Memories of racism, exploitation and resistance. The cutting of cane in the Autlán-El Grullo valley, Mexico, 1968-2013

Abstract

The 1960s marked the beginning of the sugarcane agroindustrial project in the Autlán-El Grullo valley, Jalisco, Mexico. In 1968, the first sugar cane was planted, the sugar mill began to be built, and agricultural workers were recruited outside the region. During the following decades, cane became the main crop and key commodity in the economy of the valley. Currently, the local elite remembers this shift to agro-industry as a great achievement of politicians and sugarcane organizations. In this official story of regional progress, cane cutters and their families only appear in temporary employment records, government statistics of beneficiaries and in anecdotes to speak of indigenous, migrant, poor and violent.

The objective of the article is to evidence and question such dominant narrative through the historical accounts of cane workers. His memories are of labor exploitation, racism and spatial segregation; but also of daily resistances to face such structural and symbolic violence. The main argument is that the cane-sugar project is a process of domination and class conflict articulated with the racialization of the cutters and the devaluation of women's work.

The document is the result of a regional historical ethnography with an anthropological political economy approach. The study was conducted between 2010 and 2013 with oral histories; interviews; analysis of press and official documents; and participant observation in plots, shelters, galleys, government offices, companies and sugarcane organizations.