<p> On September 26, 2014, forty-three teacher students from Ayotzinapa, an indigenous rural area in Guerrero, Mexico, disappeared at the hands of the government in an attempt to silence a civic protest. This crime, representing a legacy of political corruption and impunity, “crossed the border” and became present in the interest of Chicana activists in the United States who displayed their outrage through protests, community organizing, and information shared. The purpose of this thesis is to explore Chicana participation in the Ayotzinapa case to examine how activism directed towards social injustices across borders affects Chicana’s construction of racial/ethnic identity and political consciousness. I argue that Chicanas who engage in activism on behalf of the Ayotzinapa victims represent what Anzaldúa (2015) refers to as “Nepantleras,” using their subjective positions as oppressed women of color to communicate across differences of gender, ethnicity, and geopolitical territories to create social change. To support my claim, I describe responses and interpretations of the case using qualitative data from interviews with three self-identified Chicanas. In my analysis, I draw from Gloria Anzaldúa’s (2015) epistemological theory of “spiritual activism” and Chela Sandoval’s (2000) “differential consciousness” as frameworks to investigate transnational activism between the U.S. and Mexico. The women in this study challenged borderlands across and within geographical territories. First, Chicanas transcended geopolitical territories by engaging in activism in the U.S. that called for a change in Mexico. Second, they unraveled limitations of the self by developing a Chicana consciousness that is more inclusive to the struggles of all oppressed people. Third, they crossed gendered borderlands by responding to a case centered around forty-three male victims. And, lastly, they reshaped intra-ethnic relationships by nurturing national and transnational alliances that fight for all social injustices. This study is an invitation for the reconceptualization of borderlands, where the U.S.-Mexico border territories are understood as transnational, alive, and dynamic spaces with an ample room for reexamining identities through solidarities. </p><p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10841300 |
| Date | 05 September 2018 |
| Creators | Campos Reyes, Regina |
| Publisher | The University of Texas at San Antonio |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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