Border Women: Writing from La Frontera

It is a peculiar fact that U.S.-Mexico border theory is dominated by those who write about, not from, the border. By looking at the work of women writers from both sides of the border, Debra A. Castillo and María-Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba open border studies to a truly transnational analysis while bringing questions of gender to the fore.

Border Women rethinks border theory by emphasizing women writers whose work-in Spanish, English, or a mixture of the two languages-calls into question accepted notions of border identities. These writers include those who are already well recognized internationally (Helena María Viramontes, Sheila and Sandra Ortiz Taylor, and María Novaro); those who have become part of the Chicano canon (Norma Cantú, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, and Demetria Martínez); along with some of the lesser-known, yet most exciting, women's voices from the Mexican border (Rosario Sanmiguel, Rosina Conde, and Regina Swain).

Debra A. Castillo is Stephen H. Weiss presidential fellow and professor of Romance studies and comparative literature at Cornell University. María-Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba is a researcher at Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Juarez, where she also works as the regional director.