Embodying the Borderlands: The Borderlands Feminisms, Marginalized Knowledges, Borderlands Activisms, and Borderlands Sensibilities of Chicana and Mexicana Activists and Scholar Activists

Abstract

Marginalization of peoples of color within the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands endures. The documentation of the feminisms, knowledges, activisms, and sensibilities of Chicana and Mexicana activists and scholar activists in addressing this marginalization and advancing social and political change within these Borderlands spaces, including academia, is critical. The multiple research questions asked by this study center on how and why Chicana and Mexicana activists and scholar activists develop and express their Borderlands feminisms, knowledges, activisms and sensibilities to overcome oppression and injustices and create meaningful change within contexts of marginalization. By using testimonio methods, 15 Chicana and Mexicana activists and scholar activists were interviewed, via telephone, to provide their detailed testimonios about their expressions and embodiments of these phenomena. Thematic analysis was used to analyze these testimonios, which resulted in the identification and shaping of 26 themes that elucidate the research questions posed above. The key findings reveal that these Borderlands women: 1) develop and express their feminisms by constructing testimonios of survival of marginalization via multigenerational cuentos and by embracing mujeres fuertes as role models, 2) create a feminist consciousness by nurturing and participating in women-centered spaces, 3) develop and express their marginalized knowledges as women’s ways of knowing and knowledges of their homespaces, 4) focus their activisms on a broad range of injusticias, issues and concerns that affect their barrios and communities, and 5) foster and express a Borderlands sensibility by cultivating a deep presence and sense of belonging within these unique Borderlands spaces.