Latina activists across borders : women's grassroots organizing in Mexico and Texas /

Pena begins with the debate about feminism and its presence or not within grassroots women's organizing. The author's argument is that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Michoacan, Mexico, and the greater El Paso/Ciudad Juarez region create their own notions of feminism by linking class and race to gender. The author compares NGOs in the two regions, largely reporting women's reflections about women's mobilizations and their sense of empowerment. The nuances of women's networks or campaigns are missing. The book's strength is the documentation of the religious connection to NGOs. Its weakness is the brief discussion of the sociohistorical contexts of NGOs in Mexico and Texas, Catholic Action in the US and Latin America since the 1940s, and the Chicana/o movement. General readers will need to look elsewhere, since Pena consistently refers to these contexts in her comparative analysis. Advanced readers will find the discussion not nuanced enough to further their knowledge of the two regions, women's activism, and the daily negotiations of women's mobilizations. The book's main point: networks are important to women's activism. Summing Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries. K. Davalos Loyola Marymount University