For a Just and Better World : Engendering Anarchism in the Mexican Borderlands, 1900-1938

Building upon historic transnational connections between the cosmopolitan port of Tampico, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the Mexican north, and ports of entry across the Atlantic, a network of labor activists including women such as Caritina Piña emerged in the early twentieth century to address labor inequities. This book retraces the emergence of this network circulating on the eve of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The early revolutionary period ushered in a wave of anarcho-syndicalist groups privileging organizing via labor unions and other collectives. Organizations such as the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) were among the most progressive of collectives that incorporated women’s issues in their agenda. Its members encouraged women’s participation as compañeras, key to creating a real revolution. Yet, despite such progressive stance, gendered ideas about femininity and masculinity shaped members’ perspectives just as much as they shaped mainstream media outlets casting radical female activists as “women of ill-repute.” Their own understanding of gender and ideas about motherhood shaped women activists too. While anarcho-syndicalism declined as the revolutionary state grew stronger in its co-opting of organized labor, the legacy of women’s activism remained a distinctive feature of the greater Mexican borderlands. Women left an indelible mark on the Tamaulipas-Texas borderlands’ labor history. Such historic and gendered border solidarities, while imperfect, helped to build a foundation for postrevolutionary labor alliances. Caritina Piña Montalvo personified the vital role played by Mexican women in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. Sonia Hernández tells the story of how Piña and other Mexicanas in the Gulf of Mexico region fought for labor rights both locally and abroad in service to the anarchist ideal of a worldwide community of workers. An international labor broker, Piña never left her native Tamaulipas. Yet she excelled in connecting groups in the United States and Mexico. Her story explains the conditions that led to anarcho-syndicalism's rise as a tool to achieve labor and gender equity. It also reveals how women's ideas and expressions of feminist beliefs informed their experiences as leaders in and members of the labor movement. A vivid look at a radical activist and her times, For a Just and Better World illuminates the lives and work of Mexican women battling for labor rights and gender equality in the early twentieth century. | Cover TItle Copyright Contents List of Ilustrations Acknowledgments A Note on Terminology Abbreviations Used in the Text Timeline Introduction: Reenvisioning Mexican(a) Labor History across Borders 1. The Circulation of Radical Ideologies, Early Transnational Collaboration, and Crafting a Women's Agenda 2. Gendering Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalist Organizations: "Compañeras en la Lucha" and "Women of 3. Feminismos Transfronterizos in Caritina Piña's Labor Network 4. The Language of Motherhood in Radical Labor Activism 5. "Leave the Unions to the Men": Anarchist Expressions and (En)Gendering Political Repression in the Midst of State-Sanctioned Socialism 6. A Last Stand for Anarcho-Feminists in the Post-1920 Period 7. Finding Closure: Legacies of Anarcho-Feminism in the Mexican Borderlands Notes Bibliography Index Back cover |"Sonia Hernández paints a vivid and heroic mural of Mexican labor activists in and around industrial Tampico during the early twentieth century in her latest book, For a Just and Better World: Engendering Anarchism in the Mexican Borderlands, 1900-1938 . . . . A richly woven and important labor study." — Journal of American Ethnic History " For a Just and Better World is a well-written and detail-rich narrative with a robust theoretical framework and creative analysis of a complex world. . . Sonia Hernández provides a much-needed map for readers to find both the women and the engendered anarchism integral in this story of a collective quest for a just and better world." — Southwestern Historical Quarterly "Sonia Hernández's new book is an engaging story that unites a traditional focus on anarchist labor initiatives with a study of the roles that women anarchists played in the gendered and transnational politics stretching from the Gulf of Mexico and northward toward the Mexican-US border from before the Mexican Revolution to the end of the Lázaro Cárdenas era." — Hispanic American Historical Review | Sonia Hernández is an associate professor of history at Texas A&M University and the author of Working Women into the Borderlands . Frontmatter Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments A Note on Terminology Abbreviations in the Text Timeline Introduction: Reenvisioning Mexican(a) Labor History across Borders 1. The Circulation of Radical Ideologies, Early Transnational Collaboration, and Crafting a Women's Agenda Gendering Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalist Organizations “Compañeras en la Lucha” and “Women of Ill-Repute” 3. Feminismos Transfronterizos in Caritina Piña's Labor Network 4. The Language of Motherhood in Radical Labor Activism “Leave the Unions to the Men”: Anarchist Expressions and Engendering Political Repression in the Midst of State-Sanctioned Socialism 6. A Last Stand for Anarcho-Feminists in the Post-1920 Period 7. Finding Closure: Legacies of Anarcho-Feminism in the Mexican Borderlands Notes Bibliography Index Back Matter