Ecological Borderlands

Environmental practices among Mexican American woman have spurred a reconsideration of ecofeminism among Chicana feminists. Christina Holmes examines ecological themes across the arts, Chicana activism, and direct action groups to reveal how Chicanas can craft alternative models for ecofeminist processes. Holmes revisits key debates to analyze issues surrounding embodiment, women's connections to nature, and spirituality's role in ecofeminist philosophy and practice. By doing so, she challenges Chicanas to escape the narrow frameworks of the past in favor of an inclusive model of environmental feminism that alleviates Western biases. Holmes uses readings of theory, elaborations of ecological narratives in Chicana cultural productions, histories of human and environmental rights struggles in the Southwest, and a description of an activist exemplar to underscore the importance of living with decolonializing feminist commitment in body, nature, and spirit.|

Cover Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction. Ecological Borderlands: Connecting Movements, Theories, Selves 1. Borderlands Environmentalism: Historiography in the Midst of Category Confusion 2. Misrecognition, Metamorphosis, and Maps in Chicana Feminist Cultural Production 3. Allegory, Materiality, and Agency in Amalia Mesa-Bains's Altar Environments 4. Body/Landscape/Spirit Relations in Señorita Extraviada: Cinematic Deterritorializations and the Limits of Audience Literacy 5. Building Green Community at the Border: Feminist and Ecological Consciousness at the Women's Intercultural Center Conclusion. Bridging Movements with Technologies for the Ecological Self Notes Bibliography Index|