Feminist Community Building in Ciudad Juárez

Abstract

Globalization and violence against women and children are processes of dehumanization and manifestations of alienation. Casa Amiga, a feminist organization in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, is creating a local alternative to globalization through working to restore a sense of empowerment and multidimensional humanity—through community building. The small-scale “culture of solidarity” that Casa Amiga is constructing is in direct opposition to the narrow rules underpinning neoliberal globalization. Through the techniques of feminist therapy and consciousness-raising workshops, the members of Casa Amiga are constructing a culture based on sharing, reciprocity, responsibility, accountability, and mutual obligation. It seeks thus to enhance the welfare of all and thereby fulfill one of the broken promises of neoliberal globalization. The subtle resistance offered by Casa Amiga plays several crucial roles within new social movements that spectacular forms of resistance do not: (1) it is sustainable in the long term, (2) it tends to be far less alienating and can invite broad alliances, and (3) it tends not to occasion the kind of brutal, state-sponsored repression that squelches popular movements.