Las Malcriadas Fronterizas x Resistencia Fronteriza
Las Malcriadas Fronterizas is an organization formed by a circle of women writers based out of Brownsville, TX. They are 10 writers, most of whom are domestic workers promoting narrative power through transformative practices in creative writing. They have a base of over 20 domestic workers who belong to three industries: nannies, house cleaners, and in-home care providers. Las Malcriadas Fronterizas use the power of art and culture to build, disrupt, and strengthen our communities in the border region.
During the summer of 2025, Resistencia Fronteriza organized a series of virtual art workshops for Las Malcriadas Fronterizas. These workshops were focused on exploring identity, migration and home through collage-making, drawing and painting. On August 2nd, 2025, the works were showcased in an art exhibition at Flower Shop in Brownsville, TX.
Meet Las Malcriadas Fronterizas
Lucía Aguilar
Nacida en Michoacán y criada en Baja California Sur, Mexico. Es trabajadora del hogar, niñera y cocinera. Es miembro de Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) por 9 años. Lucía toca puertas impulsando el voto y viaja constantemente a Washington, El Capitolio y Sacramento, California para abogar por una reforma migratoria. Disfruta hablar con inmigrantes para informarles sobre sus derechos. Ha viajado a Atlanta representando a su organización. Es portavoz de National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) en Hollywood defendiendo a las trabajadoras del hogar. Con Sierra Club lucha en contra de la contaminación de la ciudad. Entrevista a candidatos locales para su elección. Cuando alguna persona necesita recursos investiga cómo puede ayudarles. Disfruta escribir para expresar sus ideas recordando sus raíces.
Born in Michoacán and raised in Baja California Sur, Mexico, she is a domestic worker, nanny, and cook. She has been a member of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) for nine years. Lucía knocks on doors encouraging people to vote and travels regularly to Washington, the Capitol, and Sacramento, California, to advocate for an immigration reform. She enjoys speaking with immigrants to inform them about their rights. She has traveled to Atlanta representing her organization, and she is also a spokesperson for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) in Hollywood. As a member of the Sierra Club, she fights against city pollution, and interviews local candidates for their election. When someone needs resources, she researches how she can help them. She enjoys writing to express her ideas while remembering her roots.
Laura Rubio
Laura Rubio is originally from Maravatío, Michoacán, and has made East Palo Alto, California, her second home. A domestic worker, immigrant, renter, and community leader, she came to this country with the dream of providing a better life for her children, never imagining that along the way she would also find opportunities for herself: to grow, raise her voice, and become a leader committed to her community. Passionate about social justice, she has dedicated much of her life to being a staunch advocate for tenants' rights and an active voice in the fight to prevent the displacement of families already living in East Palo Alto—working-class families who have put down roots and built a multicultural community. Her commitment to equity and dignity has led her to occupy a key position as a member of the East Palo Alto Rent Stabilization and Control Board, where she looks after the interests of her people. She is also part of the Latino Committee, where she continues to strengthen civic and cultural participation. She loves volunteering, especially in activities that celebrate the identity and cultural richness of her community. Laura cares deeply about the education of young people, believing that knowledge opens paths to freedom and transformation. She also promotes writing as a tool to release emotions and heal wounds, sharing her own experience as a woman who has found in words a form of resistance and emotional freedom. Beyond her activism, Laura is a daughter, sister, and mother. Her two children have been her greatest inspiration and fundamental pillars in her life. She is deeply proud of their achievements and the journey they have taken together.
Her life quote—which guides her daily walk—is:
“I am always standing up for my community.”
Lulú Reboyoso
I was born in Mexico and am a single mother of two. I studied a technical career in accounting and worked as an accountant for hotel companies in Mexico. I immigrated to the United States more than 15 years ago, seeking to improve my living conditions back home. My first jobs in the United States were as a domestic worker, cleaning houses, and caring for children, so I became involved in the fight to improve workers' rights, and especially those of immigrants, given my new identity as an immigrant. This is how I learned about the first organization I joined: Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), where I learned to fight, speak out, and know that I had rights. In 2014, I joined MUA in the fundraising area as a Wellness Assistant and Coordinator. My current role at MUA is Co-Director of Wellness and Learning. At MUA, I met Karina Muñiz, the policy director that led the space to make the voices of domestic workers heard through writing, and at the same time, to use it as a tool to heal and change the narrative against workers and immigrants. We were able to publish an anthology of the writings that emerged from this writing space “Mujeres Mágicas: Domestic Workers Right to Write by Las Malcriadas” (as we called ourselves thanks to one of the writings in the book).
A year later, thanks to our writing experience and our connection with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, we met a group of women from the border area of Texas. Later, other workers from California and Seattle joined us, and they were motivated to write and create their own anthology. In this project, I supported them with my colleagues Susana Cabrales and Karina Muñiz, where we suggested the name Malcriadas Fronterizas, and may they continue to flourish!
Now I can proudly say that I am an activist, a working mother, and an immigrant writer, challenging the negative narratives created against our communities.
I have had many important achievements and satisfactions; I am currently working as a monitor for the Carrizo Come Crudo Tribe, I am part of the Las Malcriadas Fronterizas Writers Circle. I obtained my Certification as a Health Promoter, and served on the National Council of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) for two years. I am an environmental and human rights activist.
Delmis Argueta
Delmis Argueta is a Latina immigrant from Honduras, a wife and a mother of three children—two boys and one girl—and a grandmother. First and foremost she is grateful to God, and a teacher at her local Christian Church.
She is a domestic worker and childcare provider who came to Casa Latina in Seattle, Washington, looking for a job and English classes. However, she became more involved by actively participating in the citywide bill of rights for domestic workers, which was approved in 2019. She spread the word about these benefits to every domestic worker contacted and co-facilitated the "Hacemos Historia” (We Make History) workshops for the National Domestic Workers Alliance twice. She is currently part of the writers' circle "Las Malcriadas Fronterizas" where she was part of the first anthology "Historias de Mujeres Indomables" (Stories of Indomitable Women), which were published at the end of 2023. She continues to practice what she loves: writing. Delmis opens her mind and heart, telling stories to motivate and bring memories to life in the hopes of healing someone's heart by identifying with one of them; because she is a firm believer that stories have the power to make a change for everyone.
Lety Hernandez
Lety Hernandez is Mexican and immigrant. As part of Las Malcriadas Fronterizas, she opens her heart to share her experiences as a domestic worker in the United States at the young age of 16. Today, after 36 years, her vision is to leave a legacy for her fellow sisters to have their rights enforced. She firmly believes that together they can turn the course of their story into a turning point.
She demands respect, freedom, and justice for all. Yes, we can!
Rosa Sanluis Reyes
Rosa Sanluis Reyes is originally from the Tenek region of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. She became involved in activism in 2013 with the mass arrival of unaccompanied children at the border, visiting them weekly in detention centers and accompanying them to court where lawyers argued their cases. Due to oral tradition, she grew up hearing stories that she now captures in her writing at the Las Malcriadas Fronterizas writer’s circle, where she is a co-founder. Writing is in her blood, as it naturally elevates her voice as an immigrant, woman, domestic worker, and activist.
She was a leading organizer in the study Living in the Shadows: Latina Domestic Workers in the Texas-Mexico Border Region. She promoted two proclamations in Cameron and Hidalgo counties, recognizing June 16 as "International Domestic Workers Day."
Maria Quintana
Maria is a woman who supports education for all. She is originally from Tamaulipas, Mexico, and studied at the Universidad del Noreste in Tampico, Tamaulipas. She helps the community by educating people about the importance of protecting and conserving the environment. She teaches community classes on health, labor rights, and domestic violence, among other topics. She enjoys motivating people to succeed, and currently works in massage therapy, with over 20 years of experience.
Magali Ortega
A humanist and feminist. She is proud to be a first-generation American, raised on a humble ranch in Willacy County. A border woman that carries Mexico in her blood and Texas in her heart. Magali was born in Harlingen in 1992 and grew up among the dust and dreams of Lyford, learning that life is cultivated like the land, with patience and steady hands. Her activism was born out of necessity. She arrived in the United States in the 1990s, following her mother's dream of a better life. Over time, she understood that her story, that of migrants, and those who cross borders, needed to be told. In 2020, she joined Las Malcriadas Fronterizas, a collective of writers who break silences. There, she found a space where art and struggle intertwine. As a passionate member of Las Malcriadas Fronterizas, she finds her voice in writing, history, and nature. Magali writes to name what hurts and celebrate what resists. To write is to sow. Each word is a seed that can blossom into consciousness, into solidarity, into change. Sharing her voice is to build bridges so that those who don't know the desert understand thirst, so that those who have never migrated feel the weight of someone else's suitcase. Each verse is an act of love and rebellion that shouts, "This is also my story." Her life smells of memory, of her blooming garden, of the borderless dishes she cooks, of the craft beers she occasionally enjoys, of the songs she dances and sings, and of the time she spends with her best friend and husband, Omar, and her five furry and feathered accomplices.
Her motto is: "Don't judge others based on your own circumstances," as she constantly seeks new perspectives and truths, for others and for herself.
Dina Nuñez
I am Dina Nuñez, originally from Matamoros, Mexico. I have lived in Brownsville, Texas, for 31 years, and I am the mother of two daughters and one son and the grandmother of eight boys and two granddaughters. When my human rights as a woman were violated, I learned about a women's program that helped me survive and legalize my status. For the past 21 years, I have worked as a Human Rights Promoter, providing educational workshops to the community to help them understand their rights and benefit them by achieving dignity, equality, and justice for their families and those of the border communities in general, changing their lives.
By protecting the environment, I help minimize climate change, which affects us in the areas of migration, employment, housing, infrastructure, and the food industry. I participated in a curriculum on the climate change crisis by providing workshops on the impact of businesses in our Brownsville area. I facilitated two proclamations, one on May 29, 2018, in Cameron County. The second one was on June 16, 2021, in Brownsville, Texas, recognizing June 16 as "International Domestic Workers Day." I have been a volunteer at the South Texas Human Rights Center since its inception. Its mission is to save lives through water stations, search and rescue of lost migrants, and body identification. As the founder of the writers' circle "Las Malcriadas Fronterizas," I write and share the stories of working women and victims of abuse as nannies, providers, and cleaners in homes, hotels, and restaurants, thus contributing to a shift toward labor and environmental justice for immigrant women workers. I participated in workshops at Flower Shop Art Studio, collaborating on artistic designs for the creation of a mural recognizing domestic workers, who are the heart of the home.
Maria Elstner
My name is Maria Elstner. Mexican and Tamaulipeca at heart. I am an American citizen and have lived in the United States for over 21 years, between Brownsville, Florida and Los Fresnos, Texas. I am the mother of a wonderful daughter who is the reason for my existence and my emotional support. I became an activist in 2017 when the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) invited me to work for the study Living in the Shadows: Latina Domestic Workers in the Texas-Mexico Border Region. My participation consisted in collecting the testimonies of domestic workers who had been abused at work, emotionally, physically, sexually, and verbally by their employers, in addition to being deprived of their freedom, since I have also been a domestic worker. These heartbreaking stories touched and impacted my heart, and since then I decided to become an activist. I am inspired by my daily life, my sorrows, and my achievements. My passion for writing, my irreverent approach, and my characteristic humor are reflected in my writing, in which I express my disagreement with all the labor injustices to which domestic workers are exposed. My stories and poems are my voice and the best way to say: ¡YA BASTA!
I have had many important achievements and satisfactions; I am currently working as a monitor for the Carrizo Come Crudo Tribe, I am part of the Las Malcriadas Fronterizas Writers Circle. I obtained my Certification as a Health Promoter, and served on the National Council of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) for two years. I am an environmental and human rights activist.
