Vulnerability and resilience: women in their diversities in the face of urban-environmental risks in informal settlements in the northern periphery of Puebla, Mexico.

Abstract

Living in peripheral areas of Latin American cities is analyzed from different perspectives due to their multiple complexities, such as lack of public services, amenities, segregation, and inequality. However, one of the fundamental characteristics of most of these spaces is that they are constantly threatened by urban and environmental risks. In this article, we study the case of informal settlements in the northern periphery of the municipality of Puebla, Mexico. These threats, which sometimes turn into disasters, do not affect the population living in these settlements uniformly; instead, women, in all their diversity, directly face the consequences. This is because they traditionally take on the caregiving tasks in their homes and communities and also participate in the prevention and improvement of their settlements, aiming to preserve the daily lives of their families and neighbours.

This article presents a case study of Puebla, a mid-sized city, where urban and environmental risks are numerous in the northern periphery, and where a population has settled for over 30 years, improving their living spaces with or without government assistance. This has been possible thanks to the organization of women, who have played a key role in resolving and accessing public services such as electricity, water, and paving. Although this entails greater workload for the organized group of women, it also represents spaces of resistance and advocacy, as they have acquired negotiation skills and knowledge to recognize acts of violence against them.