Edward F Fischer

Maya Peoples in a Globalized World

						Guatemala	U.S.		E.U.
población alfabetizada:				67%		>99%		>99%
acceso a electricidad: 				65%		>99%		>99%
indice gini de desigualdad:			0.596		0.401		0.361
líneas telefónicas (por cada 1000 personas):	41		661		531
hosts del internet (por cada 1000 personas):	0.08		112.8		26.7

Tecpán Guatemala


 

-traditional dress: traje
-religion: Catholicism, Protestantism, traditionalist
                     
  

-big Thursday market:

Disasters, Natural and Political

-1976 earthquake

-la violencia

The (More-or-Less) Traditional Economic Bases
-milpa agriculture (maize and beans)
 
 

commercial farming (wheat, avocados, 'truck crops')





Neoliberal Reforms in Guatemala in the 1990s
-deregulating markets, privatizing national industries (telecoms, railroad), reducing tariffs
-the "Washington consensus"

-opening up markets to U.S. wheat imports


Nontraditional Agricultural Export (NTAX) crops:
    -broccoli, snow peas, blackberries, raspberries, etc. for export to the US
    -mostly grown by smallholding Maya farmers
    -labor intensive, favors smallholders

planting:

       
harvesting:


packing:

Another form of economic imperialism?
It’s not true that we don’t understand the risks. We do understand what the risks are. First, if we don’t take care of the land, we won’t have anything to pass to our children . . . If you analyze the costs of production of beans, of corn, of wheat, these really aren’t profitable either. They never have been. But now these new crops have come and they provide a little benefit to the families. These crops involve the whole family. It’s not just the man that works in the field; the wife works, the kids work, which is to say it’s communal labor. And this is well adapted to Maya culture: doing things together. And this can provide unity. Let’s take the case of snow peas. When it’s harvest time, all our relatives go out to harvest. This is the most important thing. We know the risks.

Tecpán Today

 










 

June 10, 2002: