“The Future is Latina”: Feminist Borderlands and Latina Legislators

Abstract:In this article, I posit the importance of feminist borderlands theory in policy-making scholarship. I draw on feminist borderlands theory to (1) illustrate the many ways praxis as theorized in borderlands theory is witnessed in action in state policymaking spaces to create change; and (2) using Segura and Zavella’s (2008) dimensions of borderlands theory as an analytic anchor, offer an unparalleled perspective on how Chicana and Latina state legislators faced political battles, resisted, and succeeded in policymaking. The Chicana and Latina legislators in this article centered their lived experiences as lenses to frame policy priorities, critique neoliberal policies, and counter deficient-oriented policy narratives about Chicana/o and Latina/o communities. Within the boundaries of political control and contestation, the women embraced their nuanced representations, experiences, and identities and thus created policies to serve their low-income, Latina/o, and immigrant constituents in three distinct ways: (1) naming hegemonic dominance in politics; (2) championing feminist policies; and (3) centering their lived and others’ experiences through storytelling and theorizing to inform their policy ways of knowing.