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the long haul in Mexican trucking: traversing the borderlands of the north and the south
Author(s) -
ALVAREZ ROBERT R.,
COLLIER GEORGE A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1994.21.3.02a00080
Subject(s) - maya , ethnic group , traverse , capitalism , geography , ethnology , economy , sociology , archaeology , political science , anthropology , politics , economics , cartography , law
Northern Mexican truckers use personal networks, patronage, and trust to organize their long‐haul produce trade, in contrast to more corporative styles and organization of highland Maya truckers in Mexico's south, who also ship to and from Mexico's central produce markets. Yet both groups of entrepreneurs traverse their respective borderlands into alien markets (across the U.S.‐Mexico border into Los Angeles, or into Mexican national markets formerly closed to Mayas). In doing so, both elaborate their distinctive style of trucking as ethnic enterprise, contributing to the ethnic differentiation of borderland zones under contemporary capitalism. [truckers, Mexico, Maya, ethnicity, borderlands, entrepreneurs]