Neoliberalization, Transnational Migration, and the Varied Landscape of Economic Subjectivity in the Totonacapan Region of Veracruz

Abstract

Over the past two decades, many of Mexico's rural communities have been faced with significant challenges arising from two interrelated processes: the neoliberal restructuring of rural policy and citizenship, and the dramatic increase in transnational migration. The ways in which local communities experience and respond to such changes, however, are variable. We examine the intersection of neoliberal socioeconomic change and transnational migration in the Totonacapan region of Veracruz, highlighting their uneven regional impacts in the largely Mestizo coastal region and the more indigenous sierra. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we show how neoliberal change is filtered through local historical trajectories and cultural understandings that influence the development of migration in the region. We suggest how different conceptions of social responsibility influence the outcomes of migration, with some communities experiencing severe dislocation and others managing the process for the benefit of the common. In both cases, we argue, the new economic subjectivities arising from intensified migration can be seen as a symptom, and thus potentially a source of ethical critique, of neoliberalism's many failures.

Durante las pasadas dos décadas muchas comunidades rurales de México han tenido que enfrentar retos significativos surgidos de procesos interrelacionados: la reestructuración neoliberal de las políticas y ciudadanía rurales, y el dramático incremento de la migración transnacional. La manera como las comunidades locales experimentan tales cambios y responden a los mismos son, sin embargo, variables. Examinamos la intersección del cambio socioeconómico neoliberal y la migración transnacional en la región de Totonacapan de Veracruz, destacando sus impactos regionales desiguales en la zona costera, predominantemente mestiza, y en la más indígena región de la sierra. A partir de los datos obtenidos en entrevistas a profundidad, mostramos cómo el cambio neoliberal es filtrado a través de las trayectorias históricas locales y por los entendimientos culturales que influyen en el desarrollo de la migración de la región. Sugerimos cómo las diferentes concepciones de responsabilidad social influyen los resultados de la migración, que muestran la severa dislocación que experimentan algunas comunidades, al tiempo que otras manejan el proceso en beneficio del común. En ambos casos, argüimos, las nuevas subjetividades económicas que surgen de la intensificación migratoria pueden verse como un síntoma y por lo mismo potencialmente una fuente de crítica ética a las muchas fallas del neoliberalismo.

Key Words:

• agrarian change
• indigenous ethics
• Mexican migration
• neoliberal subjectivity
• Totonac Veracruz

关键词:

• 农业的变化
• 土著道德
• 墨西哥移民
• 新自由主义的主体
• 多多纳克韦拉克鲁斯

Palabras clave:

• cambio agrario
• ética indígena
• migración mejicana
• subjetividad neoliberal
• Totonaca Veracruz

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank our research assistant, Azalia Hernandez, and our community partner, Juvencio Rocha Peralta, President of the Association of Mexicans in North Carolina (AMEXCAN), for their invaluable collaboration and assistance. Thanks are due also to Karen Mulcahy, who produced the maps. This research was made possible through support from the National Science Foundation Geography and Regional Science Program (Award #0547725), the University of Texas at Austin Harrington Faculty Fellows Program, and the East Carolina University Division of Research and Graduate Studies.

Notes

1. To protect the anonymity of our sources, we identify location only by municipio (community names have been changed), and we note only the occupation or position, and not the name, of our informants. Although we made a concerted attempt to capture the voices of women during our fieldwork, we draw primarily in this article from our conversations with government officials and community leaders (particularly the local agente municipal, or mayor), and the gendered nature of these positions in rural Mexico means that the twenty-four respondents who are quoted herein are all men. This evidently shapes the meanings associated with neoliberalism and migration in particular ways, something we hope to explore further in future work.

2. TADESA, Tabacos Desvenados S.A., is an affiliate of Philip Morris International, and part of Grupo Carso, owned by Carlos Slim, the wealthiest person in the world in 2010.