Of Extractivism, Waste, and Cotton: Mexican Women Novelists Confronting Environmental Crisis

Abstract

Over the past decade, inspired in part by the Ni Una Menos movement, Latin American women novelists have explored the intersections of gender, oppression, and environmental issues. While contemporary Mexican women writers address climate breakdown, their work remains understudied. This article contextualizes Mexican environmentalist thought and situates contemporary women authors within the country’s literary tradition. It then offers an in-depth analysis of three novels: Feral, Basura [Trash], and Autobiografía del algodón [The Autobiography of Cotton]. My approach draws from feminist decolonial studies, feminist political ecology, and Indigenous ecologies to examine these texts. Gabriela Jáuregui’s Feral (2022) follows four women, including an archaeologist who allies with a local community against extractivist practices. I engage with Indigenous cosmovisions to examine how the novel expands community to include the more-than-human world. Sylvia Aguilar-Zéleny’s Basura (2018) portrays marginalized women in Ciudad Juárez surviving on waste. Drawing from Bauman’s “disposable lives” (2014) and Wenzel’s “wasted lands and wasted lives” (2020), I explore systemic exploitation in the novel. Lastly, Cristina Rivera Garza’s Autobiografía del algodón (2020) traces her ancestors’ labor in Tamaulipas-Texas cotton fields. Using Rivera Garza’s concept of “geological writings” (2022), I analyze how the novel represents land through sediment and deep time. Despite differences in genre and approach, these novels reveal the intersectional nature of environmental crises, offering critical perspectives on gender, labor, and ecological devastation in Mexico.