Las Obreras: Chicana Politics of Work and Family, edited by Vicki L. Ruiz

Now in its second printing!

© 2000 Paper: $19.95. 320 pp. ISBN number: 0-89551-094-4.

The fifteen essays collected here make up the revised edition of the best-selling volume 20 of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, a volume that has continued to be in strong demand in classrooms after almost a decade. With a revised introduction and four new essays, this book is at once a proven resource and a new guide toward an interdisciplinary understanding of the memory, voice, and lived experiences of Chicanas in the family and the workplace. By listening carefully to these voices, the leading Chicana scholars in this volume both engage a complex dynamics of power, public space, and social change and help redefine Chicana and Chicano studies as we enter the twenty-first century.

Vicki L. Ruiz is Professor of History and Chicana/Chicano Studies and Chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at Arizona State University. She is the author of Cannery Women, Cannery Lives (1987) and From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth Century America (1998), which was named a 1998 Choice Outstanding Academic Book. She currently serves on the National Council of the American Historical Association and the Executive Committee and National Council of the American Studies Association.

Review of the volume

Bilingual Press Review

"A reprint of the Aztlán volume 20, about Chicana politics. Offers an insightful new guide to memory, voice, and lived experiences of Chicanas in the family and the workplace. Updated with four new essays and an introduction."

Contents

Introduction
Las obreras: The Politics of Work and Family
Vicki L. Ruiz

Part I. Confronting the State

Chapter 1
Claiming Public Space at Work, Church, and Neighborhood
Vicki L. Ruiz

Chapter 2
"She has served others in more intimate ways": The Domestic Service Reform in Yucatán 1915-1918
Emma Pérez

Chapter 3
Women Sterilized as They Give Birth: Forced Sterilization and Chicana Resistance
in the 1970s
Virginia Espino

Chapter 4
“We Lived and Breathed and Worked the Movement:” The Contradictions and
Rewards of Chicana/Mexicana Activism in El Centro de Accion Social
Autonomo-Hermandad General de Trabajadores (CASA-HGT), Los Angeles,
1975-1978
Marisela Chávez

Chapter 5
Creating Community: Mexican American Women in Eastside Los Angeles
Mary Pardo

Chapter 6
Who is Organizing Latina Garment Workers in Los Angeles?
María Angelina Soldatenko

Part II Negotiating the Family

Chapter 7
"It Gave Me Confianza:" Chicanas' Work Commitment and Work Identity
Beatríz M. Pesquera

Chapter 8
Ambivalence or Continuity? Motherhood and Employment Among Chicanas and Mexican Immigrant Workers
Denise A. Segura

Chapter 9
Levels of Acculturation, Marital Satisfaction, and Depression among Chicana Workers: A Psychological Perspective
Yvette Flores-Ortiz

Part III Situating Stories

Chapter 10
Engendering a “Dialectics of Our America:” Jovita González’ Pluralist Dialogue as Feminist Testimonio
María Eugenia Cotera

Chapter 11
Three Stories: Onions, Campesinas, and Grandma's Apron
Mary Helen Ponce

Chapter 12
Mexican Migrants in North Carolina: María Salas Shares Her Story
Margarita Decierdo

Part IV Taking Charge

Chapter 13
The Synapses of Struggle: Martha Cotera and Tejana Activism
Mary Ann Villarreal

Chapter 14
"I Can't Stand the Patronizing”: An Interview with a Latin Union Activist
Guadalupe M. Friaz

Chapter 15
"No se raje, chicanita”: Some thoughts on race, class, and gender in the classroom
Gloria J. Romero