COMMUNITY OF STRUGGLE Gender, Violence, and Resistance on the U.S./Mexico Border MICHELLE TÉLLEZ Arizona State University Using 10 women’s narratives, participant observation, archival research, and a focus group, this article analyzes women’s social activism in a settler community in northern Mexico near the border. I argue that women’s activism and emerging political conscious- ness provides a lens through which women critique structural violence and intimate part- ner violence and that ultimately provides new women-centered subjectivities. This article contributes to gender and social movements literature by examining the generation of a political consciousness engendered from women’s grounded experience of living on the U.S./Mexico border. Furthermore, despite the unique sociopolitical conditions of the bor- der, this article demonstrates that border residents have the agency to challenge, and more importantly, change their situation. Keywords: resistance; social movements; violence; transnationalism; globalization INTRODUCTION Over the last 40 years, the U.S./Mexico border region has witnessed profound economic and political shifts because of the implementation of both national and international agreements. One result has been an increase of migration not only to the United States, but also to northern Mexico, creating a massive need for housing, health care, and education. Because of the intersecting power structures of capitalism, patriarchy, and AUTHOR’S NOTE: I thank the women of Maclovio Rojas for their lessons, strength, and inspiration. The reviewers and editors of Gender & Society and this special issue have been generous with their time and suggestions and I want to thank them for helping me shape this article. Finally, to my colleagues and friends Moira O’Neil, Anna Guevarra, Alejandra Elenes, Jonathan Xavier Inda, and Alejandro Lugo for their insightful com- ments and edits as they read through various drafts of this piece. GENDER & SOCIETY,Vol. 22 No. 5, October 2008 545-567 DOI: 10.1177/0891243208321020 © 2008 Sociologists for Women in Society 545