Altha Cravey
University of North Carolina

Projects
Celebrating the virgin in "la mala vecindad"
In collaboration with Elva E. Bishop
(A work in progress – March 2007)

Our documentary brings together several distinct celebrations of the Virgen de Guadelupe in Durham NC. In a run-down apartment complex on Durham’s east side (la mala vecinidad), dancers of all ages honor the virgin with hours of ancient indigenous traditional matachine dancing. Afterword, many of these same dancers and their families go to a special Catholic mass for the virgin. In yet another separate activity linked to the immigrants rights movement and Tepeyac, antorcha runners passed through Durham en route from Mexico City to New York City in December of 2005. These three celebrations of the virgen – and their interconnections and impacts on the community -- are highlighted in our documentary.

Bio
Altha J. Cravey is author of Women and Work in Mexico's Maquiladoras (Rowman and Littlefield Inc., 1998) and Racializing Spaces: Mexican Transnational Lives in the United States South (Under contract with University of North Carolina Press). Cravey has been involved in collaborative projects with Mexican and Latino Immigrants in North Carolina and garnered support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Her current ethnographic research on Mexican transnational lives in the US South intersects her research interests of globalization, political economy of Mexican development, and feminist theory. Cravey earned a PhD at the University of Iowa and joined UNC's faculty in 1994. An earlier career as a construction electrician and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local # 481 sparked her interest in understanding how certain jobs in particular places become associated with masculinity and femininity. Her research documents interconnections among geographies of job markets, ethnic and gendered identities, and the pursuit of social justice. Cravey recently produced a documentary film titled People's Guelaguetza: Oaxacans Take it to the Streets (co-produced with Elva E. Bishop) which explores the cultural politics of the 2006 uprising in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca.