Corn is food, not contraband

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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2279433
AutoresRebecca Galemba (0000-0003-4116-3749, University of Denver, autor correspondente), Rebecca B Galemba
Ano2012
Volume39
Fascículo4
Páginas716-734
Data de publicação2012-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01391.x
OpenAlexW2045690242
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas16
Referências 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