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This is part two of a two-part blog series that tells the story of the founding of La Mujer Obrera and the work it’s engaged in on the ground in the Chamizal community.

Everything beautiful in Barrio Chamizal is because of the people. Our community spaces – schools, the community center, public housing, parks, green spaces, and gardens – are living legacies of a community’s collective power. La Mujer Obrera’s organizing approach is forged by the vision of women workers who formed the economic backbone of El Paso, Texas. Throughout the years, experience has taught us that as women we must implement our own ideas and strategies to create a sustainable community. Through our collective analysis of our history, culture, and struggle, we have come to see that the spaces we create are places of transformation where we can work collectively and in community.

It’s because of the residents that our Chamizal Community Center was constructed in 2020 on the site of an abandoned Levi’s factory that women workers were displaced from after NAFTA in the late 1990s. For decades, Barrio Chamizal didn’t have a library or community center. Organizing community meetings on the streets, sidewalks, and parking lots, we understood the crucial need for spaces where we could meet to discuss and solve issues. As displaced women workers demanded reprieve, a petition was circulated demanding a library, meeting rooms, a communal kitchen space, and parks. It would take years, but we finally secured support through a municipal quality-of-life bond in 2012. When planners revealed blueprints for a concrete recreational court, it was clear that residents’ input was not prioritized. We organized with residents again, and because of these efforts the Chamizal Community Center exists, equipped with a library, computer center, meeting space, classrooms, an industrial kitchen, gym and basketball courts, recreation area, and splash pad. In addition, we sought and secured an additional $1 million for children-centered green spaces and infrastructure surrounding the center. At the ribbon cutting ceremony we were recognized for our efforts and advocacy to ensure the Chamizal Community Center became a reality. Further recognizing the community is a large mural in front of the community center that commemorates the Chamizal neighborhood’s history and features the women workers of La Mujer Obrera, marching for justice.

La Mujer Obrera is equally committed to preserving important community spaces as it is in creating them. In 2023, La Mujer Obrera’s organizing work prevented the Ruben Salazar Apartments, the largest public housing complex in El Paso, from being demolished. Our campaign started in 2017 when we first learned the city wanted to raze the apartments. The housing authority had deemed our community ‘too poor for investment.’ As we organized community meetings with residents, city officials threatened that residents would lose their public housing credits if they didn’t relocate. We sought to secure housing in and near the Chamizal for families who refused to leave the community, but large families had difficulty finding safe and affordable living accommodations. Unfortunately, 300 families were forced to move.

When the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that families need safe and affordable housing, our community doubled down and demanded: reopen the Ruben Salazar Apartments. We protested and showed up to community meetings. We called out officials for intentional neglect, including lacking maintenance and security at the abandoned property. We shared testimonies of families living in deplorable tenements, staying on couches, and sleeping in shifts. We presented resident’s testimonies to officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. During these discussions, it was revealed that our housing authority director failed to tell federal officials that there was community demand for the Ruben Salazar Apartments. We then convened a stakeholder meeting with residents and government officials, forcing the housing authority to allocate federal renovation funding for the Chamizal. Today, the Ruben Salazar Apartments are undergoing a $93 million renovation, paid for with federal funding that we fought for. This was a tremendous victory for the women and children who have been discriminated against and displaced, historically and presently.

During our organizing efforts to save the Ruben Salazar Apartments, another equally important issue arose that demanded our attention. In 2019, as Chamizal families were being destabilized by the closure of the Ruben Salazar Apartments, the El Paso Independent School District unfairly closed our neighborhood’s schools and corralled the children of the Chamizal into unsafe, outdated elementary schools located at the edges of industrial zones. Alongside concerned parents of two elementary schools in the barrio, we tried to stop the closures by organizing. We held meetings on the streets when the schools wouldn’t allow us in, sent letters to officials in every sector of government, and held protests at school board meetings when the school district refused to listen to us. In May 2019, we led a seven-day hunger strike with over 40 parents and grandparents. During our seven-day encampment in front of the school, we held press conferences each day, calling for action and intervention. A powerful photo of barrio mothers made the front page of a national newspaper as we ended our hunger strike a few days before Mother’s Day. Our children’s school was dismantled before their eyes as essential staff and programs were cut mid-year, library shelves were emptied, and books and trophies tossed into the dumpster. Our children cried in our arms on the last day of school, as they witnessed a huge industrial waste fire burn behind the school they were slated to attend next. The unjust school closures disrupted two fragile communities, and a lack of a transitional plan caused further harm. In 2020, we launched a federal civil rights lawsuit citing discrimination and neglect of our barrio schools.

With renovations underway at the Ruben Salazar Apartments, we anticipate over 850 children to move back into the Chamizal by 2025. With this anticipated growth, we continue to demand the reopening of our shuttered barrio schools. From our lawsuit, we were able to negotiate with the school district to create policies and protections to address discriminatory practices. Also, as part of the lawsuit negotiations, the school district must undergo an independent equity audit and keep the shuttered schools maintained for at least five years as we evaluate plans to reopen them. La Mujer Obrera members currently sit on the Attendance Zone Committee to ensure that resident concerns are prioritized as boundary lines shift.

La Mujer Obrera continues to work on the frontlines of injustice to transform our community. Our struggle has always been carried by those who could least afford it – the poor, Mexican working class, Spanish-speaking women workers, struggling single mothers, and grandmothers raising children in oppressive conditions. La Mujer Obrera’s work has made great strides in organizing in a community that has been historically ignored, yet there is more work to be done.

La Lucha Sigue/The struggle continues.

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About the Author

La Mujer Obrera

Founded in 1981 by garment workers and Chicana activists, La Mujer Obrera is a local organization dedicated to creating communities defined by women. Their members and leaders live in the barrio Chamizal in El Paso, Texas, a predominantly Latino and immigrant neighborhood. Rooted in Mexican heritage and local knowledge, their Familias Unidas del Chamizal and Proyecto Verde programs apply a just transition framework to organize and work directly with residents—elders, families, and children—on pressing environmental hazards and injustices, like ozone nonattainment, toxic playgrounds, and polluting bus hubs and industrial fires near public schools and public housing.