Fragmented Lives, Assembled Parts: Culture, Capitalism, and Conquest at the U.S.-Mexico Border

340 Pages·2008·6.42 MB·English

by  Alejandro Lugo

Fragmented Lives, Assembled Parts
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Fragmented
Lives
assembLed
Parts
X
Culture, Capitalism, and Conquest
at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Alejandro Lugo
university of texas press austin
Copyright © 2008 by the University of texas Press
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Printed in the United states of america
First edition, 2008
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♾ Te paper used in this book meets the minimum
requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997)
(Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Lugo, alejandro, 1962–
Fragmented lives, assembled parts : culture, capitalism,
and conquest at the U.s.-mexico border / alejandro Lugo.
— 1st ed.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISbN 978-0-292-71766-4 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISbN 978-0-292-71767-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Ofshore assembly industry—employees—mexico—
Ciudad Juárez. 2. Ciudad Juárez (mexico)—social
conditions. i. title.
HD8039.0332m61584 2008
331.700972'16—dc22
2007044626
Para todas y todos los trabajadores de maquiladora, y
especialmente con gratitud profunda para aquellos y aquellas
que me ayudaron tanto y que con mucha paciencia han
esperado este proyecto.
in a call for justice for all the working-class women
of Juárez who have been killed; and in special memory of
Claudia ivette gonzález, who disappeared and was never
seen again afer she was sent back home by a maquiladora
guard who did not let her in because she arrived two
minutes late for work.
En memoria de mi prima Toña, a single mother of two little
girls, who died as a result of an accident that occurred
while riding a bus on her way to work at a maquiladora.
in memory of dra. guillermina valdés-villalva,
pioneer of border studies and women’s rights
in Ciudad Juárez.
Para mi amigo y colega César silva montes—
ex–maquiladora worker, activist, scholar.
Para don José Cazares—ex-bracero, ex–street
vendor, ex–maquiladora worker—
y en memoria de doña Lola.
Para mi mamá, vicenta Juárez viuda de Lugo, the last
survivor of the 1940s generation of Juárez migrants in my
family; y en memoria de mi papá, Federico Lugo rivera,
bracero and migrant farmworker.
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Si hay una cosa en la tierra
Más importante que Dios:
Y es que nadie escupa sangre
Pa’ que otro viva mejor.

if there is one thing on earth
more important than god;
it’s that nobody should cough up blood
so that somebody else can live better.

—atahualpa Yupanqui
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Contents
acknowledgments xi
one introduction 1
I. Sixteenth-Century Conquests (1521–1598) and Teir
Postcolonial Border Legacies
two Te invention of borderlands geography
What Do Aztlán and Tenochtitlán Have to Do with Ciudad Juárez/
Paso del Norte? 15
three Te Problem of Color in mexico and on the U.s.-mexico border
Precolonial, Colonial, and Postcolonial Subjectivities 47
II. Culture, Class, and Gender in Late-Twentieth-Century
Ciudad Juárez
four maquiladoras, gender, and Culture Change 69
five Te Political economy of tropes, Culture, and masculinity
inside an electronics Factory 91
ix