Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 4.04 Cultural Integration
Presentation #1 Title
Los Otros Lados: Transnational Agrarian Livelihoods and Kinship in West-Central Mexico and Southern Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
“Tiene que irse para sembrar” “You have to leave [home] in order to farm [at home].” This is a saying often heard in a rural village in the agricultural region, el Bajio, of west-central Mexico. While the idea that a farming family has to leave their home to farm sounds like a contradiction, it is a collective understanding in the rural village which characterizes a basic social problem—that is people have to migrate to make a living. In this paper, I tell stories of one extended transnational family who straddles agricultural lives in foothills communities in the Bajio and Southern Appalachia. The bi-national families discussed in this paper are raising families, producing food, shaping agricultural labor, even acquiring land and capital—all simultaneously in two rural places, in interwoven neighboring nation-states in North America. Their stories illustrate how family members, as campesinos in Mexico and Latino Appalachians in the U.S. South, use their family’s agricultural history and practical knowledge to contribute to agricultural industries and rural communities. In Southern Appalachia, these agriculturalists are building up the tomato industry in an area in western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. These families are picking tomatoes, packing tomatoes, renting and buying land to grow tomatoes, transporting and shipping tomatoes all from Southern Appalachia in addition to teaming-up with tomato growers in the region through various land-labor arrangements. Through collective practices, these farming families are building cultural identity, mitigating social costs of disenfranchisement and laying the foundations for an alternative farming future.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
I am a third-year cultural anthropology doctoral student working under Dr. Ann Kingsolver and Dr. Carmen Martinez Novo. I try to look at intersections between im/migraiton, agricultural production and transnational kinship practices, operating within our global food system.
Los Otros Lados: Transnational Agrarian Livelihoods and Kinship in West-Central Mexico and Southern Appalachia
Harris Hall 139
“Tiene que irse para sembrar” “You have to leave [home] in order to farm [at home].” This is a saying often heard in a rural village in the agricultural region, el Bajio, of west-central Mexico. While the idea that a farming family has to leave their home to farm sounds like a contradiction, it is a collective understanding in the rural village which characterizes a basic social problem—that is people have to migrate to make a living. In this paper, I tell stories of one extended transnational family who straddles agricultural lives in foothills communities in the Bajio and Southern Appalachia. The bi-national families discussed in this paper are raising families, producing food, shaping agricultural labor, even acquiring land and capital—all simultaneously in two rural places, in interwoven neighboring nation-states in North America. Their stories illustrate how family members, as campesinos in Mexico and Latino Appalachians in the U.S. South, use their family’s agricultural history and practical knowledge to contribute to agricultural industries and rural communities. In Southern Appalachia, these agriculturalists are building up the tomato industry in an area in western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. These families are picking tomatoes, packing tomatoes, renting and buying land to grow tomatoes, transporting and shipping tomatoes all from Southern Appalachia in addition to teaming-up with tomato growers in the region through various land-labor arrangements. Through collective practices, these farming families are building cultural identity, mitigating social costs of disenfranchisement and laying the foundations for an alternative farming future.
