Synopses & Reviews
Unspeakable Violence addresses the epistemic and physical violence inflicted on racialized and gendered subjects in the U.S.andndash;Mexico borderlands from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth. Arguing that this violence was fundamental to U.S., Mexican, and Chicana/o nationalisms, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndez examines the lynching of a Mexican woman in California in 1851, the Camp Grant Indian Massacre of 1871, the racism evident in the work of the anthropologist Jovita Gonzandaacute;lez, and the attempted genocide, between 1876 and 1907, of the Yaqui Indians in the Arizonaandndash;Sonora borderlands. Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndez shows that these events have been told and retold in ways that have produced particular versions of nationhood and effaced other issues. Scrutinizing stories of victimization and resistance, and celebratory narratives of mestizaje and hybridity in Chicana/o, Latina/o, and borderlands studies, she contends that by not acknowledging the racialized violence perpetrated by Mexicans, Chicanas/os, and indigenous peoples, as well as Anglos, narratives of mestizaje and resistance inadvertently privilege certain brown bodies over others. Unspeakable Violence calls for a new, transnational feminist approach to violence, gender, sexuality, race, and citizenship in the borderlands.
Review
andldquo;Unspeakable Violence is an outstanding analysis of violence in the U.S.andndash;Mexico borderlands. As a historian, I am most impressed by the care that Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndez takes to ground her analysis in solid historical research. What I find so refreshing is her willingness to put forth courageous new arguments about what has been little discussed in Chicana/o studies, Latina/o studies, or ethnic studies more broadly. Rather than taking the standard approach of only analyzing violence when Latinas/os are the victims, Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndez reveals borderlands violence in all of its complexity. This is exceptional scholarship.andrdquo;andmdash;George J. Sandaacute;nchez, author of Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900andndash;1945
Review
andldquo;In this exquisite book, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndez examines little-known but critically important episodes of violence in U.S.andndash;Mexican borderlands history. Providing a necessary, long-overdue corrective to Chicana/o and borderlands studies, she suggests that in recounting these events as instances of victimization or acts of resistance, Chicana/o feminist and nationalist scholars create tidy narratives for consolidating Chicana/o nationalist identity. In doing so, they disregard Mexican-American complicity in the very acts of violence they describe.andrdquo;andmdash;Marandiacute;a Josefina Saldaandntilde;a-Portillo, author of The Revolutionary Imagination in the Americas and the Age of Development
Review
andldquo;It is impossible, of course, to wrangle such a wide-ranging and intelligent study into a few easy quips, and to attempt to do so would go against the notion that Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndez's examples of borderland violence reveal a complexity in Arizona's and Mexico's culture and history for which many historians, let alone politicians, don't always like to account.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Nevertheless, more work can be done to examine the interdisciplinary problems of investigating intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender, and nationality. Unspeakable Violence is a significant point of departure for this important work.andrdquo;
Review
“[T]hose willing to make their way through this challenging, thought-provoking, and often disturbing work will be rewarded with fresh insights as to the multiple dimensions that violence has long assumed within the borderlands.” - Karl Jacoby, Journal of Arizona History
Review
andldquo;Unspeakable Violence has arrived on the scene like a breath of fresh air. . . . Unspeakable Violence further exemplifies how the most effective interdisciplinary scholarship is equally indebted to theoretical rigor and historical responsibility. Refusing to pull punches with its multifaceted assessment of Chicano nationalism and its unflinching methodological strategy, Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndezandrsquo;s volume makes clear to historians the value of literary texts by writers like Jovita Gonzandaacute;lez and Monserrat Fontes, whose indelible contributions to an evidential archive are necessary to a more composite record of the past.andrdquo;
Review
“Nicole Guidotti-Hernández’s Unspeakable Violence takes on a lot of sacred cows from chicano(a) nationalism to Mexican indigenismo…One of the most exciting aspects of this book is its explicitly transnational approach.” Richard T. Rodr�guez - American Literature
Review
andldquo;Nicole Guidotti-Hernandaacute;ndezandrsquo;s Unspeakable Violence takes on a lot of sacred cows from chicano(a) nationalism to Mexican indigenismoandhellip;One of the most exciting aspects of this book is its explicitly transnational approach.andrdquo;and#160;
Synopsis
Examines episodes of racialized and sexualized violence against communities in the U.S./Mexico borderlands during the 19th century.
Synopsis
Unspeakable Violence argues that racialized and gendered violence in the U.S. Mexico borderlands from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twentieth was fundamental to U.S., Mexican, and Chicano/a nationalisms.
About the Author
Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández is Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona.
Table of Contents
About the Series ix
A Note on Terminology xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Part One
1. A Women with No Names and Many Names: Lynching, Gender, Violence, and Subjectivity 35
2. Webs of Violence: The Camp Grant Indian Massacre, Nation, and Genocidal Alliances 81
3. Spaces of Death: Border (Anthropological) Subjects and the Problem of Racialized and Gendered Violence in Jovita Gonzand#225;lez's Archive 133
Part Two
Introduction to Part Two 173
4. Transnational Histories of Violence during the Yaqui Indian Wars in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands: The Historiography 177
5. Stripping the Body of Flesh and Memory: Toward a Theory of Yaqui Subjectivity 235
Postscript. On Impunidad: National Renewals of Violence in Greater Mexico and the Americas 289
Notes 297
Bibliography 343
Index 361