The Chicana Motherwork Anthology

Edited by Cecilia Caballero, Yvette Martínez-Vu, Judith Pérez-Torres, Michelle Téllez, and Christine X Vega; Foreword by Ana Castillo

SERIES: The Feminist Wire Books

The University of Arizona Press

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.

The scholar-activist contributors to this groundbreaking collection challenge gendered, racialized, and classist notions of mothering, and show the power of Mothers of Color to love, exercise their agency, and demonstrate collective resistance.’—C. Alejandra Elenes, Arizona State University

‘This unique volume dismantles the idea of mothering and authentically and unapologetically uncovers Mother of Color experiences in academia. Its call for revolutionary change via ancestral knowledge, self-mothering, and vulnerability makes it unlike anything I have had access to as a Chicana mother and scholar.’—Reyna Anaya

Cecilia Caballero is a PhD candidate in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

Yvette Martínez-Vu is the assistant director of the University of California, Santa Barbara, McNair Scholars Program. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with a PhD in theater and performance studies from University of California, Los Angeles.

Judith Pérez-Torres is an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Fullerton, in the College of Education. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with a PhD in educational leadership and policy from University of Utah.

Michelle Téllez is an assistant professor of Mexican American studies at the University of Arizona. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with a PhD in community studies in education from Claremont Graduate University.Christine Vega is a PhD candidate in the Social Sciences and Comparative Education Division at the University of California, Los Angles.

Foreword by Ana Castillo
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Una Ofrenda para las Madres

Part I. Separation, Migration, State Violence, and Detention
1. Gang-Affiliated Chicana Teen Momma Against Systemic Violence: A Testimonio Challenging Dominant Discourse Through Academic Bravery
Katherine Maldonado
2. Aquí Se Respira Lucha: A Mother-Daughter Herstory of Amor, Dolor, y Resistencia
Gabriela Corona Valencia
3. Coordinates: A Testimonio on Urban Migration, Mothering, and Teaching
Gretel H. Vera-Rosas
4. Fierce Mamas Rising: Navigating the Terrain of Motherhood as Formerly Incarcerated or Convicted Women
Grace Gámez
5. Herstories of Sobrevivencia: Chicanx/Latinx Community College Student-Mothers (Re)claiming and (Re)defining the Educational Pipeline and CalWORKS
Nereida Oliva and Hortencia Jiménez

Part II. Chicana/Latina/Women of Color Mother-Activists
6. Ain’t I a Mama?: A Black Revolutionary Mother in the Women’s Rights Movement
Trina Greene Brown
7. Mothering the Academy: An Intersectional Approach to Deconstruct and Expose the Experiences of Mother-Scholars of Color in Higher Education
Monica Hernández-Johnson, Shahla Fayazpour, Sandra L. Candel, and Ravijot Singh
8. MALA: Mama Academic Liberadora Activista
Victoria Isabel Durán
9. Chicana M/other Alliances: Making Alianzas from Scratch
Cristina Herrera and Larissa M. Mercado-López
10. Madres en Lucha: Forging Motherhood as Political Movement Building Across Borders
Verónica N. Vélez

Part III. Intergenerational Mothering
11. A Chicana Mother-Daughter Spiritual Praxis
Alma Itzé Flores
12. Enseñanzas de Mi Madre: Chicana Mother-Daughter Digital Conexiones
Andrea Garavito Martínez
13. Abrazos de Conocimiento Across the Generations: Chicana Mothering and Daughtering in the Borderlands
Irene Lara
14. Decolonial P’urhépecha Maternalista Feminist Motherwork and Pedagogy
Gabriela Spears-Rico

Part IV. Loss, Reproductive Justice, and Holistic Pregnancy
15. No Gracias por la Lástima: My Chicana Mother of Adoption Truth
Corina Benavides López
16. Birthing Healing Justice: My Journey Through Miscarriage, Healing Conocimientos, and Decolonizing My Womb
Mara Chavez-Diaz
17. Mothers of Color in Academia: Fierce Mothering Challenging Spatial Exclusion Through a Chicana Feminist Praxis
Nora Cisneros, LeighAnna Hidalgo, Christine Vega, and Yvette Martínez-Vu
18. My Forever Sleeping Baby: On Research, Stillbirth, and Remembrance
Rose G. Salseda

Contributors
Index

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