WOMEN ON THE ANDEAN BORDER OF CHILE, BOLIVIA, AND PERU

Human mobilities on the Andean border between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru have been widely studied over the past few decades in historiographic, anthropological, and sociological research. This chapter analyzes the cross-border mobility of women in this region to understand how their borderlands mobility has served the development of regional economies to the extent that they have benefited from gender, ethnic, and social asymmetries. The chapter focuses on the participation of Aymara women, mostly from Bolivia, in three areas: the development of farm valleys in the Arica and Parinacota Region of Chile; in care work, especially domestic work, in the Tarapacá and Antofagasta Regions of Chile; and in the development of cross-border trade linked with Iquique’s Duty-Free Zone. The chapter examines how the asymmetries at the borders have a differentiated impact on Indigenous women: the intersection of gender and race produces greater vulnerability in cross-border mobility even while it constitutes opportunities. Overall, the chapter argues that women leave behind oppressive systems, systematic violence, and economic marginality. Crossing the border is often a survival strategy and a way to access new opportunities. But gender structures operate on the other side of the border, so they often encounter new forms of domination.