“Ambiguous cost – Cultural externalities of market-based agrarian reform on indigenous household social reproduction in late 20th century Mexico”
Discussant: Nahomi Linda Esquivel (Department of History, University of Chicago)
Chapter 1 of my dissertation argues that Mexico’s development strategy in the second half of the 20th century fundamentally changed the relationship of indigenous people to land, disrupting households’ social reproductive capacity. The period of state-driven industrialization (1940-1972) stimulated large-scale farming and crop commodification that reduced land access, deflated prices, and consequently contracted household income-generating capacity. Social welfare policies enacted from 1973-1982 meant to assuage negative effects of market restructuring were only accessible to well-organized households near urban areas, leading to urbanization and heightened inequality. The economic crisis of 1982 resulted in market liberalization and draconian cuts to social programs, culminating with the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. These policies deteriorated farming conditions in rural Mexico, progressively leading indigenous families to seek revenue sources in remote urban areas. These conditions, together with high demand for low-skill labor in the United States and decreased cost of migration through established networks, resulted in historically high rates of Mexico-US migration that lasted until the Great Recession of 2008.
Domestically, Mexico passed several laws during the liberalization period that further changed community and household configurations. Policies like PRONASOL (1989) decentralized development responsibilities to community councils staffed by rotating resident members, essentially expanding household responsibilities and costs. Furthermore, Mexico enacted compulsory secondary education for all children of school age (1993), effectively increasing household expenditure (e.g. annual fees and uniforms) and decreasing income revenues by delaying labor market entry for children ages 12-15. Subsidies and cash-transfer programs like PROCAMPO and PROGRESA were meant to assuage household income shortages, but these were ineffective in reducing poverty in indigenous communities.
Collectively, these policies exerted increasing pressure on indigenous families to abandon subsistence methods of cultural reproduction and commodify crops or seek employment. As small-scale farmers could not compete with technology-enhanced agrarian practices, many searched for employment in urban areas or industrialized farms in Mexico, and following globalization, the United States. Remaining family members experienced dramatic expansion of their roles and responsibilities due not only to the absence of the migrating member, but also because of increasing household costs and reduced sources of income following neoliberal market restructuring, progressive social policies, and demographic shifts. These shifts created tensions in the moral framework of indigenous communities as they grappled with expanded female authority and responsibilities. Additionally, in many instances, migration led to family dissolution with implications for remittances and household income. Lastly, crop subsidies and tariff reforms exerted negative effects on nutrition via price-shifts of staple crops and processed foods.
As stated, in this chapter I argue that government policies changed the relationship of indigenous household to land, disrupting households’ reproductive capacity and ultimately impacting the development ecology of remaining children. The chapter contributes to migration literature by contextualizing the push factors compelling migration in historical and sociological frameworks and relating these to household reconfiguration strategies in a period of social and economic turbulence. In doing so, the chapter will inform an analytic model that accounts for key social and household constructs relevant to Mexicans in the period of interest.