Mothering as Health Security: Undocumented Mothers, Children and Medical Alienation in the United States

Over generations of exclusion, undocumented Mexican immigrants have had to regularly confront a prohibiting health care system despite alienation, marginalization and the threat of deportation. In this talk, I discuss the impact of political exclusion and alienating discourses on the health practices and beliefs of undocumented Mexican mothers through the narrative of mothers in Houston, who find themselves at the painful intersection of political and medical alienation. These narratives reflect an analytical framework that center undocumented motherhood as a space of necessary resilience and resistance where women are forced to advocate for their children's health despite prohibitive barriers and dangerous potential consequences.