Border Bodies

“This important, nuanced volume shines a light on the importance of Mexicana, Nuevomexicana, Californiana, and Tejana women in the evolution of the U.S. (south)west.”—Ms. Magazine

“An important study . . . . Border Bodies effectively demonstrates the dehumanizing forces of sexual capital on large populations of women who are often erased from history . . . . Highly recommended.”—CHOICE

“An impressive and meticulous archival work. . . .In five chapters, [Hernandez] immerses us in the heart of her poignant and necessary investigation through moments of sexual and gender violence in the U.S. borderlands between 1834 and 1916.”—Journal of Borderlands Studies

“Absorbing. . . . While there are many strengths to Border Bodies, the most noteworthy is how teachable each chapter is for upper-division and graduate students.”—Journal of the Civil War Era

“A wonderful addition for graduate courses and for scholars of the borderlands, labor history, gender and sexuality studies, and Chicanx/Latinx studies. Its influence will undoubtedly grow in the years to come.”—Journal of Arizona History

“Bernadine Hernández offers a rich, complex history of the Southwestern borderlands that is in deep conversation with Marxist and feminist theorists. . . . [A] timely contribution that points the way toward new approaches to centering marginalized groups in the histories of contested spaces.”—Journal of African American History

“Border Bodies is an expansive borderlands study that ties together histories of racialized sexuality and sexual capital with the formations of Mexican gender and race in the US. Informed by history, Hernández effectively illustrates why scholars must consider the racial and sexual political economy of nineteenth-century Latinxs (inclusive of Californixs, Tejanxs, and Hispanxs) in studying the larger trajectory of capitalism.”—American Historical Review

“This book brings together a range of archival, newspaper, and literary sources to foreground racialized narratives of sex and gender and the purposeful disappearances of Mexican and Mexican American women and their labor.”—New Mexico Historical Review

“This book effectively historicizes the contemporary treatment of brown women in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands while offering readers the tools to unpack and rectify the effects of systemic, racialized, sexual violence. The biggest contributions this book makes are in its insistence on the materiality of sex, the centrality of brown, female bodies to the economic history of the United States, and the challenge that the materiality of brown sex poses to contemporary Marxism. Bernadine Marie Hernández pushes the envelope on contemporary conversations around race, space, and sex.”—Marissa López, University of California, Los Angeles

“Innovative in its approach to race, gender, and capitalism, Border Bodies gives readers a significant and fascinating look at Mexican American women’s lives on the U.S. border. Hernández uncovers forgotten stories of lives that bring new understanding of American imperialism during the nineteenth century.”—Anthony Mora, University of Michigan