Book Celebration with Dr. Michelle Téllez

403 North 6th Avenue,Tucson AZ 85705

06 October, 2021

Description

Michelle Téllez will discuss her new book, Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas: Autonomy in the Spaces of Neoliberal Neglect Presented by EXO Roast Co. and the University of Arizona Press, join us to celebrate Dr. Michelle Téllez's new book, Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas: Autonomy in the Spaces of Neoliberal Neglect. When: Saturday, October 6, 5:30 p.m., at EXO Roast Co., 403 N. 6th Avenue Free event, no registration required. Space is limited. Near Tijuana, Baja California, the autonomous community of Maclovio Rojas demonstrates what is possible for urban place-based political movements. More than a community, Maclovio Rojas is a women-led social movement that works for economic and political autonomy to address issues of health, education, housing, nutrition, and security. Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas tells the story of the community’s struggle to carve out space for survival and thriving in the shadows of the U.S.-Mexico geopolitical border. This ethnography by Michelle Téllez demonstrates the state’s neglect in providing social services and local infrastructure. This neglect exacerbates the structural violence endemic to the border region—a continuation of colonial systems of power on the urban, rural, and racialized poor. Téllez shows that in creating the community of Maclovio Rojas, residents have challenged prescriptive notions of nation and belonging. Through women’s active participation and leadership, a women’s political subjectivity has emerged—Maclovianas. These border women both contest and invoke their citizenship as they struggle to have their land rights recognized, and they transform traditional political roles into that of agency and responsibility. Our author: Michelle Téllez, an assistant professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, writes about transnational community formations, Chicana feminism, and gendered migration. A founding member of the Chicana M(other)work Collective, the Arizona Son Jarocho Collective, and the Binational Arts Residency project, Téllez has a long history in grassroots organizing projects and community-based arts and performance. The University of Arizona Press is the premier publisher of academic, regional, and literary works in the state of Arizona. We disseminate ideas and knowledge of lasting value that enrich understanding, inspire curiosity, and enlighten readers. We advance the University of Arizona’s mission by connecting scholarship and creative expression to readers worldwide.