Books by " María J. Rodríguez-Shadow"
3 books found
Globalization is not a new phenomenon; women throughout the world have been dealing with the circumstances and consequences of an international economy long before the advent of the transnational corporate conglomerate. However, in a mercenary example of the tried clich "the more things change, the more they stay the same," women-particularly those of color-continue to be relegated to the lowest rung of the occupational ladder, where their indispensable contributions to global market capitalism are downplayed or invalidated completely through the perpetuation of stereotypes and the denial of access to better job opportunities and resources. How women of color around the world adapt and challenge the economic, political, and social effects of globalization is the subject of this broad-minded and incisive anthology. From Mexico, Jamaica, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Sri Lanka, to immigrant and non-immigrant communities in the United States-the women documented in these essays are agricultural and factory workers, artists and entrepreneurs, mothers and activists. Their stories bear stark witness to how globalization continues to develop new sites and forms of exploitation, while its apparent victims continue to be women, men, and children of color.
Mexicanos in Michigan and across the Midwest share a common experience: living as largely invisible outsiders as they struggled to build vibrant communities in places that wanted their labor but not their presence. Brett Olmsted ranges from the 1920s to the 1970s as he analyzes how Mexicanos sought to transcend social, cultural, economic, and political exclusion. Never numerous in any one area, Mexican Americans pursued inclusion via leisure spaces and labor unionism. Activities like celebrations, sports, movies, and music encouraged Mexicanos to claim physical and social space, connect with Michigan’s other Mexicano communities, and construct their own sense of identity. Mexicano workers, meanwhile, embraced interethnic union activism to address racism in job placement and promotion. Olmsted also examines how the state’s Mexicanos adapted to Michigan’s dual economy and found advantages in moving back-and-forth between rural and urban areas. In-depth and innovative, Making Michigan Home spotlights the state’s overlooked Mexicanos and their distinctive experiences within the Latina/o/x Studies Midwest.
"When things move, things change." Starting from this deceptively simple premise, Silvia Spitta opens a fascinating window onto the profound displacements and transformations that have occurred over the six centuries since material objects and human subjects began circulating between Europe and the Americas. This extended reflection on the dynamics of misplacement starts with the European practice of collecting objects from the Americas into Wunderkammern, literally "cabinets of wonders." Stripped of all identifying contexts, these exuberant collections, including the famous Real Gabinete de Historia Natural de Madrid, upset European certainties, forcing a reorganization of knowledge that gave rise to scientific inquiry and to the epistemological shift we call modernity. In contrast, cults such as that of the Virgin of Guadalupe arose out of the reverse migration from Europe to the Americas. The ultimate marker of mestizo identity in Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe is now fast crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and miracles are increasingly being reported. Misplaced Objects then concludes with the more intimate and familial collections and recollections of Cuban and Mexican American artists and writers that are contributing to the Latinization of the United States. Beautifully illustrated and radically interdisciplinary, Misplaced Objects clearly demonstrates that it is not the awed viewer, but rather the misplaced object itself that unsettles our certainties, allowing new meanings to emerge.