The ma(i)ze of globalization: Free trade, gender, and resistance in Oaxaca

This dissertation is a study of the commodity chain of corn, or the "ma(i)ze of globalization," within the recent tortilla crises and the exportation of genetically modified corn to Mexico. I analyze the changing roles of gender, the effects of globalization, the role of culture, and the story of resistance by indigenous peoples and farmworkers who claim that the planting of genetically modified corn is a sure path to environmental and economic devastation. Drawing on the Women, Culture, and Development paradigm my research centers women's agency and the words of indigenous men and women as I explore how free trade policies affect their lives. I show that the trade agreements regarding corn under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have resulted in a loss of markets for Mexican farmers to sell indigenous varieties of corn. This, in turn, has led to an increase in poverty, immigration, and changes to gendered divisions of labor. Additionally, I examine the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) organization and the Sin Maiz No Hay Pais (Without Corn there is no Country) campaign to demonstrate the ways in which indigenous rights movements use corn to symbolize the problems facing rural farmers and indigenous families. I conducted a nine-month multi-sited ethnography of the 2006 Oaxacan uprising (APPO), as well as 50 interviews with indigenous, Oaxacan farmworkers, women, tortilla makers, and civil and governmental organizations who work on agricultural and environmental issues.