Of all immigrants that come into the United States from Central America or Mexico, 49% out of 16.2 million of those immigrants are women. And 1 out of every 4 women face abuse or harassment in their journey to seek refuge. Indigenous and Latina women from Central America and Mexico face the some of the highest risks of violence and sexual abuse that has been documented over the past 50 years. Central and North American Latina and indigenous women are confronted with the daunting task of finding community within a space of xenophobia. In addition to heightened scrutiny against Latin American immigrants there is also the contribution of to the erasure of indigenous women and communities that seek asylum: they are pushed into the documented category of Hispanic or Latine on record which statistically eliminates indigenous peoples from the immigrant conversation. Both the violence facing Latina immigrants and deletion of indigenous immigrant women on many fronts are pressing issues that contribute to their distinctive experiences in and out of the US. Understanding the immigration processes for this specific diaspora are crucial to comprehending the severe realities they face and emphasize how the exposure to violence impacts their experiences on the journey to asylum. But despite being subjugated to violence and erasure of identity, immigrant women have historically impacted their communities and had a role in their own fates by contributing to the resistance of imperialism and immigrating to the US in face of the risks.
In order to fully digest the extent of which Latina identifying women and indigenous women have been abused and why it needs to be recognized globally as a humanitarian crisis, there has to be a base of understanding via historical context. Currently, Central Americans are continuously entering the United States through the US-Mexico border, "Between October 2019 and March 2023, nationals of these four countries accounted for nearly one-third of all 5.8 million migrant encounters at the southern border."1 But the US connection to Central American immigration dates back decades. The US has a vast history of intervening within the political, social and economic affairs of Latin America ; this is critical to provide given its link to immigration of Central Americans to the US specifically. "Historically, Latin America was dominated first by the Spanish who colonized the vast majority of the region and then by the United States after passing the Monroe Doctrine in 1823…this doctrine gave the U.S.the power to intervene in Latin American affairs."2 Since this implementation of foreign policy the US has increased its efforts to destabilize national liberation of Latin America, reaching a peak in 1960 following the socialist revolution of Cuba.
In El Salvador there was massive support against any US imperialism. The Democratic Revolutionary Front expresses a powerful message as a call to action, "The economic and social structures of our country have guaranteed the boundless enrichment of an oligarchical minority and the exploitation of our people, by U.S. imperialism…subjugating The Salvadoran People, the revolutionary movement."3 This is one written example of the powerful opposition and Latin American coalitions against US government impositions on all levels. Central American coups planted by the US are heavily responsible for the conditions in which immigrants face and as a result are eventually forced to flee. But in addition to the historical context of this issue it is important to address the contributions women have made throughout imperial resistance in Central America to emphasize that women have always had influence in their own fate immigration patterns. For example in El Salvador, the Association of Salvadoran women released literature and were an active force in the resistance of US imperialist tactics. Some of their goals included making their presence aware in the fight for justice and addressing their double oppressions. "We Latin American women are learning not to fall into the myth of Cinderella..learning to take to the streets to fight, learning to be active protagonists in the forging of our social destiny."4 They expressed further that the subordination of women was more extreme in Latin America and made the comparison of women's issues in developed countries versus developed countries : one is for basic rights and the other is an extension of it.5 The ASM also argued that domestic labor that is expected of Salvadoran women created social and economic disadvantage, "the fundamental aspect of women’s problem is the direct result of capitalist relations of production."6 These women articulated and enacted their own beliefs into their own resistance against state sanctioned violence and US influence further established control over their own freedom within El Salvador but also in their potential immigration experiences.
Guatemala was also under attack by the US but more specifically saw some of the worst effects of US administered civil war and it is referred to by historians, like Susanne Jones,7 as the longest and deadliest in Central America. The notion created by the US that Guatemala could not become a "second Cuba" was the key motive in training and creating death squads to fight counterinsurgency of the US planted military regime, the soldiers that were sent are referred to as the Green Berets. In order to eliminate Native and other Central American allies such as El Salvador and Nicaragua, the US engaged in complete "scorched earth" tactics, murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians, clearing 440 villages and displacing 1 million people8 from 1981-1983. These tragic events led to civil unrest and a politically destabilized Guatemala, international condemnation surfaced over a decade later in 1994 by the Global Human Rights Accord which established a Trust Commission which was ultimately ineffective as it did not serve justice to Guatemaltecos since it failed to persecute the guilty parties. The role of US involvement which led a calculated plan of administrative obstruction and genocide is vital context in the vast female immigration of Central Americans, the women who faced both recorded and unrecorded sexual violence and are victims of separate more extreme war crimes and their families are at the base of immigratory patterns to the US.
While much of this history is critical to understanding the overarching conversation of Central American immigration delegates it is again critical to involve the role women played in the resistance of imperialism and their reactions to state sanctioned violence. Dating back to the early years of revolution the Coordinacion de "Majawil Q’Ij" produced pamphlets that described the right of Guatemalan Mayan women. This work consisted of identifying and fighting discriminatory practices that take place in the lives of Mayan women, "La mujer Maya durante los 500 años de explotación y subordinación..llegó el momento de reconocer la mujer Maya como la formadora de la vida, centro de la unidad."9 The Mayan women of Guatemala have continuously fought to preserve their indigenous identities despite all efforts of outside erasure tactics. Powerful female activists like : Rigoberta Menchú. Rigoberta was born into a poor Maya family, and raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture in Guatemala. "As a teenager, she became involved in social reform programs of the Catholic Church and was active in the women's rights movement. Like her father, she joined the CUC (Committee of the Peasant Union) in 1979, after members of her family had suffered persecution."10 She dedicates her life to the liberation of Mayan people of Guatemala and publishing as well as promoting indigenous rights on a global scale. Rigoberta has inspired Mayan women to reclaim and protect their heritage in the face of Guetmalan Mayan genocide and oppressive practice from the nationalist of Latine government influence. She has won a Nobel Peace prize for her extensive efforts and co-founded the United Republic of Guatemalan Opposition after being exiled to Mexico for her efforts. Modern academic scholarship regarding the Maya identity and Guatemalteca liberation are also part of this resistance, Floridalma Boj Lopez describes how the identity concepts of Latinx and Indigenous are relevant in Guatemala and the US, creating obstacles within immigrant communities and in their native country. "Those of us who are Indigenous are still readily marked as Indios or worse Inditos (little Indians) by those who own the most land, the most privileged, and those who are considered the real citizens of Guatemala, otherwise known as Ladinos or Criollos."11 Lopez further describes the combined efforts of Guatemalan nationalism and US indigenous erasure as a systemic infliction of intergenerational poverty.12
Similarly there is a vast history of Mexican and American relations that contribute to the mass immigration of Mexicans to the US. Historians can refer back as far as the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848 where Mexico ceded 55% of its territory to the US. Since the US occupation of Mexico's homelands approximately 20 million Mexicans were now living in the "United States"; migratory patterns and issues regarding the border can date back to this event with of course other interactions over the hundreds of years prior to the man made border being built. Another wave of immigration stemmed from the Mexican Revolution in 1910. "The bloody conflict and political upheaval causes a flood of Mexican immigrants to seek refuge in the United States…more than 890,000 Mexicans migrate to the United States."13 Following the Mexican Revolution which was sparked in order to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Diaz, the US began to get involved in the Mexican government affairs due to concerns of their business ventures in Mexico. The assassination of the Mexican Revolutions leaders throughout 1914 led to the rise of anti-US leaders.
But it is important to also note the role women had in this fight and how they contributed to their freedoms within Mexico. Women were also an important part of this revolution and served as "soldaderas," cooking, washing clothes, and marching alongside the men, often carrying the children. They also fought on the battlefield. Women capitalized on their participation to win greater respect and rights in some states, notably Yucatan where they held the First Feminist Congress."14 In addition to their service women had a heavy influence on war culture and social impacts in Mexico, Valentina Ramírez, a soldadera who inspired the Carrancista corrido "La Valentina," and the identity of an "Adelita", the title of a popular corrido and synonym for soldadera, la Adelita was no particular woman but rather the stories of several women who fought alongside Mexican men.15 Women also developed their own congressional feminist board in Mexico in 1916, founded by teachers Consuela Zavala y Castillo ; many of their goals were associated with Hermila Galindo’s radical "La Mujer en el Porvenir" ("Woman in the Future"). This book promoted sex education, divorce, and anti-clericalism and women’s right to vote, the Congress’s actions led to the Law of Family and Relations which gave Mexican women more marital freedom and political recognition.16 To reiterate, the US’s history in regards to the Mexican government is a key factor in the patterns of immigration and the actions of women in their history impacted their own resistance and search for freedom.
Other immigration surges to the US occur throughout the 1930s-1940s due to job availability and the nationalization of oil in Mexico leading Mexican women and families to immigrate. "In 1942, the U.S. and Mexico jointly created the bracero program, which encouraged Mexicans to come to the U.S. as contract workers."17 Immigration picks up again the US declares a war on drugs in 1969 leading to heavy border policing and search and seizure procedures. This "war" fueled stereotypes and further created animosity of Mexican immigrants but it has also grouped in Central American immigrants . What most recently affected immigrants in terms of legislature and national attitude is the passing of strict laws to limit immigration after 2001 ; better known as the War on Terror dramatically alters US foreign policy for the 21st century. While the Mexican immigration discussion varies across streams of mass media and continuously wavers across liberal and conservative trends, it is vital to consider the history between Mexican immigration and the United States' inhumane migration policies. The indicated factors of Mexican migration and immigration as aforementioned are highly influential to Latina and native experiences are instrumental in their realities and narratives.
To clarify the immigration narrative that women are included in, it is critical to reiterate that women have historically been integral to immigration and migration patterns in Latin America due to their position of essential responsibilities within their communities. What often constitutes immigration for indigenous or Latina women is the burden of poverty and violence. Patterns of vulnerability to being involuntarily dominated within specifically women’s lives is a major part of why they are the most susceptible to abuse and brutality. "Burdened by poverty, childcare responsibilities, and a lack of job skills. These dynamics, largely the consequence of gender and class oppression, are compounded by the racially discriminatory practices in social welfare, health, and administration of justice."18 Sexual violence within Latine and indigenous conquests inflicted by European invasion dating back centuries presents itself as a driving force of modern day female indigenous erasure.
Settler ideologies fueled the generational structures of consistent intrafamiliar domestic violence in Latin America and indigenous societies through imposing Western patriarchal values on native women contrasting preexisting diverse expression of both sexuality and gender.19 "Many women report that they are fleeing violence by a domestic partner or other family member. By no means simply a "private" matter, this type of violence is one component of a multilayered social dynamic in which ideologies of race and class interact with gender in particular ways to define women’s vulnerability to violence."20 This is relevant to Latina and indigenous immigration to the US and their circumstances as many of them flee to the US in search of refuge and out of fear from their abusers. Both the European settler-complex and state sanctioned violence enact saliently in indigenous and Latina women’s devastating experiences. State legislation backing dispossession of native land in Latin American countries had equipped and currently supplies the US and past European colonizers with the means to destabilize indigenous communities. Indigenous and Latina women being placed at the bottom of these eugenic fueled hierarchies face the worst of the oppressive practices and are forced into cycles of both poverty plus abuse leading to an influx of immigration to the US.
In addition to extreme sexual violence and other forms of physical abuse faced by female immigrants within these ethnic groups there is also the factor of indigenous deidentification."21These narratives and critiques are often silenced, made invisible or dismissed in dominant narratives of Latinidad." Due to the colonial implications that developed in Latin America there is a segregated and discriminatory class structure that is both hostile and fatal to indigenous existence. "Race magnifies the vulnerability of Indigenous women to violence, locating them in a social structure in which they are understood to be subordinate and violatable."22 The de-identification of indigenous and native women presents itself as a survival tactic throughout Latin America and in the US. There are several factors that enhance assimilation and erasure of indigenous practices that are state sanctioned but also results of racism. Specifically indigenous women seeking opportunity when immigrating are at greater risk of inter communal erasure within the Latino and Hispanic diasporas. "United States eliminate us as Indigenous subjects, by classifying us as Guatemalans, and therefore as "Latinos," they are redeploying an elimination that they perfected as they conquered what is now the Southwest of their national territory."23 In addition to Latin American racist structures there is the US immigration system that miscategorizes indigenous peoples, and as previously explained women are at the heart of this erasure given their status within their respective communities. Blackwell describes this finding as a hegemonies that two systems of indigeneity and racial/class hierarchy hybridize in the process of migration.24 Linguistic barriers have played a key role in the lack of justice and due process for indigenous non-Spanish speaking women fleeing Central America and Mexico who are victims of assault, "being treated as criminals upon their detention, rather than receiving appropriate humanitarian aid. This includes Indigenous language interpretation."25 As indigenous women are attempted to be de-identified and Latina women are attempted to be subjugated to a life of violence or constant fear it has not defined them as a diaspora or withheld their resilience within the US and in Latin America presently and historically.
Indigenous and Latina immigrant women have established identities here in the US despite their obstacles. I had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with indigenous identifying women and Latina immigrants as part of this research to further gather insight on this diaspora. They are young women, both the daughters of immigrant women and immigrant women themselves.
I had special permission to only publish the insights of Sindy Valle, a Mixteca woman and UCLA graduate as well as an activist who serves as an advocate for indigenous representation and the Mixteca community both at UCLA and her hometown Santa Maria, California . I asked : How has the indigenous experience been erased in your experience from the immigrant narratives in the US? And how would you say this has affected your personal identity and sense of belonging? She replied : "The experiences of Indigenous Oaxaqueños in the US are very different from those of the Latine community, however, current literature fails to address those differences by labeling all of us as Latine and thus contributing to the erasure of our narratives. Latinidad permeates a lot of the current literature, thus blurring distinctions of race, country, and culture. Unfortunately, by doing so, research is failing to address the colorism and racism that exists within Latin American communities, especially within the Mexican community. Latinindad does not acknowledge the racial hierarchies that exist within Mexico and how those hierarchies privilege mestizos and lighter-skinned people over Black and Indigenous people."26
I continued by asking her, how do you think the women in the generations of your family dealt with the Latine exclusion of indigenous persons, culture, and appropriation in both the US and Latin America (if both are applicable)? She replied: The women in my family have always been proud of their Mixteca identity. I have always been reminded to be proud of my heritage and to continue keeping it alive. Oaxaqueno culture is community-orientated and I know that the women in my family have been able to overcome the exclusion they have encountered through the community they have formed with others both in their native lands and here in the US."27
Finally I asked, : What is the most impactful and favorite aspect of your indigenous experience, roots, and identity? Valle powerfully responds: "The resiliency of my community. Despite our experiences with anti-indigeneity, we continue to display our identity with pride. It's beautiful to see the connection we have to our motherland and how we uplift one another through community. Anywhere I might meet a Oaxaqueño, I know that I will always be welcomed with love because we understand the power of community and that without community we would be nowhere."28
Footnotes
1. Jeanne Batalova Nicole Ward and Jeanne Batalova, "Central American Immigrants in the United States," migrationpolicy.org, July 17, 2023, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-immigrants-united-states.
2. Freedom Archives, "Freedom Archives Search Engine," n.d., https://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=250.
3. Ibid
4. Archives, "Freedom Archives Search Engine." The Association of Salvadoran Women, Publisher: Democratic Revolutionary FrontDate: 11/1981Volume Number: November.
5. Ibid
6. Ibid
7. Susanne Jonas, prolific author, teacher, and indefatigable social justice activist on behalf of Guatemala, and Central America, UCSC
8. Freedom Archives, "Freedom Archives Search Engine," n.d., https://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=250.
9. Digital PUL. "Derechos de La Mujer Maya," n.d., https://dpul.princeton.edu/gnib/catalog/737bc08e-635a-4b99-a944-fac6607a8ef8.
10. Ibid
11. "Naming, a Coming Home: Latinidad and Indigeneity in the Settler Colony." THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, 8 Dec. 2022.
12. Ibid
13. Brianna Lee, "U.S.-Mexico Relations," Council on Foreign Relations, May 1, 2017, https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-mexico-relations.
14. Arroyo, "Viewpoints on Women in the Revolution - The Mexican Revolution and the United States | Exhibitions - Library of Congress."
15. Ibid
16. Ibid
17. Ibid
18. Speed, Shannon. Incarcerated Stories: Indigenous Women Migrants and Violence in the Settler-Capitalist State. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2019. muse.jhu.edu/book/67778.
19. Ibid
20. Ibid
21. Maylei Blackwell, Floridalma Boj Lopez, and Luís Urrieta, "Special Issue: Critical Latinx Indigeneities," Latino Studies 15, no. 2 (July 1, 2017): 126–37, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-017-0064-0.
22. Ibid
23. "Naming, a Coming Home: Latinidad and Indigeneity in the Settler Colony."
24. Blackwell, Lopez, and Urrieta, "Special Issue: Critical Latinx Indigeneities."
25. "Naming, a Coming Home: Latinidad and Indigeneity in the Settler Colony."
26. Research Conducted Interview by Sarah Barbosa (12/5/23).
27. Ibid
28. Ibid
References
Arroyo, Antonio Vanegas. "Viewpoints on Women in the Revolution - The Mexican Revolution and the United States | Exhibitions - Library of Congress," n.d. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mexican-revolution-and-the-united-states/viewpoints-on-women.html
Archives, Freedom. "Freedom Archives Search Engine," n.d. https://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=327
Archives, "Freedom Archives Search Engine." The Association of Salvadoran Women, Publisher: Democratic Revolutionary FrontDate: 11/1981Volume Number: November
Blackwell, Maylei, Floridalma Boj Lopez, and Luís Urrieta. "Special Issue: Critical Latinx Indigeneities." Latino Studies 15, no. 2 (July 1, 2017): 126–37. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-017-0064-0
Brianna Lee, "U.S.-Mexico Relations," Council on Foreign Relations, May 1, 2017, https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-mexico-relations
Digital PUL. "Derechos de La Mujer Maya," n.d. https://dpul.princeton.edu/gnib/catalog/737bc08e-635a-4b99-a944-fac6607a8ef8
"Guatemala News & Information Bureau Archive 1963-2000," Digital PUL, n.d., https://dpul.princeton.edu/gnib
Jeanne Batalova Nicole Ward and Jeanne Batalova, "Central American Immigrants in the United States," migrationpolicy.org, July 17, 2023, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-immigrants-united-states
"Naming, a Coming Home: Latinidad and Indigeneity in the Settler Colony." THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, 8 Dec. 2022, https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/decentering-the-us/naming-a-coming-home-latinidad-and-indigeneity-in-the-settler-colony
Research Conducted Interview by Sarah Barbosa (12/5/23). Speaker : Sindy Valle
Susanne Jonas, prolific author, teacher UCSC/ https://sfi.usc.edu/content/susanne-jonas
Speed, Shannon. Incarcerated Stories: Indigenous Women Migrants and Violence in the Settler-Capitalist State. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2019. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/67778