How can the lived experiences of a family living between México and the United States demonstrate the perseverance of comunalidad?

Beginning with an exploration of identity through comunalidad in Oaxaca, author Teresa Figueroa Sánchez delves into the journey of three generations of her family, first in México City, then Santa Marta, California. Examining how her family struggled to live in the borderlands and transterritorial fragmented spaces, this autoethnography addresses the tools used to exercise control among immigrants living in the US and how they were stripped of their historical memory, as well as discussing themes such as agrarian capitalist economies, and Chicana praxis.

Drawing from Jaime M. Luna and decolonial theory to illustrate how comunalidad, borderlands, objectified labor, lived labor, and la facultad enabled a family to resist racial patriarchal domination, this book is ideal reading for students of Latinx Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Ethnic Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and American Studies.

Teresa Figueroa Sánchez PhD is a public intellectual.