We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
The Mothers of East Los Angeles: (Other)Mothering for Environmental Justice.
- Authors
Thomas, Christopher Scott
- Abstract
This essay explores the Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA)—an environmental justice group started and led by older Mexican American women—and the organization’s campaign to prevent the construction of a state prison in their neighborhood. The women enact motherwork that protects the well-being of the neighborhood’s children, in addition to crafting motherhood into a communal responsibility to look after the neighborhood as a mother would their child. MELA’s maternal appeals rely on and eclipse identification with traditional gender categories, suggesting new ways for motherhood to function as an organizing principle to mobilize collectives. More broadly, this essay contributes to scholarly discussions on rhetorical agency by considering motherhood as a means for women’s collective resistance and empowerment.
- Subjects
ENVIRONMENTAL justice; PRISON design &; construction; ENVIRONMENTALISM associations; MOTHERHOOD; PRESSURE groups; COLLECTIVE behavior; SOCIAL action
- Publication
Southern Communication Journal, 2018, Vol 83, Issue 5, p293
- ISSN
1041-794X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/1041794X.2018.1488986