Proletarianization between parents and children. Reconfiguration of work practices and experiences in the Tehuacán region, Puebla, Mexico.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the working conditions of parents and children in the Tehuacán, Puebla region in a context of job insecurity. The contrasts and contradictions arising from the emergence of salaried work and one based on aid and cooperation are highlighted, that is to say, the second one is incrusted by proceeding from the maquila.From ethnographic work, carried out over an extended period of time 2010 and a short one in 2018, on the experiences of workers and their parents, shows how the work of the maquila at home and in the factory is experienced, and to what extent the activities focused on agriculture, the crafts and commerce are no longer attractive to children. There is a gradual process of proletarianization; a sector of the population forms a cheap and available labor force, and the region shows a sectoral shift in which dependence on regional and transnational capital predominates. The ethnographic data reveal the way in which class, gender and ethnicity are mobilized and articulated in a context of structural dispossession in the region.