Casa Amiga

1. Casa Amiga Feminist Community-Building in Ciudad Juarez as an Alternative to the Structural Violence of Globalization

2. Casa Amiga • First crisis center for women in northern Mexico • Issues • Domestic violence • Femicide (feminicidio) – unsolved murders • Common trend among women who suffered this violence • Young women (teenagers or in their early 20s) • All have been employees in the Maquiladoras • Many share indigenous features – outsiders to Ciudad Juarez (from southern Mexico or part of the interior)

3. Neoliberalism and Globalization • Concentration of landholdings in fewer hands Increasing rural unemployment • Povertyanddisplacement • Ecological degradation • Increase migration flow • Society is organized in profit-mode • What is globalization? • Historical phase of capitalism and process whereby localities rid themselves from older cultural practices

4. Swanger’s Article • Devon Pena’s analysis on popular resistance to the production strategies of the maquiladoraindustry in Mexico. • Grassroots organization was able to connect shopfloor struggle. with neighborhood organization – challenge injustices. • Creation of a political consciousness – radical potentioal. • Pena’s work focuses on the quotidian community organizing . • Veronica Schild • Women working in Casa Amiga. • Brian Milani • Questioning the nature of and content of production – Quality of life. • This questioning is central to challenging neoliberalism and to create sustainable alternatives to it.

5. Swanger’s Questions • “Does Casa Amiga see a connection between domestic violence and femicide and between them and globalization, and if so, how is this connection articulated?” • How does Casa Amiga create small-scale, local alternatives to globalization? • Interviews led by Swanger with the people who brought Casa Amiga to life since its founding in 1999

6. Globalization and Violence Against Women: Manifestations of Alienation on the Border • Common responses among interviewees: • Definition of globalization was associated with increase in poverty • Linked to “feminization of poverty” • Youth gangs • Globalization has changed the concept of gender – potentially negative consequences for women. • Common globalization consequences

7. In Mexico employers justify paying women less than they pay men. • Women are more likely to find jobs in maquiladoras • This adds new (gender) roles for women, beyond the ones expected from them in the household. • Women and girls are increasingly being called to enter the wage-labor workforce – become the breadwinners • Jobs do not pay wages that can be live off of by – create the “feminization of poverty”

8. Consequences of “feminization of poverty” • Growth of gangs – 500 gangs operate in Ciudad Juarez • Chavez Cano and Eva Moreno Aguirre (interviewees) - change in gender roles results in gangs • Globalization contributes to “structural violence that damages basic structures of family, community, and cultural integrity.” • Interviewees also linked globalization with the erase of distinctions among cultures around the world.

9. People linked domestic violence against women with socioeconomic conditions (negative) brought by globalization • Population growth is caused by the growth of the maquiladora sector – “cultural consequences” along with lifestyle changes • Women employed in the maquiladoras earn their own money. • Arrival of 24hr supermarkets and “night life” • Changes are occurring, perhaps faster than changes in Ciudad Juarez’s conceptions of what is acceptable for women to do • Ciudad Juarez propounds that women who have dissapeared were “bad women” who transgressed gender norms

10. Eva Moreno Aguirre’s argument • Violence against women is not limited to domestic violence – structural violence at the maquiladoras due to low wages • Connection between exploitation of labor and dehumanization • Alienation – isolated from (and lack of) community • Ciudad Juarez is a border city – large flux of people • Marx’s notion of alienation is being without social bonds • 1.3 million of Ciudad Juarez’s people have actually lived their entire lives there. • Most employees of the maquiladoresbetween the 1990s and 2001 came from other places

11. Maquiladoras represent an intensification of alienation • Transformation from craft labor to industrial wage-labor • Final destination of products is foreign consumer market • General belief that migration is to blame – “not enough for everyone”

12. The Radical Act of Creating Community: Convivio, and the Culture of Solidarity as an Alternative to Globalization • “Ultimate goal is transforming social relations.” Esther Cano • “Transforming the culture of this city” Almendra Rosales • Not just resisting globalization: constructing and living out viable alternatives • Creating a culture of solidarity • Feminism – organization identifies as “feminist” • Feminist therapy for women victim of domestic violence • Convivio

13. Feminist Therapy • Individual man is not the sole or even the most critical site of blame for violent acts against women • Domestic violence is a part of a larger process – society does not give women and children the same value as men • Explains why acts of violence against women are harmful to men as well • Part of “conscientizacao” – consciousness-raising • Depends on dialogue – challenges alienation

14. Casa Amiga recognizes that it might not directly alter the course of globalization • Planting the seeds of a workable culture • Convivio – culture of respect • Cultural characteristic to which many Mexicans point in order to distinguish ways people from Mexico relate to one another • Infuses the work the staff of Casa Amiga does and how the staff relates to each other • Lunch time

15. United States propagates neo-liberalism. • Mainstream culture aligned to capitalism. • Contracts attached to property ownership. • Ester Chavez Cano: • “Globalization represents a “cultural invasion” by United States. • Nation States should: • Cut expenditures for social services • Privatize state sectors of the economy • Families will be left with more wealth

16. Conclusion • Cannot be captured in visual media • Play crucial role within new social movements • Difference between the visible and non visible • Non-visible can be maintained on a daily basis for long streches of years • Less alienating – strikes for example can cause shortage of goods • Quieter forms of resistance have greater potential for inviting alliances across lines of race, nationality, and even class