The Borders of AIDS

"In this important monograph, Chávez eloquently interrogates the concept of national belonging as it relates to race, disease, power, and morality in the US. She clearly and articulately expresses her core thesis of the alienizing logic of exclusion and offers a fresh and insightful contribution to existing histories of the early years of the ongoing AIDS crisis by repositioning themes of race and immigration into the central frame of this narrative."—Connections

"[P]rovides a multifaceted narrative analysis of the dual policy frameworks of quarantine and immigration-related bans and detention as the United States coped with the rise of HIV/AIDS in the last quarter of the twentieth century. [Chávez's]work represents an admirable effort to integrate relevant voices from a variety of strata. Naturally, all historical work in the contemporary era should endeavor to do the same, but the tapestry Chávez weaves through her diverse employment of sources proffers truly unique perspectives in her field."—H-Net Reviews

"This book made me hopeful about what scholarship can be and do. Chávez plays with time, drawing connections between the Reconstruction era, the AIDS epidemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, but always carefully. Chávez is confident about her political commitments, while not afraid to admit what she and we do not yet know. And perhaps most importantly, she allows oppressed people's freedom dreams to live on."—Andrea Bolivar, American Ethnologist

"An important contribution to critical migration studies, race and ethnic studies, and the social history of public health. By centering how black and brown groups were affected by the AIDS crisis, The Borders of AIDS advances understanding of how race, state power, and disease intertwine in reproducing the citizen/alien divide."—Neel Ahuja, University of California, Santa Cruz