American Indian Boarding School Final Video

Hey ALL!!!
This my video that I presented today in class that I am VERY proud of. It is about American Indian Boarding Schools. While researching the subject I kept running into these pictures and I have always been under the impression that "a picture is worth 1000 words" and that was not the case with these pictures. The people in them seemed very silent, and repressed. It was not my intention to give them voices, but I wanted to help to give them something through the voices of survivors. I used quotes from Laura Tohe who is (Navajo(Dine)), Eva Tulene Watt (White Mountain Apache) & Tim Giago (Lakota). So with that...I hope you enjoy!!!!

Thanksgiving Collage

 

Hey all this the collage that I created that relates to my project I have been working on during the semester. My project was exploring Indian Boarding Schools. While I googled things like "Indian boarding schools," "Native American Assimilation" etc. I found many of the pictures which helped me to make the point of what Thanksgiving really means. I found the picture of the Native American and the white man shaking hands with the saying "Thanksgiving is a time to remember all that we have....And the genocide that it took to get it". I placed this in the middle of my collage and surrounded the picture with images I found online of the children going to boarding school and their assimilation process from start to finish with the small photo of a woman named Woxie in "traditional" western wedding clothing. It shows what was left behind during the process. I used a program calle Picasa to put this all together... Hope you all enjoy!!!


Charla

Strong Women Stories Chapter 9

This chapter titled “Two-Spirited Women Artists and Social Change” by Nancy Cooper speaks about two spirited women or native lesbians who are using art as their way to make change in their communities. Cooper says that “art has always been a vehicle for political changes, and artists have often been the first ones brave enough to hold a mirror up to a community or a society and bring to the fore issues such as racism, the effects of colonialism, classism, and homophobia”(135). Although these women are not well known their art has and impact beyond the Native American community. These women are moving to change their place in the world and get people to realize there are Native American lesbian poets/artists and I really like the fact they are reaching people thanks to their art and a good way too. I wish the chapter was longer to know more about them and see more samples of their work.

Dissident Women Chapter 5

This chapter titled “Indgenous Women’s Activism in Oaxaca and Chipas” by Lynn M. Stephen explores the complexity for indigenous women’s struggles where they are trying to gain access, power, and leadership roles in their own communities, but they are still faced with their own home life of “traditional” values which says that these women are not entitiled to such rights. These women are moving to change these gender roles by contributing to the Zapatista movement. Stephen argues that in order for these women to obtain some of the power that they are looking for there has to be
“…a combination of women’s local, ethnic-based skills and leadership knowledge and their experience in new forms of local and regional organizational permits them to broaden their participation in local politics and create more egalitarian gender relations of power” (158).
A piece that I thought was very interesting was an original ejido law which was unchanged until 1971 only let women to use their rights if they were “…mothers or widows maintaining their families. Single men over twenty-one or younger who lacked guardians could be given land, but women could not” (159). I felt this was interesting because it’s another way for the government to oppress women’s rights. I could only imagine if this law never existed of how many women would actually have been able to acquire land. I think it should be changed anyway because many women do work as if they were single mothers although they are married because they do so much for the family inside and outside of the home. But change is coming for these women because “traditional” roles are being challenged thanks to women organizing and trying to work along side the men by producing free-trade coffee. It’s a long road but these women are trying their hardest to find a niche in these roles and change them from the inside out.

Everyday Is A Good Day Chapter 5

This chapter is about “Womanhood” and what being a woman to indigenous women means. Wilma Mankiller believes that most of the women “speak of their womanhood within the context of the family, community, and nation” (95). For these women it is important for them to define what is to be a woman themselves and do not ask not want any other person to define the moment for when they became a woman. Some of the people may never understand what its and also the “complexity of relationships” because the women are still fighting for gender equality against men whose “values [have been] systematically destroyed by a society” (97). Wilma Mankiller in this chapter speaks greatly of the women her life which introduced her into being a woman but the stories they told or by their actions. Some of my favorite quotes are listed below:
• “Western Shoshone women are taught that a woman is like the Earth: she gives and nurtures life” (103). – Mary & Carrie Dann
• “Indigenous women are going to have to fight for the rights of the Earth” (103) - Mary & Carrie Dann

These quotes from the two sisters says that just like mother Earth indigenous women who are connected to the earth and the land must feel like the personification of mother earth because they not very respected and are seen to give life to others without little or not appreciation, respect, or dedication from those that she takes care of.

• “The role of the woman is very complex and important. Many women have begun to lose a sense of self-esteem, of their importance to the human race and to this Earth” (104)- Audrey Shenandoah
• “Our identity as Indian women is very grounded in the land. We can’t separate ourselves from that” (106) –Gail Small
• “Gender equity is an integral component of traditional Yaqui culture” (107)- Octaviana Valenzuela Trujillio
• “My personal identity as a woman and a human is very tied to my people” (108)- Octaviana Valenzuela Trujillio
• “We are teachers, healers, storytellers, peacemakers, problem solvers, and visionaries” (117)- Rosalie Little Thunder

Don't Let The Sun Step Over You Chapters 10-12

In chapter 10 she speaks about the cities/areas around Cibecue and say that they actually ventured away from their house, however not off the reservation very often. However for this post I want to focus more on chapters 11 and 12.
In chapter 11 Tulene Watt speaks of her journey to live in Spokane for 2 years. I love to hear that story because it brings closer connection for me because it’s a “close to home” story. She speaks of going to help out the woman with her child in Spokane and in the end finds her husband. I wonder what would have happened if the woman Barbara Miller whose child she was taking care of hadn’t fought for Eva to come how different would her life be? Also in chapter 11 you see her finally traveling away from home although this was in the section of book “Leaving Home Was Hard”. She was able to see the world (or part of it) beyond her life with her family. I wonder if deep down she ever felt this was the wrong decision to leave and explore because it changed her life so dramatically in such a short amount of time.
In chapter 12 Tulene Watt speaks of her finally going back home after he husband was discharged medically from the air force. There was a lot of death in her family & her children were having trouble with school. Tulene Watt says about her mothers last moment “…she had a picture of Jesus on the wall above her bed. She went like this every times he looked at it [she extended her arm and pointed to the picture with her hand]. “Some day,” she said, “he’s gonna help me out. He’s gonna hold my hand one day” (284). I think what she remembers from her mother is big deal and I would see that would have affected her greatly from that moment on.

No Parole Today

This last section of No Parole Today chronicles Linda Tohe’s life after the Indian boarding schools, and her moving into going to college. This section is called No Parole Today. Based on the free verse poems and the short stories, it seems like although she and her classmates had “made parole” and were free from the lives at the boarding schools, they were still systematically, internally, and emotionally in jail but not physically jailed. They still remained effected individuals and lots of trouble followed them in a world not prepared for them and a world that did not want them. Tohe speaks about “Sarah T’s husband shot her at the Tohatchi Laundomat” or of hearing of the death of a friend in a small obscure section of a newspaper. It seems that the life that she speaks of after the boarding schools was very sad, dark, and not the least bit uplifting. I wonder why she decided to do that? Did she want to show the reader of her work true reality rather than “feel-good stories”?

In this Chapter Eva Tulene Watt speaks about how health and well-being was taken care of without the use of modern conveniences and going to the doctor’s office for simple aches and pains and the sniffles. Probably the most interesting section of the chapter was the anecdotal that people gave pregnant women in order to keep them safe. Most modern medicine has a lists of Don’ts for pregnancy such as:
• Don’t smoke, do drugs, or drink alcohol
• Don’t eat sushi or raw fish
• Don’t scoop cat liter
• Don’t sit in a hot tub

For the women living around Watt women were told:
• Don’t eat intestines because it will cause the baby to have a long umbilical cord
• Don’t sit around all day and do get up early because if you don’t the baby’s head will be big and flat
• Don’t look at non-human things
• Don’t eat rabbits because your baby will have a split lip
• Don’t look at pictures of monkeys-if you do then your baby’s face will deform
• Don’t go to a dance when you are pregnant

Obviously some of these things are common knowledge to those who receive modern medicine to be untrue. But I think these were guidelines that were to be respected like our own. These people take care of their own selves and usually most of their remedies worked and were respected that why I believe these rules were adhered to by pregnant women and luckily there were coincidences which helped to prove these rules as true.

Women & Change Chapter 4

This chapter titled “Abortion in a Transborder Context” by Norma Ojeda speaks about the issue of abortion for women who live on the U.S.-Mexico border and how they may or may not have reproductive health options. In Mexico abortion is illegal; so many women who may need to have an abortion because they feel this is not the right time in their lives cannot do so in a safe and clean facility. Mexican government only gives 3 exceptions to this law. Women cannot be in trouble or can have an abortion if they had negligent conduct while pregnant, if the pregnancy is the result of a rape or artificial insemination carried out against the woman’s will, or if a therapeutic abortion, where in the option of the attending physician the pregnant woman’s life is in danger unless an abortion is preformed. However, some women (if not most) do not fit this criterion which makes them eligible to either have their child, go the U.S. for an abortion, or have an abortion “in clandestine establishments” which the health department has no idea exists to have an illegal abortion. It is said that the “…Mexican women who wish to have abortion see the border as a space of opportunity to cross over to the other country where they are allowed to decide whether to have an abortion” (57).
I thought that it was interesting that for women seeking abortion or who had an abortion there were many facts such as the age of abortion, age of pregnancy, view and feelings about abortion, motives for abortion and post-abortion. The figure of 53% was given which represents the number of non-Hispanic women who had an abortion before the age of 20, which compared to 49% of Hispanic women who could speak English. I think these high number says how much American culture can affect women who live in these border communities. Another important fact which I extracted from the text that some of the women’s feeling about abortion we that many felt it was a solution to their problem, that it was her right to choose if she wanted to have a baby or not, and some did feel sad or guilty which I feel is very normal. However, I felt it surprised me that many of these women saw it as a solution to a problem. I wonder what kind of problem this could be. Did some not want to be tied to children’s father, could it be the threat of domestic violence, or the lack of finances to take care of a child? What do these feeling say about these women who were thought to not be able to express their own thoughts and feelings because it is a patriarchal society. Just a few thoughts.

Strong Women Stories Ch. 7 & 8

In chapter seven titled “She no Speaks and Other Colonial Constructs of ‘The Traditional Woman’” by Dawn Martin-Hill speaks of the challenges native and indigenous women face such as physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuses women face in their communities and how traditional values and beliefs push them to assume traditional roles and remain silent to these abuses. There was a story the author recalled where a woman’s daughter was raped and the woman wanted to go the authorities so the man could be punished. However, she was “approached by the local Peacekeepers and told not to go to the police” (107). These women who are in situations like this are faced with a sort of catch-22 or a double-edged sword. These women automatically want to go to the authorities and have the person punished and this shows were western thought/protocol has been embedded and influences their culture. The Peacekeepers want to teacher the perpetrator rather than punish and that doesn’t seem to be enough. For the women who know that it isn’t enough they are forced to keep silent (She No Speaks) or be seen in their communities as “Villianous Women” who are there to meddle, manipulate others, and are immoral beings. It becomes a hard for these women and now I see why so many of those traditional roles of native/indigenous women are seen even in Hollywood to be docile and silent. My question is can we recover and re-define these roles? Can tradition be slightly modified and women find their own rights within respects to their communities? Just a few thoughts.

Chapter 8 was titled “Approaching the Fourth Mountain: Native Women and The Ageing Process” by Bonita Lawrence captures the lives of native women and the changes in which they endure from going through the ageing process. I think for many of these women it is hard to negotiate what they feel. These women may feel like they are in their 30’s on the inside but are in fact older. Lawrence says that “we enter our forties are carrying massive burdens. Responsibilities for children, families and communities…” (123).
Possibly the most interesting section in this chapter to me was the chapter about older women and their sexuality. These women are finding as they get older they have less of a desire for sex and they say “ I still have a mouth down there, you know, and it wants to be fed….but you can’t live on sausage all your life” (124). Lawrence says that for women their denial of men sexually is a type of power because these women do not seek to be whole or completed through men sexually. They find completeness in themselves whilst the men go and find younger women to complete themselves sexually. I think many women feel like that and the feeling is beyond communities and ethnic groups.

Women & Change Chapter 7

Chapter seven titled “Domestic Service and International Networks of Caring Labor” by Doreen J. Mattingly has in-depth interviews from both domestic workers and their employees from San Diego, California where two very important issues are looked at. The first issue looks at the relationship between “social reproduction and women’s migration” (104). This is the further look and critical analysis of how these lower income women migrate to wealthy nations that have demands for these women service workers. The second issue examines the “complex connections” or gender, race/ethnicity, and nationality and how it shapes and is shaped by the institution of domestic servitude.
The general profile of the women and families that seek to employ these domestic workers are usually families that are of a high income, have been to college and/or received a college degree and they employ mostly women to do cooking, cleaning, but sometimes these duties extend further to taking care of the children and posing as nannies. Most of the women interviewed placed an emphasis on time. They don’t have time to do this and that or that employing women for these jobs helps them to save time. However in previous chapters we learned about women’s mobility so I wonder do these families ever think about what it takes for these migrant women to get these jobs locations which I can only imagine is a far distance.
In the section of chapter Immigration, Domestic Work, and Inequality hold description of how these domestic workers and their employers balance their own personal family lives. I thought it was interesting when it is said that most of the employers rely on the migrant and poor, low income women for childcare and the women who are domestic workers rely on relatives that are “poorly paid labor”. Mattingly suggests that these childcare strategies are both connected however, they are interdependent also. It is said that “they strategies these two groups of women use to access additional caring labor also construct and reinforce difference, as evidenced by the way different responsibilities and resources of young women in the two groups of households “ (120). I think that these women may feel that they are totally different however they share some of the same complications of being women who work. Although their experiences may be different, incomes/wages, and living arrangements they should realize how similar they are. I wonder if they even do.

Women & Change Chapter 9 & 10

Chapter nine titles of “Styles, Strategies, and Issues of Women Leader at the Border” by Irasema Coronado places its focus upon the types of activist roles that women have played that live or work along Mexico’s northern border, also Coronado explores the reasoning/motivation for women to become activists in their communities by three reason such as their personal function within government and political structure, the creation of civil associations and their ability to work independently.
For these women who are activists it is said that they become activists because of “…pain, anger, and fear” which as been the driving force to them. There are different kinds of motivations for activism. Pain, anger, and fear based activism, need based activism, spiritual/religious, work based, and outsourced workers are some and have been motivations for these women in certain situations. I thought that is was interesting that socio-economic status says how much these women can do as activists. For some of the women who are middle-class they are able to do more such as have their own transportation to go places, and have access to the telephone and computer/internet access. Women who are lower income have to depend on public transportation which increases the time for their daily mobility, and these women also rely on public places like internet cafes to check their internet, and pay phones to make phone calls. For women who are considered wealthy they have “their own private resources to finance and create their own AC’s because they have the financial resources and also are able to garner more resources to create an infrastructure for services delivery” (156).
The point was brought up that class difference is almost a determining factor for how activists interact with each other. It seems that this may give the idea that because of class difference these women do not ever really interact with each other. Also, these women are all fighting different battles. There is no way that women who are wealthy are fighting for the same rights as women who are lower income. However, they may fight for right that are similar like the whole patriarchal control. What do you think that these women are fighting for? Do you believe that it is the same thing?

Chapter ten was titled “Border Women’s NGO’s and Politcal Participation in Baja California” by Silvia Lopez Estrada which gives the reader a critical review of women and their political participation within the non-governmental organizations (NGO’S). For these women they are in NGO’s they are looking for a social change in their own area, they consider themselves to be advocates, but for most in these groups the main item on the agenda seems to be about women taking hold of their reproductive health and domestic violence. The question seems to be for these women in NGO’s is how effective are their efforts? What kind of problems do they run into? It seems that this chapter portrays these women as being the ones who make serious change but I know that change doesn’t come overnight so how long and how much effort do these women have to make in order for change to happen? Just a few thoughts

Dissident Women Chapter 2

This chapter titles “Indigenous Women and Zapatismo: New Horizons of Visibility” by Margara Millan Moncayo speaks about the ways in which these activist women have wanted to change their perception as women in Mexican society by changing “gender relations” through their three horizons of visibility. The first horizon of visibility is women first placing themselves into these activists groups such as the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army), OCEZ (Emiliano Zapata Pesant Organizacion Campesina), CNPA (Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala), or CIOAC (Independent Confederation of Agricultural Workers and Peasants). These organizations were a presence of women who were fighting gendering issues such as “reproductive health, civil rights, and humans rights”(78) as well as providing “support for communities and women’s organization with a genders perspective” (78).
The second horizon of visibility is the insurgentas. These are women who have taken control and have tried to re-define gender in their own way, rather than that of what tradition calls for. These are the women who joined the militia as young women. Because they are apart of a group that chooses to look at gender differently than tradition dictates, they “begin to look different to their counterparts who have remained in the communities. They are women of eighteen or twenty who have not had multiple births, have eaten well, and speak Spanish. They speak with confidence” (83).
The last horizon of visibility is gender negotiations at the community level in the Zapatista context. This women would do gender negotiations and try to make changes in their own communities. They would negotiation marriage where they wanted their own “rights” to choose whom and when they will marry. These young women are a new generation of women who are looking to gain change, not just talk about it. Another part about gender negotiations is the role of domestic violence. Rather than men just physically abusing their wives a if a situation of violence should occur, “it is taken before the community institution, like any other conflict, and a punishment is meted out” (91). I think the involvement of community show that everyone should be working together and also it helps to protect the women from dangerous situations, and lastly provides an alternative than being abused and told to shut up about it.
The last key part of the visibility of gender negotiation is women rights. These are the right to more economic opportunities and resources, the right to choose whom they will marry and when they will marry, the issue of inheriting land. These women are finally able to have the rights in which they want. It is exciting to read about these women who went against the gain and challenged what they grew up with. These women proved to be fearless and expected change. I think just the story of these women if very empowering and makes me turn to myself asking what can I change in my own life and personal & societal expectations.

Strong Women Stories Chapter 3

In this chapter titled “From the Stories That Women Tell: The Metis Women’s Circle” by Carole Leclair & Lynn Nicholson with Metis Elder Elize Hartley speaking of the time spent by Metis women and how they come together as a community of women to their stories to each other. The Metis Women’s Circle was started In 1995 by Metis women because they felt there was a need to get together and share stories and share spirituality by both Metis women and those who are of mixed-blood. This circle becomes a place where all these women can negotiate their own life paths, speak of who they feel they are in terms of identity and “create positive meanings”. I think for the women this a type of therapy were only people with similar stories and background, views of identity and spirituality can really help you understand your own personal place in the world. Also I think for the women who are of mixed heritage this becomes the way that they can become closer to the culture that they are possibly denied or even unaware of. It is said that “…Of course there is confusion over the definition of who is/isn’t Metis. We recognize this confusion as an element of historically genocidal colonial practices” (59). I wish that there was a way for all minority people who have lost their history and ancestry to re-claim in such a way that it is able to live through stories. Just a few thoughts.

No Parole Today p. 18-30

In this section of No Parole Today, it seems to capture that essence of her Laura Tohe’s childhood while at the Indian Boarding School where she leaves that naïveté of her childhood and moves into being a “teenager” also it recounts her first love, loosing that first love, and rebelling like most teenagers do. I think her story about blowing the smoke in her face sounds like a regular teenager when they get tired of being “good” and want to become more rebellious. She speaks of the girls calling her wishbone to which she says “At least it’s not as bad as the names the school has labeled me, troublemaker, incorrigible, dumb Indian…” (26). I can see why she started to act out. It seems that if they are going to label you as a person who acts out and who is dumb, then you might as well give them what they expect than busting your behind to assimilate or be what they want because really all you are ever going to be to them IS a dumb Indian. Thoe says ‘its their way of shaming you, their way of taking control of you. They want you to know who’s in charge, who’s the authority. Like making soap flakes, they chip at you one flake at a time until your parts are laying in a bucket” (26). I think this is very powerful in itself because that is what the boarding schools are for. They take these children and make them into something else when really they are the still the same product but just in a different form. I think these opens an interesting facet to her story. Just a few thoughts.

Women & Change Chapter 8

This chapter titled “Mexican Women’s Activism in New Mexico Colonias” by Rebecca Dolhinow accounted for the project of interviews that she did in Colonias along the border of New Mexico. The communities were Los Montes, Recuerdos and Valle de Vacas. In this chapter probably the most interesting topic was of gender roles in the households of Colonias. These women speak of how men are only there for protection, discipline, to financially provide for the family and that is it. If he chooses to do anything else when he comes home for work, that is up to him and is “recreational”. For the women who want to be activists there are challenges and struggles that come along due to gender relations in the home. It because of their specific roles in the home, women are supposed to be the ones who take care of the home and the children. The role of women is to take care of everything else so if she doesn’t everything can fall apart. It is said that “mothers make sure their families are fed and dressed and ready for another day” (132). I think that this ideology goes beyond the Colonia communities, but also can even be seen in American culture. Men traditionally known as the breadwinners, and even some couples adhere to those 1950’s traditional views were the husband brings home the bacon, and the wife waits for him to bring it home so that she can cook it and hand him a beer after his long day. Yes there are “Mr. Mom’s” the men who are stay-at-home dad’s but those are not really chosen situations. These situations may come up when a father is laid off, or the mother may make more money the husband. I am saying that fathers could choose to do so, but it not often times the case. I wonder when as a global society we will break from this typical family structuring (minus alternative families of single parents, same-sex partnerships etc.)

Don't Let the Sun Step Over You Chapters 7 & 8

In this two chapters, Eva Tulene Watt wrote in chapter seven about her life in Chediskai and in chapter eight when her family raised horses and their daily lives there in Chediskai. Watt said that there were six families who lived in the area, but “they didn’t stay there like we did” (164). Many of the families were in and out of the area because of some getting killed, or families not moving to the area until harvest time came around, or families who only came for the summer. She remembers that even though her family was a permanent fixture to their area, her families and the other families always worked together and shared things and created their own kind of community.
Watt speaks about the salt bank that her family would use as a resource to get salt for cooking and foods. There were two white men who came to the salt banks in 1932 or 1933 and they ended up exploding the bank/cave which destroyed it. She says that “now its all down on the ground. It’s all chopped up. They used powder-dynamite-to destroy it. I don’t know why they did that. I don’t know what they are looking for” (173). It sad that the only white people that they ever saw came to their community destroyed a vital resource. I just want to prose the question for people to ponder such as why was it vital or why do you think she remembers so much about this being that she was just a child? Do you think that this was the “talk of the town” which caused a lot of uproar and unrest to those living in the community?
In chapter eight Watt speaks about when her family was raising horses. Her family would use these horses for everything. Not only would they raise them, but they would the hair to make rope and soap, and also they would eat horse meat and then used the hides to make bags. I really liked her story about raising the orphaned horse that was rejected by the others for some reason. I feel like that story may have spoken about other people in her community or people that she herself has encountered. They took care of that horse when it needed the help. That just speaks about the kind of people that they are. Just a few thoughts

Dissiden Women Chapter 8

In this chapter titled “A consideration of the Daily Life of Zapatista Women” by Violeta Zylberberg Panebianco, spoke about the Zapatista National Liberation Army (ELZN) and the daily lives of women who do participate in the group as well as their participation within the group. The Zapatista movement was looking for eliminate gender inequality in the workplace for these women although that would be a mountain to conquer in itself. It is said that “…women participate within the EZLN at all levels”, (222) some of the women are apart of organizing communities and region, some live in military camps in the mountains, and other who live in their communities but have had some military training, and lastly other are apart of the support base. Zylberberg Panebianco focuses directly on the women who form the support bases because “…little is know about the women who form the Zapatista support bases, about their daily struggle to survive under the low-intensity warder that besieges their communities, to transform the “traditions” that regulate their lives” (223).
Part of these women’s daily lives included them become displaced by the Mexican Army and their families ended up fleeing to the mountains. Once the army arrived “all their belongings had been destroyed, their animals had been stolen or killed to feed the soldiers, and the corn and beans from the year’s harvest were scattered on the ground, mixed with the soldiers’ feces and urine” (225). This sounded like the militaries own way to make sure that nothing came back, almost like burning the fields. These women deal with a military presence everywhere they turn. I wonder why they go after the women who work as the support base. These women are always being watched and “…the presence of federal troops has altered how the people go about their daily activities” (225), so I can only imagine how the army being around had made the mobility of these women harder because they have to walk farther to collect firewood and water.
Zylberberg Panebianco also talk about the Zapatista uprising and how men are helping women more with domestic tasks. On individual said that “If I finish early with my work, I can help, Women have a lot of work, and there are things we can help with” (230). One of the men said that he would help to grind corn, but not make tortillas. I think that even though the men do want to help they are still trying to hang on to traditional values, but it is nice that they would grind the corn or shuck the corn, or feed the pigs because that decreases the amount of work which the men will do. I can only imagine that this could possibly change over time where men would do more, but you cannot expect men to be in the kitchens with aprons tomorrow taking care of the home and children. This type of change will not be immediate. I think although the Zapatistas had a movement, the women who are in the support base position their lives have changed much, but the Zapatista movement as a whole did change how people looked at indigenous women. They weren’t women who couldn’t, but they became women who can and did make change if not in the communities, but their homes.
Di

Women & Change p. 36-52

In this chapter titled “Women’s Daily Mobility at the U.S.-Mexico Border” by Ellen R. Hansen speaks about how mobility (getting around) for the women is effected, and how “…women’s mobility illustrates gender roles and relations”(36). For the women to travel between Douglas, Arizona & Auga Prieta, Sonora, Mexico for work their daily mobility was effected vastly by the attacks at the world trade center on September 11, 2001. I honestly never even really thought about how anyone was affected by September 11th other than Americans. I understand that goes with nationality and being unaware, but I honestly never really considered it. Because the U.S.-Mexico border is so unpredictable and can be opened and closed over time, September 11th caused harsher security measures where people were being watched and inspected and it increased the time in which these women spent going over the border to work. For many of the women their days are so specifically planned on when they leave home, coordinating with their childcare providers, transportation, grocery shopping, etc.
Transportation out of all of the women’s day it probably the most important key to their mobility. However transportation is gendered as well. There was a story of one woman who would coordinate dropping off various family members with their families’ only vehicle to her own work schedule. There was a woman where she and her husband would do a lot of driving and trading off driving throughout the day, but whenever she and her husband were together in the car he would always drive. This part of the gendered aspect speaks volumes of how these couples may be modern or the new generation, but yet many traditional values/roles still present themselves in small situations.
The last piece about transportation that was brought up that was very interesting the in Auga Prieta there is a public transportation system that is reliable although it is considered unreliable so most women choose to walk. Compared to the public transportation system in Douglas, Arizona that does not exist although the roads are modern and paved and the roads in Auga Prieta are not. It is interesting that here in the United States that there is no transportation system where you would that there would be one. I wonder if one has not been developed for a reason. Is the government and local officials trying to make a way where it would be harder of these Mexican and Indigenous women to get to work? This sounds like a nationality based discrimination to decreased mobility. Just a few thoughts.

Women and Change Pg. 19-35

This chapter of Women and Change titled “The Unsettling, Gendered Consequences of Migration for Mexican Indigenous Women” by Elizabeth Maier speaks about how the traditionally gendered roles have been dramatically changed thanks to women entering the workforce/who have been working. In recent years since more and more women have been going to work, more and more families are moving away from patriarchal control, and through these changes women are finding empowerment, entitlement, and citizenship.
Migration which is often times hard creates a new type of network of these migrant workers who move to communities along the U.S.-Mexico Boarder. It is said that “migrant networks ease adaptation in unknown socioeconomic and cultural environments. They are cultural support systems wrapped around gender-based social diversions that orient recent arrivals as to how to satisfy basic needs, administer natural resources, and find employment, or contact coyotes for crossing the boarder” (23). This sounds like a self-serving kind of network where people who do migrate to different areas and would not otherwise know anyone or anything, it is set up for people to acquire what they may need without having to go to the government for it, or worse, starve. This kind of networking is not only just amongst migrant workers, but it is gendered.
The gendered networking helps the “new” and “progressive” women who are working with a different set of necessities than those created for migrant workers. These women not only have to worry about basic needs, or finding jobs, but they have their families to worry about. These women have created networks where solidarity is created first. Other women understand and sympathize with each other and understand although they may work and feel like “modern” women, they still have to care of their families, the home, etc.
For these women this gendered work can be helped in some ways and hindered in others. One woman recounted how she always asks her sons to help her out with house work by cleaning their rooms or making their beds, however they don’t which adds to the work that she has to do in the home after putting a full day outside of the home. I quickly scribbled as a side note asking the question if machismo will ever change as new generations come in that have been used to home where gendered roles are much more progressive? Really I want to know will these sons ever get off their lazy behinds and help their mothers.
Secondly, for the women who are doing gendered roles, it is lucky for those who can get their hands on modern convinces like cars or dishwashers, refrigerators, etc. because the workload is cut into half. I could see that possibly happening because it is said that gender is ever changing thanks to relocation, generation differences, but it takes time. It is said that
“…gender is particularly prone to readjustments and rearrangement. Newfound niches of female socioeconomic activity, together with the evolving demise of arranged marriages, second-generation access to sexual education and family planning, bilingual and trilingual proficiency, increased schooling for girls, and the emergence of some women professionals all suggest an ongoing blurring of the strict sexual divisions of hometown community life” (27).
In these women is an increased sense of entitlement. What kind of entitlement is the first question that came to my head. These younger women who work as maquiladoras are a new generation and “they have a better understanding of mestiza culture, exhibit greater participation in intercultural institutions, and display more complexity and determination in the formulation of chains” (30). These women understand where they still need to respect their culture and cultural expectations however, they have found that place where they are able to negotiate what they want, who they want to be and still have that respect for culture. These women are educated, they decide when they marry, but still be able to honor traditional values as much as possible without conflicting too much with their new set of traditions and values.