Biography

Aída Hernández Castillo is Professor at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City. Aida started out as a journalist working with the Central American Press Agency at the age of eighteen. Much of her work is in support of indigenous feminist activism and women’s rights in Latin America. She has worked with indigenous communities in Mexico, with Guatemalan refugees and with African immigrants in Spain. She combines her academic work with media projects in radio, video and journalism.

 Aida’s work has been translated into English, French and Japanese. She has authored and co-authored numerous books including Mayan Lives, Mayan Utopias: The Indigenous Peoples of Chiapas and the Zapatista Rebellion (2003), The Other Word: Women and Violence in Chiapas Before and After Acteal (2001) and Histories and Stories from Chiapas: Border Identities in Southern Mexico (2001). Aida has contributed chapters to Cultural Politics and Resistance in the 21^st Century (2011), Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms (2010) and The SAGE Handbook of Identities (2010). In 2013-2014, Aida was Simón Bolívar Chair at the Centre for Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge.