Corn is food, not contraband

The right to "free trade" at the Mexico-Guatemala border

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2279433
AutoresRebecca Galemba (0000-0003-4116-3749, University of Denver, autor de correspondencia), Rebecca B Galemba
Año2012
Volumen39
Número4
Páginas716-734
Fecha de publicación2012-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01391.x
OpenAlexW2045690242
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16
Referencias citadas26

With no local outlet to sell their corn harvests as a result of neoliberal policies, residents on the Mexico-Guatemala border pursued an alternative strategy. They mobilized to smuggle corn from Mexico to Guatemala and asserted that this constituted legitimate "free trade." Residents reinterpreted free trade to imply their right to "freely" sell corn over the border, thereby challenging the implications of official free-trade policies that were anything but free. Yet, as locals participate in this growing trade and negotiate with state officials, they may contribute to the neoliberal economic dynamics, increasing regional inequalities, and patron-client state relations they otherwise protest

Economics · Free trade · Free trade agreement · Inequality · International trade · Negotiation · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · State (computer science · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies