Presentation short abstract

Reading across scholarship on geopolitical economies of borders and cuerpo-territorio epistemologies of bodies and lands as intertwined territories to be cared for and centering works of Mujeres, Organización y Territorios, this paper explores border ecologies in extractive zones in southern Mexico.

Presentation long abstract

In this paper, I read across scholarship on geopolitical economies of borders (Coddington et al., 2020; Vogt, 2020) and Cuerpo-territorio onto-epistemologies to reconceptualize ecologies in the Mexico-Guatemala borderlands. Cuerpo-territorio approaches understand violence inflicted on bodies and lands—especially in contexts of extractivism—as interdependent (Cabnal, 2010; Ulloa, 2021; Zaragocin, 2020). At the same time, bodies and lands (living and dead) are seen as intertwined territories that feel and remember, fostering communities of livingness and compassion. Amid the current political climate of intensified externalized border practices by the United States, and with increasing foreign investment in “green” mega-development projects and export production processes in southern Mexico, a “new” resource frontier (Morris, 2024) is emerging. Two recent train projects, el Tren Maya and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor, both rely on capital extraction from ancestral lands and precarious bodies to connect the Gulf and Pacific coasts, featuring key stations strategically placed near critical industrial zones. The Mexican government assures these infrastructures, heavily dependent on cheap, often undocumented, labour, will act as ‘curtains’ to divert northbound migratory flows (Paley, 2020). The resistance and re-politicization in the face of this violence are not merely acts of indignation or a pursuit of justice but also acts of love and living. The paper draws on learnings from Mujeres, Organización y Territorios (MOOTS), an activist group engaging Mexican and migrant women’s radical care practices for the body and land, including dialogues about how this frontier feels in their bodies and in the places they call home.