Anarcho-Motherhood, Border Controls, and Resistance in the Greater U.S.–Mexico Borderlands

Abstract

This article centers the labor activism of two Mexican borderland anarchists, Caritina Piña and Felipa Velásquez, who politicized the idea of motherhood from a radical, anti-state, and labor-union centered perspective to speak on behalf of all workers during the 1920s, an era of increased border controls. Through an examination of their lived experiences—which included participation in direct action (strikes, land assaults), written petitions to heads of state on behalf of political prisoners, and news sharing of key labor issues across state and international borders—Piña and Velásquez embodied a countermovement against increased border surveillance that stood as a reminder of how labor activists, too, shaped the contours of border policy from their respective communities.