Violence Against Latina Immigrants: Citizenship, Inequality, and Community

"A meaningful documentation of the ways in which structural and cultural conditions in current immigration and violence against women laws in the United States reinforce the hierarchies and intersections of race, class, and heterosexuality that impact on the lives of battered Latina immigrants."---Natalie J. Sokoloff, author of Domestic Violence at the Margins: Readings in Race, Class, Gender, and Culture

"With great sensitivity to the plight of Latina immigrants who face partner abuse, Villalon has produced a beautifully crafted and finely grained ethnography. The book makes a major contribution to the analysis of violence against women, immigration and citizenship. It is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the complexities involved in those issues."---Mounira M. Charrad, author of States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco

"Many of us have been waiting for this book for a long time. It does not disappoint. By creating a dialogue between domestic violence research and immigration studies, Villalon puts into sharp relief the experiences of women rendered invisible in both research traditions. By locating the experiences of immigrant women and their advocates within a rich ethnographic study of state policies and organizational practices, Villalon paints a complex picture of the contradictions that contribute to the reproduction of inequality. This is activist scholarship at its best."---Nancy A. Naples, author of Grassroots Warriors: Activist Mothering, Community Work and the War against Poverty.

Caught between violent partners and the bureaucratic complications of the U.S. immigration system, many immigrant women are particularly vulnerable to abuse. For two years, Roberta Villaon volunteered at a nonprofit group that offered free legal services to underprivileged immigrants who had been victims of initmate partner violence. Her innovative study of Latina survivors of domestic abuse explores the intersection of immigration, citizenship, and violence, and shows how inequality is perpetuated even through domestic violence-based immigration laws and the well-intentioned delivery of vital services. Villalon proposes an active advocacy agenda and suggests possible policy changes, revealing the complexities of the lives of battered Latina immigrants.