The deaths of children in detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border have called attention to the ways the U.S. continues to uphold settler colonial borders and policies that criminalize migrants as “illegal” and dehumanize them as unworthy of basic human rights. As Chicana/Latina feminist scholars, the tragic and senseless loss of Indigenous children behoove us to assert our theorizations of the 1900-mile border as a violence on our bodies, tongues, and souls. The manuscripts, creative pieces, book reviews, and visual art in this issue speak to the need to create work that envisions a world where migration across the hemisphere is an uncontested practice and migrants are welcomed, celebrated, and recognized as full human beings. It is a world filled with empowered mujeres who are not only cognizant of the interlocking matrices of colonialism and patriarchy, but who also draw on the legacies of their elders to defy and dismantle these systems of power. In particular, contributors to this issue speak to the importance of passing down generational knowledge, either through food or consejos, creating cultural continuity in the face of anti-immigrant discourses and transnationalism. Order this issue.
Contents
ARTIST STATEMENT
Breaking the Silence
Rompiendo el silencio
Jesmil M. Maldonado Rodríguez
EDITORS’ COMMENTARY
Resisting Settler Colonialism and Patriarchical Violence along the Border
Lilliana P. Saldaña and Sonya M. Alemán
ESSAYS
“I’m Passing Down Her Taste”: Mexicana Care Workers and Kinning through Food
María de la Luz Ibarra
Art, Activism, and Immigration: Chicana Visual Artists Before and Beyond DACA
Michelle Martin-Baron
CREATIVE WRITING
Editor’s Commentary
Blurring Lines: Mixings and Musings Between Academic and Creative Genre
Patricia Marina Trujillo
Excerpt from: The “Rape Your Wife” Privilege
Jessica Ugarte
Pan Tostado
Amanda Ellis
Spoken Word Series: I Was Asked to Introduce Myself
Colegas, ¿bailan conmigo?
Crimson Red Resistencia
(un)belonging
Sonia Medel Borja
IN REVIEW
Coming of Age, Apart, and Back Together: Chicana Girlhood in I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Adrianna Santos
Weaving Theory into Practice: Transformative Ruptures along the Educational Pipeline
Dianey Leal
An Ethnographic Mapping of Young Girls’ Desires and Dreams in Transnational Families
Marina V. Chavez
