Abstract
Espinosa analyzes the surprising 2015 day laborer movement in the San Quintín Valley, Baja California, Mexico, and the way the members of Women Defending Women, an organization devoted to defending labor and human rights in the Valley, felt moved to recall their traumatic and/or joyful experiences as migrants, day laborers, students, and political activists. Working with Gisela Espinosa, they build a collective memory that contradicts the mainstream narrative that portrays men and women day laborers as passive, defenseless, or simply a social problem. The women excavate in their memories and discover they are actors with agency and expectations, brimming with emotions, replete with social and political ambitions. Here, memory and political-emotional community intertwine.
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Notes
- 1.
The systematization of their experience is available in Espinosa Damián, Gisela. 2013. Naxihi na xinxe na xihi. Por una vida libre de violencia para las mujeres en el Valle de San Quintín, Baja California. México: UAM, CDI, Naxihi na xinxe na xihi-Mujeres en Defensa de la Mujer.
- 2.
The forthcoming book, Vivir para el surco. Trabajo y derechos en el Valle de San Quintín, coordinated by two members of Naxihi na xinxe na xihi, Esther Ramírez and Amalia Tello, together with Gisela Espinosa (UAM-X), is the end result of this collaborative research.
- 3.
Nine testimonies were given with this idea in mind.
- 4.
My university teaching and related activities require prolonged stays in Mexico City. I need a full day to travel to the San Quintín Valley and another day to return. The distance, time, and cost involved do not allow me to make frequent trips to the region.
- 5.
My partner, Juan Manuel Aurrecoechea, began participating in 2015 as an acompañante and assistant in document research and in technical aspects of the project. Juan Manuel was present during four of the five interviews discussed herein and participated by asking questions, commenting, and becoming involved in the process.
- 6.
UABC, Autonomous University of Baja California.
- 7.
INEA, National Institute for Adult Education.
- 8.
Amalia T. is referring to the Second Continental Meeting of Indigenous Women, held in Mexico City in 1997.
- 9.
Sociedad Mexicana Pro Derechos de la Mujer (Mexican Society for Women’s Rights), a feminist organization that supports women’s projects in the areas of health, decent work conditions, autonomy , justice .
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Interviews
Adilene, September 20, 2016.
Amalia S., September 18, 2015.
Amalia T., September 16, 2015.
Margarita, September 15, 2015.
Patricia, September 14, 2015.
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Espinosa Damián, G. (2018). Women Defending Women: Memories of Women Day Laborers and Emotional Communities. In: Macleod, M., De Marinis, N. (eds) Resisting Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66317-3_9
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