Elizabeth Farfan-Santos he grew up in a working-class, immigrant, female-led Mexican family. And, as she says on his website, she learned early on to love and honor all aspects of his identity, which influence her writing and his work.
With a PhD and master’s degree in medical anthropology from UC Berkeley and a BA in anthropology and international studies from Trinity University, Farfán-Santos just published “Undocumented Motherhood: Conversations on Love, Trauma, and Crossing Borders” (University of Texas Press, October 2022), her latest book, which follows the life story of Claudia Garcia, a Mexican mother who immigrated to Houston hoping to find quality health care for her hearing-impaired young daughter, Natalia.
Leaving her entire life in Mexico behind, Claudia recounts the terror of emigrating alone with her young daughter and the incredible challenges she faced defending her daughter’s health in the United States. When she arrived in Texas, Claudia discovered that being undocumented would mean more than immigrant status: it would be a way of life, of being a mother, and of being rejected even by those institutions that we rely on to take care of them.
Farfán-Santos spent five years with Claudia. As he listened to their experiences, he remembered his mother’s story, another life shaped by migration, the US-Mexico border, and both sides’ search for a healthier future. As we witness Claudia’s struggles with doctors and teachers, we see how the education and medical systems enforce illegal status and perpetuate disability. At one point, while defending her daughter, Claudia is suddenly struck with debilitating pain. Her classmates pick her up, send her to the doctor, and remind her why she should take care of herself.
Myth 1: Mothers are the backbone of society
2: and also – it’s not right.
3: Mothers are *human beings* not the lottery guy who carries the world on his back. (See photo👇🏽)
Myth 4: Mothers need better support from ALL aspects of society, from the micro to the macro. pic.twitter.com/GyFqon8FxV— Elizabeth Farfán-Santos, PhD (@ChicanaAnthropo) November 20, 2022
“One of the things the author talks about in the book and Claudia details is the amount of money they pay for private insurance to get access to all the specialists. “We’re talking thousands, tens of thousands of dollars that she and her husband are investing in insurance and in the public and private medical system so that their daughter gets the care she needs, because that’s the only way they can really do it,” said Farfán-Santos The Texas standard.
In 2016 he published Farfán-Santos “Black bodies, black rights: the politics of quilombolism in contemporary Brazill”, where he explores how the recognition of the quilombo significantly affected the daily lives of those experiencing this often complicated political process. Issues of identity, race, and rights juxtapose a community’s struggle to prove its historical authenticity and to acquire the land and rights it needs to survive. This book not only demonstrates the lived experience of a new and particular form of darkness in Brazil, but also shows how darkness is mobilized and reinvented to gain social rights and political recognition.
