Latina activists across borders

Over the past twenty-five years, non-government organizations (ngos) run by women and devoted to advancing womens well-being have proliferated in Mexico and along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. In this sociological analysis of grassroots activism, Milagros Peña compares womens ngos in two regionsthe state of Michoacn in central Mexico and the border region encompassing El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In both Michoacn and the border region, women have organized to take on a variety of concerns, including domestic violence, the growing number of single women who are heads of households, and exploitive labor conditions. By comparing womens activism in two distinct areas, Peña illuminates their different motivations, alliances, and organizational strategies in relation to local conditions and national and international activist networks. Drawing on interviews with the leaders of more than two dozen womens ngos in Michoacn and El Paso/Juarez, Pea examines the influence of the Catholic church and liberation theology on Latina activism, and she describes how activist affiliations increasingly cross ethnic, racial, and class lines. Womens ngos in Michoacn put an enormous amount of energy into preparations for the 1995 United Nations-sponsored World Conference on Women in Beijing, and they developed extensive activist networks as a result. As Peña demonstrates, activists in El Paso/Juarez were less interested in the Beijing conference; they were intensely focused on issues related to immigration and to the murder and disappearance of scores of women in Juarez. Ultimately, Peñas study highlights the consciousness-raising work done by ngos run by and for Mexican and Mexican American women.