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ABSTRACT
This article takes an ethnographic perspective to explore the changing ways in which the municipal government of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, a city in southern Mexico whose economy is highly dependent on tourism, has regulated street musicians over the last five years. It focuses on permits given to street musicians which served to exert spatial and temporal control over street performance, while giving musicians no substantial rights in practice. Engaging the so-called ‘anarchist turn’ in anthropology, it shows that this policy instrument effectively sidelined non-monetary forms of exchange between musicians and their various publics, and privileged the commercial interests of restaurants and bars. Further, in practice, it pushed some street musicians onto the margins of the city’s economic life, where their performances were often more, rather than less, disruptive. Nonetheless, this situation altered significantly in the wake of social unrest in Summer 2016, which caused a precipitous drop in tourism to the city. The municipal government’s response to the ensuing economic crisis signified a belated recognition of the economic value of street musicianship.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Interview, Areli, 01-08-16. Note that some names and information have been altered for this article.
2. http://www.turismochiapas.gob.mx/sectur/san-cristbal-de-las-casas- (accessed 21-05-17).
3. Interview, Joel, 07-08-15.
4. Interview, Perro Mapache, 02-08-16.
5. Interview, Hernán, 23-07-15.
6. Interview, Joel, 07-08-15.
7. Interview, Oscar, 09-08-16.
8. Interview, Joe, 15-08-15.
9. One musician characterized this interchange in the following way: ‘It’s a benefit for them and for us. Between us, we help each other so that the tourist consume the products made here.’ (Interview, León, 04-08-16).
10. Interview, Oscar, 08-08-16.
11. Interview, Perro Mapache, 02-08-16; Interview, Oscar, 08-08-16.
12. Interview, Perro Mapache, 02-08-16.
13. Interview, Oscar Abe, 05-08-16; Interview, Valentín, 31-07-16; Interview, León, 04-08-16.
14. Interview, Perro Mapache, 02-08-16.
15. Interview, León, 04-08-16.
16. Municipal government workers did not charge street performers for a permit because, unlike street vendors, these performers were not in direct competition with commercial spaces (Interview, Areli, 01-08-16).
17. Interview, Silvia, 17-08-15; Interview, Julio, 14-08-15; Interview, Rosaura, 16-08-15; Interview, Jorge, 15-08-15.
18. Interview, Karla, 17-08-15; Interview, Valeska, 10-08-15; Interview, Francesca, 07-08-15.
19. Interview, Sergio, 17-08-15.
20. Interview, Oscar Abe, 05-08-16.
21. Indeed, the example of the musician collecting gifted foreign currency presents a variation on a tendency discussed by Graeber (Citation2001, 94–9): in becoming part of a musician’s private, invisible collection, currency lost power yet gained affective, relational specificity.
22. This advice could be highly specific to particular places – for instance, in Oaxaca City, musicians advised newcomers to play by churches, where it was considered that the police would not remove them (Interview, Valentín, 31-07-16).
23. Interview, Perro Mapache 02-08-16.
24. Interview, Beppe, 14-08-18.
25. Interview, Areli, 01-08-16.
26. See the rich description of San Cristóbal street performance in the 1990s given by Vargas Cetina (Citation2000).
27. Interview, Areli, 01-08-16.
28. Interview, Pedro, 22-07-15.
29. Interview, Pedro, 22-07-15.
30. Interview, Oscar, 09-08-16.
31. Interview, Juan López, 11-08-15.
32. Interview, Fernando, 07-08-15.
33. Interview, Valeska, 10-08-15.
34. Interview, Areli, 01-08-16.
35. Interview, Juan López, 11-08-15.
36. Interview, Andrés, 08-08-16.
37. Interview, Perro Mapache, 18-08-15.
38. Interview, Adrian, 01-08-16.
39. ‘[A]t a national level, there aren’t public policies which can stimulate the development of artistic activities, so that [artists] are well remunerated’ (Pedro, 22-07-15).
40. Areli, 01-08-16.
41. The figures vary according to the source – see http://aristeguinoticias.com/0308/mexico/nochixtlan-entre-gas-lacrimogeno-balazos-y-llanto-testigos-en-cnn/ (accessed 01-06-17) and http://www.milenio.com/politica/policias_federales_aceptan_uso_armas_cargo_Nochixtlan_Oaxaca_Milenio_Noticias_0_794920770.html (accessed 01-06-17).
42. See http://www.proceso.com.mx/447970/desalojan-bloqueo-de-la-cnte-en-autopista-de-chiapas-hay-dos-heridos (accessed 28-12-16).
43. http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/07/21/videos/1469064736_041178.html (accessed 28-12-16).
44. http://periodistassancristobal.org/2016/08/03/comercio-organizado-del-centro-de-sclc-se-une-al-primer-festival-cultural-centro-historico/ (accessed 29-12-16).
45. San Cristóbal became a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art in 2015 (https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/san-crist%C3%B3bal-de-las-casas, accessed 09-05-18).
46. Interview, Cristián, 08-08-16.
47. Interview, Perro Mapache, 02-08-16.
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Andrew Green
Andrew Green is an ethnomusicologist and popular music scholar whose work examines musical intersections with politics, activism, governance, geography, economics, and contemporary social movements. His research has been published in peer reviewed journals of popular music studies, ethnomusicology, and anthropology.