A Family’s Endless Journey Between Oaxaca, México, and California
Discover how alternative modernity can be expressed through lived experience from México to the United States.
About The Book
Table of Contents
About The Author
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.
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.
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Abstract
- Table of Contents
- Learning objectives
- Trigger warning
- Introduction
- 1 Through a child’s eyes
- Community praxis
- Marketplace and tianguis
- Cultural sensibilities
- The carnival
- Affection
- Spirituality
- Political awareness
- Teachers Antonio and Héctor
- Conclusion
- Community praxis
- 2 Fragmented borders and places
- Migrant family background
- Fragmented Green Card holders
- Grief and abandonment
- Fear and silence
- Marginal subjectivities
- Surveillance
- “The Mexican problem”
- Neoliberal citizenship
- Tabula rasa
- Wounded bodies
- Porous borders
- Conclusion
- 3 Living labor
- Oaxaqueño farm workers
- Mobile labor
- Healthy bodies
- Wounded body
- Working families
- Brazos pequeños (small arms)
- Caballitos (little horses)
- Stained hands
- Mexican immigrant rancheros
- Deudas (debts)
- Nurturing comunalidad
- Conclusion
- Oaxaqueño farm workers
- 4 Education and la facultad negada
- Developing my facultad
- Rejecting my facultad
- Negating my facultad
- The power of comunalidad
- Conclusion
- Conclusion
- Activities and learning objectives
- Teachers
- Objectives
- Activity one
- Discussion questions
- Activity two
- Discussion questions
- Activity three
- Discussion questions
- Activity four
- Discussion questions
- Afterthoughts
- Glossary of Spanish words
- References
- Index
Teresa Figueroa Sánchez PhD is a public intellectual.
—Tomás Alberto Madrigal, independent scholar. Excerpted from my book review in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 51:1 Spring 2026 © University of California Regents. Used with permission.