft-undervalued found ephemeral materials (like a fan club pamphlet or a creamy-white Curtis Mayfield record) and a variety of in-depth original and archival interviews to unearth tales of the aspiration, will, courage, and imagination born in Black Chicago. It also questions what vestiges of our past we choose to value in this digital age.
These stories serve as homespun folktales of hope to counter darker popular narratives about the South and West Sides of the city. They also express the ongoing quest for identity and self-determination, a quest that fueled the earlier Black Arts Movement, and is again at the heart of the Black Arts renaissance currently blossoming in Black Chicago, from genre-spanning musicians like Chance the Rapper, Noname, the Juju Exchange, and Makaya McCraven, and from visual artists like Theaster Gates and Kerry James Marshall, and up-and-comers like Brandon Breaux. Meanwhile, many of the creative giants of previous generations are struggling (Ebony magazine and the groundbreaking DuSable Museum among them). But this text asserts that energy never dies, and creativity will live on beyond this juncture, regardless of the outcome.
Kristine L. Haglund
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252043932
- eISBN:
- 9780252052866
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043932.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Eugene England was that rarest of creatures—a liberal Mormon. He was a believer, deeply rooted in his inherited faith, and he possessed the small-l liberal virtues of openness to new ideas, a ...
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Eugene England was that rarest of creatures—a liberal Mormon. He was a believer, deeply rooted in his inherited faith, and he possessed the small-l liberal virtues of openness to new ideas, a willingness to challenge received wisdom, and confidence in the ethical power of human reason. He found within Mormonism the core of a faith open to modernity in the form of scientific progress, civil rights, an expanded literary canon, and critical approaches to scripture and religious history. This strain of Mormon thought had always existed alongside a more authoritarian and fundamentalist tradition. But it was the charismatic Eugene England who braided together the more liberal strands of Mormon doctrine for a generation of young Mormons and brought them into dialogue with other twentieth-century religious thinkers. His personal essays both celebrated and embodied an important form of Mormon literature. His central intellectual techne, “proving contraries,” and his concepts of paradox and atonement became touchstones for generations of BYU students and amateur scholars of Mormonism. England’s attempts to connect the generous God of his Mormon belief with both the conservative religious culture he grew up in and the liberal academic culture he grew into yielded a body of work—and, more importantly, a life—that sketched a roadmap to what we now recognize as Mormon studies.Less
Eugene England was that rarest of creatures—a liberal Mormon. He was a believer, deeply rooted in his inherited faith, and he possessed the small-l liberal virtues of openness to new ideas, a willingness to challenge received wisdom, and confidence in the ethical power of human reason. He found within Mormonism the core of a faith open to modernity in the form of scientific progress, civil rights, an expanded literary canon, and critical approaches to scripture and religious history. This strain of Mormon thought had always existed alongside a more authoritarian and fundamentalist tradition. But it was the charismatic Eugene England who braided together the more liberal strands of Mormon doctrine for a generation of young Mormons and brought them into dialogue with other twentieth-century religious thinkers. His personal essays both celebrated and embodied an important form of Mormon literature. His central intellectual techne, “proving contraries,” and his concepts of paradox and atonement became touchstones for generations of BYU students and amateur scholars of Mormonism. England’s attempts to connect the generous God of his Mormon belief with both the conservative religious culture he grew up in and the liberal academic culture he grew into yielded a body of work—and, more importantly, a life—that sketched a roadmap to what we now recognize as Mormon studies.
Brooks Blevins
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044052
- eISBN:
- 9780252052996
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044052.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
A History of the Ozarks, Vol. 3: The Ozarkers is the final volume of a trilogy chronicling the history of this middle-American highland region. It picks up the story where volume 2 left off, at the ...
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A History of the Ozarks, Vol. 3: The Ozarkers is the final volume of a trilogy chronicling the history of this middle-American highland region. It picks up the story where volume 2 left off, at the end of the long Civil War era in the late nineteenth century, and carries it into the twenty-first century. Through a period of roughly 130 years, The Ozarkers charts the region’s major socioeconomic developments: the rise and decline of the timber boom, the peaks and valleys of the lead and zinc industries, the growth of commercial agriculture and the demise of the family farm, widespread poverty and massive post-World War II outmigration, the boom in cheap-labor manufacturing, and the emergence of massive corporations (Walmart, Tyson Foods, Bass Pro Shops) that have brought select parts of the region unprecedented levels of affluence and unexpected racial and ethnic diversity. Undergirding The Ozarkers is an analysis of the role that stereotypes of “hillbillies” and mountaineers has played in the evolution of a region and its inhabitants. The book explores this phenomenon through a close examination of the tourism and entertainment industry, from the mineral water spas of the late nineteenth century to the torrid growth of Branson in the late twentieth. Tying this volume to previous ones in the series is the connective thread interpreting the Ozarks as a colorful regional variation of the American story, not the forgotten and backward land apart so long chronicled by folklorists and travel writers.Less
A History of the Ozarks, Vol. 3: The Ozarkers is the final volume of a trilogy chronicling the history of this middle-American highland region. It picks up the story where volume 2 left off, at the end of the long Civil War era in the late nineteenth century, and carries it into the twenty-first century. Through a period of roughly 130 years, The Ozarkers charts the region’s major socioeconomic developments: the rise and decline of the timber boom, the peaks and valleys of the lead and zinc industries, the growth of commercial agriculture and the demise of the family farm, widespread poverty and massive post-World War II outmigration, the boom in cheap-labor manufacturing, and the emergence of massive corporations (Walmart, Tyson Foods, Bass Pro Shops) that have brought select parts of the region unprecedented levels of affluence and unexpected racial and ethnic diversity. Undergirding The Ozarkers is an analysis of the role that stereotypes of “hillbillies” and mountaineers has played in the evolution of a region and its inhabitants. The book explores this phenomenon through a close examination of the tourism and entertainment industry, from the mineral water spas of the late nineteenth century to the torrid growth of Branson in the late twentieth. Tying this volume to previous ones in the series is the connective thread interpreting the Ozarks as a colorful regional variation of the American story, not the forgotten and backward land apart so long chronicled by folklorists and travel writers.
Kathy Roberts Forde and Sid Bedingfield (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044106
- eISBN:
- 9780252053047
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044106.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
After Reconstruction, white publishers and editors used their newspapers to build, nurture, and protect white supremacist political economies and social orders across the South that lasted for ...
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After Reconstruction, white publishers and editors used their newspapers to build, nurture, and protect white supremacist political economies and social orders across the South that lasted for generations. Black journalists fought these regimes as they were being built. The stakes could not have been higher: The future of liberal democracy in the newly restored United States was on the line. Journalism & Jim Crow is the first extended work to examine the foundational role of the press at this critical turning point in U.S. history. It documents the struggle between two different journalisms—a white journalism dedicated to building an anti-Black, anti-democratic America and a Black journalism dedicated to building a multiracial, fully democratic America. The southern white press and its political and business allies carried the day, effectively killing democracy in the South for nearly a century and crafting a racial hierarchy that inflected modern America and endures today. This study of journalism, democracy, and race during a tragic, consequential moment in our nation’s past, as the ideology of the New South spread throughout the country, will help readers think in new ways about two important concerns: the complicated relationship between journalism and power in American democracy and the systems and structures of white supremacy in American life. The unpleasant truth is that journalism in America has often not been devoted to democratic values.Less
After Reconstruction, white publishers and editors used their newspapers to build, nurture, and protect white supremacist political economies and social orders across the South that lasted for generations. Black journalists fought these regimes as they were being built. The stakes could not have been higher: The future of liberal democracy in the newly restored United States was on the line. Journalism & Jim Crow is the first extended work to examine the foundational role of the press at this critical turning point in U.S. history. It documents the struggle between two different journalisms—a white journalism dedicated to building an anti-Black, anti-democratic America and a Black journalism dedicated to building a multiracial, fully democratic America. The southern white press and its political and business allies carried the day, effectively killing democracy in the South for nearly a century and crafting a racial hierarchy that inflected modern America and endures today. This study of journalism, democracy, and race during a tragic, consequential moment in our nation’s past, as the ideology of the New South spread throughout the country, will help readers think in new ways about two important concerns: the complicated relationship between journalism and power in American democracy and the systems and structures of white supremacy in American life. The unpleasant truth is that journalism in America has often not been devoted to democratic values.
Robert M. Marovich
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044113
- eISBN:
- 9780252053054
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044113.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
One evening in September 1963, the Angelic Choir of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, New Jersey, assembled in nearby Newark to record their third live album with gospel music’s rising star, James ...
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One evening in September 1963, the Angelic Choir of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, New Jersey, assembled in nearby Newark to record their third live album with gospel music’s rising star, James Cleveland. Nobody that evening could have predicted the album’s overwhelming popularity. For two years, Peace Be Still and its haunting title track held top positions on gospel radio and record sales charts. The album is reported to have sold as many as 300,000 copies by 1966 and 800,000 copies by the early 1970s—figures normally achieved by pop artists. Nearly sixty years later, the album still sells. Of the thousands of gospel records released in the early 1960s, why did Peace Be Still become the most successful and longest lasting? To answer this question, the book details the careers of the album’s musical architects, the Reverends Lawrence Roberts and James Cleveland. It provides a history of the First Baptist Church and the Angelic Choir, explores the vibrant gospel music community of Newark and the roots of live recordings of gospel, and, most important, assesses the sociopolitical environment in which the album was created. By exploring the album’s sonic and lyrical themes and contextualizing them with comments by participants in the recording session, the book challenges long-held assumptions about the album and offers new interpretations in keeping with the singers’ original intent.Less
One evening in September 1963, the Angelic Choir of the First Baptist Church of Nutley, New Jersey, assembled in nearby Newark to record their third live album with gospel music’s rising star, James Cleveland. Nobody that evening could have predicted the album’s overwhelming popularity. For two years, Peace Be Still and its haunting title track held top positions on gospel radio and record sales charts. The album is reported to have sold as many as 300,000 copies by 1966 and 800,000 copies by the early 1970s—figures normally achieved by pop artists. Nearly sixty years later, the album still sells. Of the thousands of gospel records released in the early 1960s, why did Peace Be Still become the most successful and longest lasting? To answer this question, the book details the careers of the album’s musical architects, the Reverends Lawrence Roberts and James Cleveland. It provides a history of the First Baptist Church and the Angelic Choir, explores the vibrant gospel music community of Newark and the roots of live recordings of gospel, and, most important, assesses the sociopolitical environment in which the album was created. By exploring the album’s sonic and lyrical themes and contextualizing them with comments by participants in the recording session, the book challenges long-held assumptions about the album and offers new interpretations in keeping with the singers’ original intent.
Michael Austin
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044090
- eISBN:
- 9780252053030
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044090.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book reevaluates the influence of Mormon religion and regional culture on the work of Western American novelist Vardis Fisher (1895-1968). Fisher was born and raised in an isolated Southern ...
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This book reevaluates the influence of Mormon religion and regional culture on the work of Western American novelist Vardis Fisher (1895-1968). Fisher was born and raised in an isolated Southern Idaho community established by the Mormons. He was brought up by Mormon parents and educated in Mormon schools. He rejected the Church while a college student and identified as an atheist for most of his life, but he wrote about Mormonism frequently in his work. Vardis Fisher begins with a detailed introduction to Fisher’s life and work and ends with a comprehensive bibliographical essay. Other chapters explore the influence of Mormonism on specific works. Chapter Two examines Fisher’s seven early novels set in the Antelope region of Idaho and argues that they constitute the first significant body of regional literature in the area that demographers have identified as the “Mormon Culture Region.” Chapter Three examines the writing and reception of Children of God, Fisher’s epic 1939 novel of the Mormon migration. Chapter Four explores the Mormon influence on Fisher’s Testament of Man saga, the twelve-volume series of historical novels that Fisher wrote between 1943 and 1960. In each of these chapters, the book identifies and traces aspects of Mormon history, theology, and culture that shape Fisher’s work, concluding that these patterns of influence justify categorizing much of Fisher’s work as “Mormon Literature.”Less
This book reevaluates the influence of Mormon religion and regional culture on the work of Western American novelist Vardis Fisher (1895-1968). Fisher was born and raised in an isolated Southern Idaho community established by the Mormons. He was brought up by Mormon parents and educated in Mormon schools. He rejected the Church while a college student and identified as an atheist for most of his life, but he wrote about Mormonism frequently in his work. Vardis Fisher begins with a detailed introduction to Fisher’s life and work and ends with a comprehensive bibliographical essay. Other chapters explore the influence of Mormonism on specific works. Chapter Two examines Fisher’s seven early novels set in the Antelope region of Idaho and argues that they constitute the first significant body of regional literature in the area that demographers have identified as the “Mormon Culture Region.” Chapter Three examines the writing and reception of Children of God, Fisher’s epic 1939 novel of the Mormon migration. Chapter Four explores the Mormon influence on Fisher’s Testament of Man saga, the twelve-volume series of historical novels that Fisher wrote between 1943 and 1960. In each of these chapters, the book identifies and traces aspects of Mormon history, theology, and culture that shape Fisher’s work, concluding that these patterns of influence justify categorizing much of Fisher’s work as “Mormon Literature.”
Sonia Hernández
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780252044045
- eISBN:
- 9780252052989
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252044045.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
Building upon historic transnational connections between the cosmopolitan port of Tampico, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the Mexican north, and ports of entry across the Atlantic, a network of ...
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Building upon historic transnational connections between the cosmopolitan port of Tampico, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the Mexican north, and ports of entry across the Atlantic, a network of labor activists including women such as Caritina Piña emerged in the early twentieth century to address labor inequities. This book retraces the emergence of this network circulating on the eve of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The early revolutionary period ushered in a wave of anarcho-syndicalist groups privileging organizing via labor unions and other collectives. Organizations such as the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) were among the most progressive of collectives that incorporated women’s issues in their agenda. Its members encouraged women’s participation as compañeras, key to creating a real revolution. Yet, despite such progressive stance, gendered ideas about femininity and masculinity shaped members’ perspectives just as much as they shaped mainstream media outlets casting radical female activists as “women of ill-repute.” Their own understanding of gender and ideas about motherhood shaped women activists too. While anarcho-syndicalism declined as the revolutionary state grew stronger in its co-opting of organized labor, the legacy of women’s activism remained a distinctive feature of the greater Mexican borderlands. Women left an indelible mark on the Tamaulipas-Texas borderlands’ labor history. Such historic and gendered border solidarities, while imperfect, helped to build a foundation for postrevolutionary labor alliances.Less
Building upon historic transnational connections between the cosmopolitan port of Tampico, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the Mexican north, and ports of entry across the Atlantic, a network of labor activists including women such as Caritina Piña emerged in the early twentieth century to address labor inequities. This book retraces the emergence of this network circulating on the eve of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The early revolutionary period ushered in a wave of anarcho-syndicalist groups privileging organizing via labor unions and other collectives. Organizations such as the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) were among the most progressive of collectives that incorporated women’s issues in their agenda. Its members encouraged women’s participation as compañeras, key to creating a real revolution. Yet, despite such progressive stance, gendered ideas about femininity and masculinity shaped members’ perspectives just as much as they shaped mainstream media outlets casting radical female activists as “women of ill-repute.” Their own understanding of gender and ideas about motherhood shaped women activists too. While anarcho-syndicalism declined as the revolutionary state grew stronger in its co-opting of organized labor, the legacy of women’s activism remained a distinctive feature of the greater Mexican borderlands. Women left an indelible mark on the Tamaulipas-Texas borderlands’ labor history. Such historic and gendered border solidarities, while imperfect, helped to build a foundation for postrevolutionary labor alliances.
Fighting Visibility
Film and the Anarchist Imagination
I Died a Million Times
Industrial Strength Bluegrass
The Labor Board Crew
Passing the Baton
Technology and the Historian
When Sunday Comes
Black Queer Freedom
