Changing Fabrications: Lives of Appalachian and Latina Textile Mill Workers in Southern Appalachia
As the human landscape of the southern U.S. overall and the Appalachian region continue to change, so too does the population of workers in the region; in particular, the Latin population is rapidly increasing. During the 1980s but particularly in the 1990s, economic globalization and population shifts brought about dramatic changes in the socioeconomic structure and racial and ethnic composition of the workforce of southern Appalachia’s textile industry, an industry that has been profoundly impacted by the evolving changes and conditions in the overall global economy.
Farmworkers, Coalminers and Davy Crockett: Chicanos/as and Appalachians in Popular Culture
Drawing extensively upon oral interviews with informants of diverse ages, classes, and occupations this research examines several primary questions: What stereotypes Appalachians have of Mexicans? How did these stereotypes evolve? How do Latinos/as perceive Appalachians? What has anti-Catholicism contributed to anti-Latino/a racism? How is the Other symbolically gendered? Can symbolic gendering of the cultural Other be empowering for women? What forms of solidarity between Anglo and Latino/a Appalachians are possible or have already emerged.