Migration, Sexuality and AIDS: Mexican Women Farmworkers in California
Author: Castaneda, Xochitl
After they migrate, women are enmeshed in processes of radicalized gendered sexuality that constitute what Rayna Rapp calls a "political economy of risk," where social reproduction and sexuality are stratified--contingent upon Mexicans' placement within the local economy and shaped by political and socio-cultural forces. Mexican migrants are radicalized and hence situated near the bottom of the labor market. While some women have found better paying jobs or more comfortable lives, farmworkers work for pittances, endure working conditions that are hazardous, and live in inhumane circumstances--in camps or occasionally even in caves or under trees. In our interviews we found that migrant women struggle to earn an income and create safe environments for their children as well as meaningful lives, which often means confronting risks at work, in their communities and in their intimate relationships. In this context, the social body of Mexican migrant farmworkers is molded by mechanisms that are transnational. Focusing on the U.S. side of a bi-national context, we will illustrate the twinned processes of sexual harassment and risky sexual behavior, using women's narratives. Based on qualitative research, our findings illustrate how the material circumstances of their migration and socio-cultural constructions related to sexual behavior and the body place Mexican women migrants at risk for sexual harassment and acquiring STIs. We analyze how values and hegemonic narratives--based in gendered political inequalities--are inscribed or "mapped" upon the bodies of Mexican women farmworkers in California, at times with women's transgressions of boundaries where they construct moments of remapping--contesting those discourses, creating their own poetics of desire, and establishing meaningful relationships despite the limitation on their sexuality.
After they migrate, women are enmeshed in processes of radicalized gendered sexuality that constitute what Rayna Rapp calls a "political economy of risk," where social reproduction and sexuality are stratified--contingent upon Mexicans' placement within the local economy and shaped by political and socio-cultural forces. Mexican migrants are radicalized and hence situated near the bottom of the labor market. While some women have found better paying jobs or more comfortable lives, farmworkers work for pittances, endure working conditions that are hazardous, and live in inhumane circumstances--in camps or occasionally even in caves or under trees. In our interviews we found that migrant women struggle to earn an income and create safe environments for their children as well as meaningful lives, which often means confronting risks at work, in their communities and in their intimate relationships. In this context, the social body of Mexican migrant farmworkers is molded by mechanisms that are transnational. Focusing on the U.S. side of a bi-national context, we will illustrate the twinned processes of sexual harassment and risky sexual behavior, using women's narratives. Based on qualitative research, our findings illustrate how the material circumstances of their migration and socio-cultural constructions related to sexual behavior and the body place Mexican women migrants at risk for sexual harassment and acquiring STIs. We analyze how values and hegemonic narratives--based in gendered political inequalities--are inscribed or "mapped" upon the bodies of Mexican women farmworkers in California, at times with women's transgressions of boundaries where they construct moments of remapping--contesting those discourses, creating their own poetics of desire, and establishing meaningful relationships despite the limitation on their sexuality.
