Mexicana Roots and Routes : Listening to People, Places, and Pasts

Community voices are often an underrepresented aspect of our historical and cultural knowledge of the U.S. Southwest.

In this collection, established and emerging scholars draw upon their rootedness in the U.S. Southwest and U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The meXicana contributors use personal and scholarly inquiry to discuss what it means to cultivate spaces of belonging, navigate language policies, and explore and excavate silences in various spaces, among other important themes.

From the recruitment of Latinas for the U.S. Benito Juárez Squadron in World War II, to the early twentieth-century development of bilingual education in Arizona, to new and insightful analyses of Bracero Program participants and their families, the book details little-known oral histories and archival material to present a rich account of lives along the border with emphasis on women and the working class.

As the inaugural publication of the Arizona Crossroads series, readers will find Arizona featured as a central node of borderlands roots and routes. Each section of the book intentionally centers Arizona within broader comparative and cross-state dialogues, alongside chapters that reflect regional concerns in other southwestern states, including Texas, California, Colorado, and New Mexico. Throughout, this volume highlights the ways in which personal experience, community building, and scholarly perspectives can provide a powerful space for community voices.

Contributors 
Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez
Lillian Gorman 
Gloria Holguín Cuádraz
Anita Huízar-Hernández
Christine Marin
Valerie A. Martínez 
Alina R. Méndez
Karen R. Roybal
Yvette J. Saavedra
Liliana Toledo-Guzmán
Andrea Tovar

Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez received her PhD in Spanish cultural studies from Arizona State University. She is an assistant vice provost and associate professor of English at Arizona State University.

Anita Huízar-Hernández received her PhD in literature from the University of California, San Diego. She is associate director of the Hispanic Research Center and an associate professor in the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University.