Rooted in Place, Constructed in Movement: Transnational Labor Solidarities in the Texas-Mexico Borderlands.

Labor: Studies in Working- Class History, Volume 18, Issue 1 DOI 10.1215/15476715-8767326 © 2021 by Labor and Working- Class History Association 38 Rooted in Place, Constructed in Movement: Transnational Labor Solidarities in the Texas-Mexico Borderlands Sonia Hernández Reflecting on the recent transnational turn in the humanities and particularly its influence on the study of labor history, as well as the small but influential early studies shaping the subfield of labor in the US-Mexico borderlands, I take the Texas- Tamaulipas/Nuevo León border region as a point of departure to examine two cases of early twentieth-century transnational labor solidarity. In their petition for their compatriota, workers from Laredo, T exas, and Nuevo Laredo sought funds for his defense and emphasized Cortez's good fortune as he had escaped a lynching, yet knowing that Cortez had been an exception, the workers warned about the frequency with which Mexicans were lynched and urged all to take a proactive stance. In similar fashion, organizing the Comisión Organizadora para Ayudar en su Defensa al Mexicano Gregorio Cortéz, the Sociedad de Obreros and others reached across state and national boundaries and emphasized both Cortez's background as a compatriot appealing to Mexican nationalism as well as his status as a worker in the United States. While nationalism had worked to mitigate violence during the Cortez ordeal and bring workers together, it could also potentially alienate certain workers in these prolabor petitions precisely meant to create a sense of worker unity. [Extracted from the article]