Maquila Age Maya: Changing Households and Communities of the Central Highlands of Guatemala

Maquila Age Maya:Changing Households and Communities ofthe Central Highlands of Guatemala

Predictions in the 1950s forewarned of the end of traditional industriesby the conclusion of the twentieth century. Automation and a large array ofrobots \\ ould replace a tired working class, w hich would become more spe-cialized managers, designers, or analysts in the computer age (Sklair 1989:Holmstrom 1984). Klass (1978) predicted that with the advent of automa-tion, w orkers would be replaced by machines and that fewer trained workerswould be required for production. But such predictions ignored the way ofthe world economy, the internationalization of production, and the move-ment of products, labor, and capital. The new global trend of capital expan-sion not only relies on automation but also on the cheapening of production

by means of laborinteasive strategies.The maquila age.or assembly typeproduction, is akey example ofthis productivestyle. It counts onllexibikt\. The pro-cess of produc-tion is not onlycompartmental-ized, but it also isdistributed aroundthe world in smallcomponents, tak-ing advantage ofw hat every place

AbstractAs rural peoples of Central America and be-

yond struggle to create and access new forms ofmarket [anticipation and means of surv ival underthe conditions generated by structural adjustmentpolicies, significant social and cultural si lifts are tak-ing place at the local le\ el.

This paper analyzes on tliree levels the impactof maquiladora industries: the region and commu-nities, sending households, and indi\ iduals. In par-ticular, I address the implications of migration dndurbanization tor the new communities, the com-plex nature of diversified households, and attitudestow arcl industrial and agricultural work. I concludew ith a discussion about the implications of thesefindings for transitions to proletarianization.

i i , ' • , . , . • • . . , • . . . . • / . , • , • , • , ' . i < . . . i : ;* I: v rigl I I SKI1.American

30 I he Journal of Latin American Anthropology

Liliana R. GoldinThe University at AlbanyState University of New York

on the planet has to offer: cheap labor, low tariffs, a mass of wanting youngmen and w omen—especially young and especially women. Managers are re-cruited from remote sites, often in the semi periphery of the world economy.The employers may represent international capital or the national bourgeoisie.Not only are producers separated from the product of their labor by a pro-duction line, but prcxlueers may never be able to consume the product theyhelp to produce. Production and consumption are now truly worlds apart."

In the 1980s. Guatemala joined several other Latin American and Asiancountries as an attractive site for maquiladora industries. Maquiladoras arefactories thatspecialize in thefinishing stagesof the produc-tion of diversemerchandise,such as gannentsand electronicparts. These fi-nal stages are of-ten labor inten-sive and requirelow level trainingand skills. Theyinclude the as-sembly of previ-ously designedand cut parts,and the packing

KcsumenMientras las poblaciones rurales de Centroamerica

luchan por crear y tener acceso a nuevas formas departicipacion en el mercado y nuevos medios de \ idabajo las condiciones generadas por politicas de ajusteestructural, se estan dando cambios socioculturalesimportantes a nivel local.

Este trabajo analiza el impacto que las industriasmaquiladoras tienen en tres niveles: la region y suscomunidades, los hogares que proveen trabajadores,y los individuos. Se discuten en particular lasimplicaciones de la migration y urbanization de laregion en las comunidades, la naturaleza compleja delos hogares diversificados, y las actitudes hacia el trabajoindustrial y agricola. Concluyo con una discvision delas coasecuencias que estos liallazgos pueden tener parala transition hacia la proletarianization laboral.

Maquila Age Ma\ a 3 1

of the finished prcxluct. The earlier, more sophisticated stages which requirehigher technologies and skills take place in developed countries such as theUnited States, Japan, or Korea. The finished products are returned to theoriginating countries without paying export fees. Mexico, El Salvador, CostaRica, Colombia, Philippines, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala, amongothers, offer investors tariff free zones with an abundant labor force willingto work for extremely low wages and often in conditions that would beunacceptable or illegal for the workers of developed countries (cf. Ong 1987;Safa 1983; Fernandez-Kelly 1983a,1983b; Nash 1983).

As the factories settle in various areas of the capital region and surround-ing highlands, they are profoundly affecting the lives of workers, potentialworkers, and communities which are disrupted by the daily influx and morepermanent migration of young women and men. Studies of the maquiladoraindustry have described the conditions in the factories and documented ex-ploitative forms of labor, sexual abuse of female workers, poor environ-mental conditions, poor hygiene, limited breaks, and dangerous spatial ar-rangements—including lack of sufficient air and fire exits. However, studieshave not yet paid sufficient attention to the disruption and restructuring ofthe sending households and local communities located on or near maquilasites, and, in particular, to the impact that the new labor form has on agriculture.In addition, more attention needs to be given to local perceptions of indus-trial and agricultural labor forms. As peasant peoples of Central America andbeyond struggle to create and access new forms of market participation andmeans of survival under the conditions generated by structural adjustmentpolicies, significant social and cultural shifts are taking place at the local level.

This paper addresses the impact of maquiladora industries on the re-gion, households, and individuals. Following a description of the recent his-tory of maquilas in Guatemala and a presentation of the region and researchmethods, the paper is organized in three main sections that correspond to thethree levels. I begin by delineating the broad level regional effects related toindustrial development in Guatemala. These include the creation of new migra-tion paths that range from the Pacific and northern lowlands to the central high-lands, and the various social and cultural trends, which are linked to an in-crease in violence, inter-ethnic relations, and changes in marriage forms associatedwith the urbanization of rural areas. Section II moves from the regional levelto the household level. Here I examine the complex nature of householdsinvolved in maquila work. These households are diversified, large, and char-acterized by changing gender dynamics. Young men and women are viewedas contributing to the reproduction of adult male agriculturalists (see Arizpeand Aranda 1981). While perceived as supplementary, the work of the youth

3 2 The Journal of Latin American Anthropology

in the factories is an essential piece of the diversified labor unit. This, in turn,allows for the flexibility and movement required by an effective internationaldivision of labor. These developments occur within the framework of an exist-ing patriarchal structure, but they may eventually compromise it. Section IIIfocuses on the individual level and the changing attitudes toward work aswomen and men experience the shift from agriculture to industrial work. Asmen and women characterize the pros and cons of practice and their economicoptions in the region, they struggle with contradictory feelings and hopes formodernization. I elaborate on the seeming transition toward proletarianiza-tion, but conclude that this is far from complete. Rather, capitalist develop-ment in the periphery seems to produce semi-proletarianization of a vulner-able sector of the labor force, together with the diversification of households.

Maquilas in Guatemala

In Guatemala, the average salary is a little over three U.S. dollars a day(1999). Workers come from urban and rural areas to work in the factories inhopes of "improving themselves." Work in the maquiladoras is one of thefew options open to them, other than migration to the United States oranother Central American country, or seasonal work on the coastal planta-tions. Options vary depending on the region. Many inhabitants of the centralhighlands work in Guatemala City. There seems to be a direct relationshipbetween lancUessness, unemployment, and the presence of maquila industry.For a combination of economic, environmental and political reasons, Guate-malan peasants have been dispossessed of their lands steadily since the Euro-pean invasion. In order to expand their economic opportunities, some peoplemigrate to the metropolitan areas of Guatemala City. Others commute dailyto the factories. Approximately 70 percent of maquiladora workers are youngwomen (Avancso 1994) who are considered "docile" and "flexible." Union-ization is forbidden in most cases and alternative associations called 'Solidaridadegtemporarily replace unions. Solidarismo encourages workers and manage-ment to work together. In fact, it has been noted that Solidarismo associa-tions often prevent workers from joining unions. The associations usuallystop all activities after unionizing efforts are dissolved (Petersen 1992).

In 1992, there were more than 275 maquila factories in Guatemala, em-ploying more than 50,000 workers. Recent estimates from the association ofexporters of nontraditional products (GEXPRONT, Quota Office, July 1997)suggest that there are 234 factories that employ an average of 286 operatorseach, or approximately 70,000 workers.

The economic autonomy that had been recorded in this region beforethe 1976 earthquake has been reduced, and different forms of control and

Maquila Age Maya 33

dependency have expanded (Smith 1990:15). Indeed, the central highlandsreceived a large amount of funds and attention from NGOs after the earth-quake and the repressive years of the early 1980s. Many of these projectsfocused on the development of nontraditional agricultural exports; however,the aid was uneven and the results yielded a large concentration of land in thehands of few, lancUessness for many, increased proletarianization, consider-able internal migration, and a significant impoverishment of most house-holds (Smith 1990). In 1991, President Serrano Elias enthusiastically endorsedmaquila production and other non-traditional exports, such as fruits and veg-etables, as the preferred development strategies for Guatemala. The empha-sis on new export goods, assembly industries, and tourism, occurred in asso-ciation with a decline in formal employment, both private and public, in aneconomy of poverty, little union strength, and the emergence of new laboridentities (Perez Sainz 1996; Goldin 1998,1999).

Maquila-based employment is not secure. About 87 maquiladoras (35Korean-owned) closed by the end of 1994 and moved to Mexico, El Salva-dor and Honduras (Prensa Libre, March 22,1995). In fact, the number ofworkers may continue to decrease as factories have been closing during 1997and 1998. According to GEXPRONT, seventeen factories left the countryduring 1998 resulting in 1,676 unemployed workers {Prensa Libre, December1998). Many more threatened to close if their performance did not im-prove relative to those in other Central American countries and Mexico. Withthe NAFTA agreement, many maquila factories have moved to the Mexicanside of the border between Guatemala and Mexico, contributing to the ap-proximate 40 percent unemployment of the qualified labor force in Guate-mala (Editorial El Grdjico, December 1994). The Commission of Clothingand Textiles (Vestuarios y Textiles, VESTEX) requested special incentives forthese industries in 1994 so as to keep them in the country {Prensa Libre, De-cember 16,1994). The number of workers employed in maquila towardthe end of 1994 was close to 75,000 {Prensa Libre, March 1995) and higherthan in 1997. In spite of uncertainty and insecurities, maquilas represent animportant option for the youth of Guatemala. Their presence in the centralhighlands have brought a large array of consequences and altered the natureof households and communities. In the remainder of the paper, I describeand analyze these consequences.

The Area and the MethodsThe fieldwork for this project was conducted between January and Au-

gust of 1995 in Santa Maria Cauque, a hamlet of Santiago Sacatepequez ofapproximately 3,500 inhabitants, in the department of Sacatepequez. Santa


Maria is an appropriate case for a study of economic diversification andimpact of factory work because the hamlet is located near the Interamericanhighway, at commuting distance to several assembly plants, and in an area thathas been dedicated to the production of horticultural nontraditional exportssince the 1970s. The people of the hamlet utilize a combined economic strat-egy that includes production for subsistence, production of vegetables forthe internal market, and production for export. In addition to practicingvarious agricultural strategies, men and women (a majority of women) of thehamlet work in the vegetable processing plants and in the garment producingmaquiladora factories. The Asociacion de Investigation y Estudios Sociales,Guatemala (ASIES) in 1994 conducted a survey of a random sample ofSanta Maria Cauque's population (Asturias de Barrios et al. 1996a). Thesedata are used in this report. The survey was designed to gain perspectives onforms of production and commercialization in the town. We also con-ducted interviews with supervisory and administrative staff of various fac-tories and with departmental authorities in the head township ofChimaltenango, Department of Chimaltenango, where much of the facto-ries' administrative and supervisory staff lives.1

The people in this area work mainly in six factories, four of them ownedby Korean capital. Fieldwork consisted of in-depth interviews, focus groups,life histories, and visits to workers' households. Interviews were conductedwith both male and female workers in different factories and who hold dif-ferent positions within the factories. We talked to Mayas and non-Mayas,some of whom were native to the area and others who had migrated fromother Guatemalan regions. As indicated, the area including the departmentsof Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango has experienced several economicchanges in the last twenty years. As part of the development strategies broughtabout by Europeans and others after the devastating earthquake of 1976, thepopulation of these departments engaged in the production and export ofnon-traditional agricultural crops. Beginning in 1976, Alimentos CongeladosMonte Bello S.A. was the first corporation to produce and process vegetables,such as broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, for the North Americanmarket using a system of subcontracts with small vegetable producers(Asturias de Barrios et al. 1996a). With the advent of international factoriesin the 1980s, these began competing with exporters and agricultural produc-ers for labor. Competition for labor occurred even in the face of an increas-ing population in these departments, (approximately 30 percent since 1980,Population Census, 1996). In fact, the Interamerican highway stretching fromGuatemala City to the western highlands has become a preferred space forseveral assembly plants, especially those of Korean origin. There they have

Maquila Age Maya 35

access to a large labor force and do not compete with other factories in themetropolitan area, but only with agroexporters in the central highlands. Thistrend contributes to the re-ruralization of occupational strategies, a trend alsoobserved in other Central American countries (Perez Sainz 1996), or, as Inote in this paper, a pseudo-urbanization of rural life.

L The Industrial Migration Routeand the His ofUrbanization

The towns that we studied, as well as towns in neighboring departments,have experienced heightened immigration, in part due to the establishment ofmaquila factories. The depressed situation in the western highlands has cre-ated a sector of the population, "free" to sell their labor power in the interna-tional factories (see Smith 1990) and has translated into a mass of peoplesearching for wage labor in the Capital City and surrounding townships.Population growth has created pressures on services and local resources.Migration to the townships is not caused exclusively by the maquila factories,although the factories are certainly a major incentive for migration. Foodprocessing and food related enterprises, export agricultural opportunities andchicken farms also provide employment prospects. Of special note is thedrastic change in migration patterns since pre-Hispanic times. The traditionalmigration route took highland people to the coastal lands over which theyhad rights and which the Spaniards called estancias. Highland migrants trav-eled to the coast in order to take advantage of the 'hot lands' and their prod-ucts and agricultural opportunities. Since the nineteenth century, with the es-tablishment of commercial landholdings on the coast, even greater numbersof highland people have moved seasonally to the coast to work in the exportagricultural enterprises. This type of work was considered essential in orderto cope with times when the lack of land or the low yields of small plots ofland demanded additional sources of income; however, as has been welldocumented, work conditions in the coastal plantations are typically poor,often characterized by semi-slave debt peonage work environments and mini-mal salaries. One of our interviewees indicated that she had traveled forseveral years to the coast to grow corn, but that she could not afford to rentthe land anymore, such as the piece that her father used to rent in one of theflncas. In addition, she states, "the work in the plantations is always harder andit pays worse than the work in the factories." Recently, there has been a rever-sal in the migration route. People are migrating to the highlands from thecoast and from the eastern and northern lowlands. This shift in migration hasgiven new meaning to certain tenns in people's discourse within the depart-


merits of Sacatepequez and Chimaltenengp. "Lagentedeafuem" the outsiders,are now in town.

According to many residents, migrants from Sumpango, Santiago, Peten,and San Lucas, are "patqjos malcriadas" (spoiled brats), who "se mantienen en lacalled (hang out in the streets). People talk about a newfound lack of securityin the town;

The people from here are not a problem There may be sometimes aburglar.... The outsiders bring problems, and when the people from hereget together with the outsiders, it is then that we have problems. Once, theycame from Sumpango. It was not a mara (gang). There were like forty[people]. The people from here got together. But those from Sumpangocame here to fight

The people from Peten, they come here, they live right up there. Sometimesthere are problems because they get drunk. Otherwise, it is fine. Itisdangerousto go out in the streets. If they get together with the people from SantaMaria, burglars, they catch them They were from San Lucas, two ladiesand one man. They were stealing in a store and they caught them. The onesthat come here, most of them are from Santiago. Some belong to the mara(gang). They brought them to jail in San Lucas. They have not come backsince. This usually happens at Christmas time.

Some have said that drugs have been introduced. Especially the peoplefrom Chimal [have drugs]. There is a mara there that has 100 or 200 people.They come from two factories.

Workers from Santa Maria often mention the maras or gangs that haveformed since the factories "arrived." The maras seem to be related moregenerally to urban life (there are many in Guatemala City).2 But in the contextof Santa Maria, they are mentioned with reference to the factories. The marasare often depicted as the worst of urban life. Groups of young men (onegroup of young women was also mentioned) that travel in groups, are oftenaggressive, and are associated with petty crime and disruption of the towns'peace. They exhibit unruly behaviors when they leave the factories at night, athours when, in the past, agricultural workers were sleeping or at home. Thesegangs are perceived as a direct consequence of migration due to the presenceof the factories, and they seem to form among co-workers.

The arrival of outsiders to the town has also affected the celebration ofthe Feria, the day honoring the town's patron, the Virgin of Santa Maria. TheFeria in the past lasted three or four days, but this has since changed. Ser-enades are no longer performed because people are afraid to go out late at

Maquila Age Maya 3 7

night. The presence of "people from outside has meant that in Santa Mariayou do not feel safe any more." At the same time, more capital is invested inthe fiesta because there are more resources in the town. This is reflected in thenumber of activities and amount of stalls which participate.

The arrival of outsiders, both Maya and non-Maya people from othertownships, has not been viewed exclusively in negative terms. It seems easiernow for young people to establish friendships with people from other town-ships than was the case before the factories arrived. Young residents appre-ciate the fact that outsiders bring new ideas to the town. These ideas arerelated to an opening of friendships and interactions with non-Mayas. Manyof the newcomers are Ladinos. Native peoples in the past were rarely in-volved in situations where they sat next to a non-Maya and received the samewages. It is widely known and often mentioned how people rarely talk tooutsiders when traveling to other towns, sometimes due to shyness or simplybecause they do not know if they actually speak the same language. Thefactory acts as a free zone where there is an instituted lingua franca, Spanish,and where workers share a common experience that allows them to talk andlegitimize their relationships. People arrive from Guatemala City, Santo Do-mingo Xenacoj, and San Lucas. For example, I was told of a couple fromChimaltenango and Jutiapa, respectively, who met in the factory. Anothercouple from El Salvador and from the Coast also met at the factory. Outsid-ers, but in this case from other countries, are also said to be responsible foreconomic progress in the town. For example, the Swiss and other "foreign-ers" are credited with bringing ideas about how to grow new products.

Migration and demographic explosion have brought some of the charac-teristics of urbanization to this otherwise quiet rural area. Migration helps todefine interethnic relations, intermarriages, and social relations. From thefactory's perspective, management claims that they do not care whether theyhire Indians or Ladinos as long as the work gets done. Class relations aredeveloped in this context, whereby poor Indians and poor Ladinos are de-fined as factory workers and receive the same wages.

n. Diversified Households

In this region, a large number of local people and migrants from otherdepartments of Guatemala combine productive strategies by sending theiryoung sons and daughters to work in the maquilas, while at the same timemaintaining some agricultural work with the aid of younger family membersor older hired labor who do not qualify for maquila work. In 40 percent ofhouseholds sampled in Santa Maria Cauque, Sacatepequez, some householdmembers engaged in some form of maquila work; however, at least some

38 The Journal of Latin American Anthropology

members of almost all of these households still maintained agricultural work.In fact, 90 percent of households involved in maquila work were also in-volved in agriculture. Diversification is the key strategy and household sur-vival depends on it.

In Santa Maria Cauque, women were reported to be seen working thefields alongside men since the 1940s and 50s (Asturias de Barrios et al. 1996a).Presently, young women working in the industries contribute to the repro-duction of less proletarianized male household members (Truelove 1990).As men actively participate in export agricultural labor, the work of youngsons and daughters allows older men to cope with the uncertainties of agri-culture. As shown in various studies (Isaac 1995; Wolpe 1980; Laclau 1986;De Janvry 1981; Arizpe 1981), wage labor does not replace subsistence pro-duction but complements it. Women's access to wage work contributes tothe reproduction of the household and of the male members engaged inagriculture (Isaac 1995; Truelove 1990). Or, as some women see it, "marriedmen need higher salaries than what they can make in the maquilas and theyhave to look in places where they can make more. [Instead] married womenthat are working in the factories don't feel it as much because they don't haveto provide money [darelgasto], even when they always help at home." Whilethere is ample evidence that adult women do indeed provide the main house-hold funds to feed the family, factory workers in this region tend to be youngunmarried men and women partially contributing to their mother's fund.

The increased diversification of some households is the result of and thesupport for the new sources of labor. As pointed out by Fernandez-Kelly(1983a), the new households provide the local context for the international-ization of production. Families group and regroup so as to adjust to thelarger economic conditions. These adjustments result in various ways of or-ganizing households (1983a: 153). In the central highlands, the organization ofwork typically involves a division of labor that guarantees some work in thefields in the production of subsistence items, such as corn and beans, andnontraditional crops, such as snow peas and broccoli, or in the productionof vegetables for the internal market in conjunction with industrial wage work.While limited, wages from maquiladoras are an important complement tothe rural household. Households that combine agriculture with industrialwages obtain larger income than those that practice agriculture alone (Asturiasde Barrios et al. 1996a). The practice of pooling resources among familymembers has been observed and documented in the literature and it is ob-served in most households of Santa Maria Cauque. It includes the combina-tion of standard capitalist strategies based on engagement with the marketand the combination of salaried and family labor. Extended households

Maquila Age Maya 39

tend to be quite successful at establishing multiple income strategies so as tobroaden the possibilities for survival (cf. Rhoda Halperin 1994; Rothstein andBlim 1992; Rothstein 1988; Safa 1995).

Maquila households tended to be larger, on average, than those house-holds that did not engage in maquila-related work. Maquila households had,on average, 8.1 members, and non-maquila had, on average, 6.2 members, astatistically significant difference (p<.05). This finding is probably related todiversification. It suggests that multiple income strategies may be morefeasible for larger households, where labor opportunities are also greater, andwhich include adolescent members who are the preferred group for factorywork. Size of household was also related to the number of hired fieldworkers employed by the household, suggesting that maquila households, byvirtue of their larger size, can hire more workers than non-maquila house-holds (while also being able to afford young adult family members workingin the factories). Recent migrants to Guatemala City display some similarcharacteristics to maquila households. They are complex and have a groupsense of daily production in which each member has a responsibility towardthe core. In some of those households, the male head of household engagesin some form of wage labor, while the female is involved in domestic work,with their adolescent children working for wages in the maquilas. In thesehouseholds, everyone contributes to the home (Bastos and Camus 1995).

New Gender DynamicsWomen in maquila households seem to experience some notable differ-

ences in their lives when compared to women in non-maquila households.Young teenage women tend to work in the factories, away from the fields,and practice occasional agricultural work during their free time on weekends.According to the families we spoke to, older women (mothers) are expectedto work less in the fields, but they now have expanded obligations at homeand less help in domestic chores from their older children, particularly daugh-ters. Women in maquila households also tend to receive cash contributionsfrom their daughters and sons, and are able to have access to more consumeritems than those in non-maquila households. The contributions of youngermembers of the family tend to relieve the need for some of their mother'spaid work. On average, maquila workers keep approximately 20 percent oftheir wages and 80 percent is pooled. For example, a young female workerwhose mother is single and who has seven siblings says: "They say I am moreresponsible . . . because I help my mother economically. Of course, I do notgive her everything I make, but I do share my salary with her, because wehave been alone with my mother since we were small." Mothers, in turn,


provide food for their working children, taking it or sending it with a youngerchild to the factories at lunchtime. They also use the money to hire additionalfield help. In 64.5 percent of households, women administer the householdfund, but there is some variability. Usually, income generated by non-tradi-tional crops is controlled by men (see Asturias de Barrios et al. 1996a and1997). As several women indicated to us, there is some concern that sons donot seem to contribute cash to their parents as much as daughters do. Someclaim that their sons are not as generous and tend to spend more of theirwages on themselves.

Women in non-maquila households obtain some help at home fromtheir teenage children, but work more hours in the fields and are themselvesin charge of selling vegetables in the markets. By contrast, in maquila house-holds both men and women are equally responsible for selling in the markets.In this way, the women in non-maquila households provide more informalunpaid labor, which may provide some degree of competitiveness in agricul-tural production. While women in general may not perceive themselves asthe main providers, most women interviewed paid for food for their familyfrom their own sources of money. We talked to a woman, for example, whodid not work in the factory, but her husband, brother and nephews did. "I go[to work as a laborer] every day to help a little bit and make a few cents. I leavearound eight and come back fast at eleven. I prepare lunch and I send it, thenI eat lunch. After lunch, at around two in the afternoon, I go back to the fieldto grow peas, beets, lettuce, dlantro... [for other people]." Either as a factoryworker or as a day laborer, women's work is seen as supplementary to men's.

Some female workers indicated that with their earnings they were able tocontribute to the education of younger siblings or to the purchase of certainitems such as tape recorders or TV sets. One 17-year-old woman, for ex-ample, said she was able to help pay for the construction of a new home andplans to buy a color TV. The young workers sacrifice their own access tofurther education to complement the income of men, mostly their fathersand in a few cases their husbands. They find themselves viewed as supple-mentary wage earners and in contradictory status (see Beneria and Feldman1992). The young of working age are more "independent," and they are ableand expected to give part of their incomes to their homes, thus acquiringsignificant obligations. In this sense, they acquire more power in the house-hold. Safa (1995) noted this among women wage workers in the Caribbean,who were able to obtain more negotiating power in the household. The factthat both young men and women work in the factories in the region ofGuatemala that we discuss here does not always translate into equal positionsin the household. Young men do not seem to be required to contribute to

Maquila Age Maya 41

the family in the same way and to the same extent as their female counter-parts. This seems to maintain patriarchal structures but has the potential toalter them as they introduce new sources of tension and reevaluation ofgender roles. Just the fact that daughters bring cash and purchase consumergoods and that many mothers control more funds for subsistence is sugges-tive of the changes in relations of authority within the household and in theway they are perceived outside the household. A 25-year-old man, comment-ing on women who work in the factories, states: "Now, since they makemoney, they say the money is theirs, they buy whatever they want. That is thedifference now."

Parental authority is still considered important for permission to many.But the fact that many young adults find wives and husbands in the factory,often from other townships, creates additional tensions. It may require ac-cepting a woman from another town or permitting a daughter to leave town.The custom is for women to move into their husbands' parents home untilthey establish their own home because "it is better that the girl follows theways of the young man and not the contrary," according to a young man."He has to bring the woman to his house because he is the head of the homeand he has to command the woman. They both have the same power, butthe one who has more is the man." This dynamic highlights issues of genderrelations between spouses within the household. In spite of the new positionof young women workers and their access to cash, the ideology of patriar-chal relations is slow to change. A woman who is eighteen years old andworked for one year in the factory before getting married and having a babyindicated that when a woman gets married she loses her freedom, she cannotany longer dress as she wants and wear make-up (a new practice amongMaya women workers): "She has no right to look attractive since her hus-band may think badly of her and doubt her fidelity." This informant ex-presses resentment that women cannot continue working in the factory be-cause their husbands may not approve.

In summary, industrial work of adolescents implies differential workpatterns for older women. Women in non-maquila households provide moreinformal unpaid labor in agriculture than mothers of workers in the maquilas.Mothers of workers get less help at home but share with their husbandsmany of the other responsibilities, such as selling in markets, which womenwho do not have children in the factory take on. In either case, their work isseen as supplementary to men's agricultural work. The young women, how-ever, acquire some measure of independence as they contribute to the house-hold income. Parents' authority and the existing patriarchal structure remainintact, but new sources of tension may cause future changes.


ffl. Field and Factory: Attitudes Toward Work

"I am there [in the factory] because I am happy. I don't get too much sun.I do not experience hunger, nor thirst. I have everything. I have my radio, mylunch, and I am happy working." In general, characterizations of work in thefactories as compared to work in the field are complex, sometimes contra-dictory, and often tinged with gender overtones. A man coming from thePacific Coast indicated that he did not like working in the factory because hedid not like to work with so many women:

I prefer to work the land, to sweat in the fields; that is better because here inthe factory we are condemned to be with the women. Why would anybodywant so many women there? Even if you do not think about the women,you feel like you are a slave there. I do not know why the women have putup with so much!

This man emphasizes the importance of feeling independent, even if heworked for someone else, and not having people telling him what to do.Even if fieldwork is difficult, he felt he was his own boss in the field (becausethe landowner was not watching over him all the time). In the factory, he felthe was being treated "like a slave." The fact that mostly women work in thefactories was also a cause of discomfort for this man. Is it manly to workthere? Is it feminine to take so much abuse? These were the implicit ques-tions in his concerns. He pointed out that due to the bad treatment he wouldreceive in the factory, he would much rather take his tools and go to the monte,hills, to get some wood: "The Chinese [Koreans] really mistreat you. Theyinsult your parents and your children. Sometimes your mother is not evenalive They don't even understand when you talk to them." He was told toiron one day, the next day he was packing, and the following day he wasironing skirts: "I really don't like that. When you see how it is done it seemseasy, but they treated me badly." He had worked in a farm for five yearsbefore, but there, when the ladino owner needed something, he would po-litely ask if he could do him a favor. In the factory "they just give youorders." In Kaqchiquel, the expression used to ask for something translatesinto something like: Would you be so kind to . . . ? Tabana' utzil (haceme unabonded).

In discussing the ambivalence between the different forms of labor inSanta Maria Cauque, most people state that these jobs are definitely betterthan agricultural jobs, but in the same sentence, they note the pain, disease,boredom, the tiresome activities and the bad, repressive conditions of fac-tory work. The jobs performed in the factory are classified by people as hot


(Katem), cold (tew), and cool (tew meq 'en). Hot jobs are associated with ironing:People state that these jobs can bring disease in the form of high tempera-tures. People feel that hot jobs "ruin" their arms, because of the way inwhich the heat comes up during the opening and closing of the iron. Coldjobs are associated with the Spanish word despite, the removal of the leftoverthreads after completing a garment. Despite is considered one of the mosttedious and less challenging jobs. It is mostly done by women. All jobs thatdo not involve machines or the iron are included in this category. The bestjobs, cool or warm/cold, are associated with machine work. According toour informants, machine jobs have two parts. The engine is the hot part andthe rest, "where you actually sew" is the cold part: A woman says: "I resignedbecause the machine gave me pneumonia. Yes, it did, it gave me pneumonia,and then I resigned and left for three months, and then I returned."

When women define factory work as the "best" kind of work, they alsotend to characterize the fields as a place that is too hot, with too much sun.Work in the fields is very "tiring," "hard" and "it affects your back"; how-ever, if asked about the problems with factory work, they always indicatethat their backs hurt from sitting in benches with no back support. What arethe best aspects of factory work? Women unanimously indicate that the bestaspect of factory work is the presence or the possibility of making friends,and the biweekly wages. Men also appreciate these aspects of factory work,but going out and making friends had always been easier for them than forwomen. They admit that factory work can be tedious and tiring. In thefields, on the other hand, if you are tired, you can sit down, you have morefreedom. There are no breaks in factory work. Instead, the conditions areoppressive. Bathroom breaks are discouraged and limited to one or twominutes. Most factories have very few bathroom stalls for hundreds ofworkers, and the standard break in a twelve-hour day is one hour for lunch.

The most disliked aspect of agricultural work is the lack of stability andlack of regular access to cash.

The vegetables that we grow in the fields sometimes are sold and sometimesare not. That is why we work in the factory But the money is also little inthe factory, unless we work overtime. When we work overtime, they makeus stay until 10:30 at night [from 7:00 a.m.]. We get cold then. That is whywe get sick.

Staying up late at night, walking back home when it is cold and at hourswhen people, especially women, do not customarily walk is a cause of con-cern. But one of the greatest complaints is boredom and the perception ofbeing forced to stay in the job. Often women look to move to other facto-


ries so that they can engage in work that is even slightly different; however,many young women indicated with sadness that they wanted to leave theirjobs, but that they could not because "the Korean woman did not allow meto." "I asked her permission to resign, but she said—no, you cannot leave."The feeling that if the manager denies permission, they have to remain in thefactory is shared by many young women. In part, they understand that theymay lose some pay, but many are simply intimidated by the managers, andafraid of them. The fact that they are indeed free to leave since there are noformal contracts, just as the employers can dismiss them at any time, is notalways understood. To compare the work they do with forms of slavery isnot as far-fetched as it may sound. Were they more educated or were theymore aware of what their labor rights are, they would know they can indeedleave their jobs.

I worked there for a year and a half, and when I got married I told mymother that I wanted to resign. When I told the Korean [woman] she gotmad at me and shouted at me and the next day I did not go to work becauseI do not like anybody shouting at me. When I told her that, she said shewould fire me. That is what I wanted, I wanted her to fire me. But insteadshe said she was going to suspend me for eight days. After that, I thoughtthat maybe it is better to work in the field.

"If the factory closed, we would be left with no clothes," says a young woman,"with the harvest, things sometimes work and others don't... I don't knowwhat I would do if the factories closed." Another woman states,

It is really in the end the same thing whether you work here or there...because if you are ironing, standing all day, your feet cannot take it. In thefield you can move a little bit. If you are tired, you can go to the shade. Butin the factory, you are there without rest They are there checking, controllingall day.

As this woman states with a sad sense of hopelessness, there are problems inboth work situations. While there seems to be more freedom in the field, inthe factory you meet people, and you make friends. The work in the fields isisolated and tedious, and there is nobody to talk to. At the end of a long dayin the factory, the opportunity of walking together and talking is very muchappreciated and young people, usually more isolated and with fewer chancesfor socializing, look forward to that time. In the past, market day and tradi-tional community celebrations provided a forum for social interaction. Pres-ently, there are fewer opportunities for such interactions, especially amongnon-Catholics. The Governor of Chimaltenango indicated that the reason


there are not sufficient people to employ in agriculture is that young men arehappy at the factory: "They have their radio, their lunch, everything they need.There is no motivation to work in the fields." As far as the differencesbetween work in the fields and work in the factory, young men say: "Onlyour parents cultivate the land."

Generational Differences: Our Parents'JobsMany throw themselves fse lanzanj'to the factory and leave agriculture.Here, for example, we know of some that have a lot of land and theyneed workers. But now they cannot get them because many go to workto the factory. When they find them, they want the same wages that thoseworking in the factories get... . Now you see many uncultivated lots ofland." (Male farmer, vegetable producer).

While most adult members of the community continue working theland, their adolescent children, who would normally be helping their parentsand/or at school, are now working in the factories. Before, people told us,when they had help from their children or outside help they would growthree cuerdas of Chinese peas. Now at the most, even if they had access tothree cuerdas of land, they can only cultivate one or two cuerdas, due to the lackof help. The young men indicate that field work "is our parent's job, notours." These young men and women are not learning the skills required towork in the fields. Agricultural skills are learned after many seasons of help-ing with different chores. A few women indicate that they still help on Satur-days when they do not work, but most of them find agricultural work toohard or too tedious. It seems that future generations may be quite removedfrom agricultural work. When asked what they will do in the future, factoryworkers mention many possibilities: They may continue working in the fac-tories; they will study on weekends and learn some skills; or they will work inconstruction or as mechanics. None expressed an interest in working inthe field: "Besides, the price of vegetables is low." "We have to studyand look for other jobs, because if we don't we will end up in the field."Generational differences for work styles, preferences, and opportunities areindeed developing. However, this is not just due to the presence of thefactories. Land is just too scarce and the returns of existing lots are diminish-ing. According to some researchers, the reasons for this are sheer poverty(land sales), low yields on land due to excessive use of pesticides and fertiliz-ers, lack of hired labor to assist in the field, lowered prices in the internationalmarket for non-traditional crops and increased quality standards by interna-tional buyers (cf. Barham et al., 1992; Von Braun et al.1989). Returns seem to


vary depending on the size of the plot and market conditions. (Thrupp et al.1995 in Asturias de Barrios et al. 1996b). However, by the end of 1995average returns for some products had decreased due to lower prices, in-creases in production costs, and detention in international ports (Asturias deBarrios et al. 1996b).

The trend is pointing to a gradual departure from agriculture and fromthe transmission of rural skills to the acquisition of low level technologicaltraining, which prepares young men and women for little or no productivealternatives. Agricultural work is now conducted by those that either do notchoose to take on factory work or those that are forced to return when theyare not hired by the factories any longer. There is a danger that the latter mayeventually choose to migrate rather than return to a type of work they knowlittle about or they perceive as too difficult or inappropriate. The decrease inagricultural activities seems to remove one of the few options that may offersome degree of independence, if not development. Indeed, there are fewoptions available. In general, men can resort to the limited and badly paidagricultural work or migrate to Guatemala City, the U.S. or other countries.Women can work as domestics in Guatemala City, or work alongside themen in the plots of land, if any, available to their families. Regional and otherauthorities were quick to point out, in the context of discussing the impact ofmaquiladoras in their areas, that one of the "problems" they experience is thelack of domestics (for their own wives). They lament the way in whichmiddle class women had been negatively affected by the new source of em-ployment for poor women. Salaries for domestic servants are about 200 to500 quetzales a month, compared to approximately 400 to 700 per month inthe maquila factories. In other areas of the world, such as Mexico, there areother choices for women, such as service sector work (e.g. a hair salon or arestaurant). These are choices that Guatemalan women, particularly nativewomen and in the rural areas, do not have. Tiano (1994) notes that maquilasin the Mexican border area, which is highly urbanized, pay less than mostother jobs, except for those of domestics. These other jobs offer the samebenefits as maquilas do. This is not the case in Guatemala and certainly notthe case for native women.

In summary, the factories have contributed to a change in migration routes,population increase and urbanization, increase in violence, new marriage pat-terns, increased inter-ethnic relations, a perceived decrease in inter-ethnic ten-sions, and the restructuring of work styles and preferences along generationallines. Highland households have restructured themselves to allow for in-creased diversification, where export agriculture is an important part of theirlivelihood and support. As these households partially proletarianize, they take

Maquila Age Maya 47

on new strategies for survival, new methods of livelihood. These house-holds are characterized by their complementarity and conscious diversifica-tion goals.

Peasant to Proletarian?Is it liberating for Maya men and women to join the international labor

force? For a long time, Mayas had resisted full proletarianization, being foundonly as seasonal or part time wage workers in plantations and in farms. In theabsence of a fully free proletariat, the state assumed a repressive stand andforced Mayas to work when and where needed (Smith 1987). As Mayasbecome "free" laborers in the context of various structural adjustment mea-sures, they "enjoy" the privilege of becoming full time proletarians, alongsidetheir Ladino cohorts. It is not yet clear if these developments result inconscientization, or in increased political participation. In fact, the youngworkers appreciate this type of access to the factory as a form of equaliza-tion vis-a-vis non-Mayas and while proud of their accomplishments as Natu-rales, they emphasize that "We are all the same, we are all workers." We donot have enough longitudinal information to predict what these young work-ers will do in ten years, when the factories may not hire them any longer. Willthey be forced to return to agricultural work? Will they be equipped to do soafter years of separation from agriculture?

The transition from peasant to proletarian is not complete at this stage ofcapitalist development in Guatemala. There is no reason to believe, especiallywith the present developments, that conditions benefit one model or another,just as Roseberry (1983,1988) warned earlier in the context of "proletarian-ization studies." It would be misleading, he indicated, to focus on sets ofoppositional categories, such as peasant or proletarians. Families still haveaccess to land for export and for consumption, even if these are small plotsof a few acres. The wages are still only one component of household in-come. Workers' ideologies are in transition, but they may never transforminto something completely different. Instead, new perspectives on the worldare developed. These perspectives are complex, shifting, and often contra-dictory. It is in the interest of capitalism to produce landless workers whoconstitute a large reserve of unemployed individuals willing to work at verylow wages (Smith 1990). But the people of the central highlands still rely ontheir access to various agricultural strategies. It is, in fact, the unfinished natureof the type of proletarianization that we see in this region that seems tocharacterize the face of capitalism that we observe in Guatemala. This faceof capitalism is based on a form of capital that is at once movable andethereal.


DiscussionAs a Maya evangelical minister once told me, maquilas constitute a new

source of dependency. The dominant element is not the landowner or theintermediary; it is the manager and the new employers, regardless of nation-ality, a new patron. It is the deskilling of the rural people and with that, thecreation of a larger source of low paid labor: "We have to go with the flow,"said the same individual, "we have moved against it for too long and we havesuffered from it, now we need to move forward." The acceptance of 'thesystem,' the notion of playing within the new rules of the game, has compleximplications. Are maquilas good for the Maya people? Every worker wetalked to fears the time when the factories may close or move to a neighbor-ing country, as many have already done.

Most of the literature (e.g. Etienne and Leacock 1980; Isaac 1995; Kopinak1995; Safa 1995; Elson and Pearson 1981, among others) is consistent withthe exploitation thesis, which suggests that capitalism creates a female prole-tariat supplying low wage labor for accumulating capital.3 Native peoplesshare with women the double burden amply discussed in the feminist litera-ture. As a group, they are considered to be amenable to exploitation, willingto work for very small wages, docile, flexible, and with little or no alterna-tives. As such, Maya women and men are considered ideal sources of laborin the maquila industries. As the robots of the imagination, native peoples canand have been discarded when not useful anymore. As young people fromSanta Maria indicate, there are always jobs available, they are always hiring,and they are always firing. Factory work reinforces workers' subordinationand their positions in society. Integration theorists argue that participation inthe labor force is liberating for women, suggesting that factory jobs are betterthan no jobs at all (Tiano 1994; Lim 1983) a statement with which mostexploitation theorists would in fact agree.

The key to understanding the ways in which wage labor affects the statusof factory workers, both men and women, is to examine their contributionto the household economy and whether their contribution is considered es-sential and primary or supplementary (Safa 1995). In our case study, the factthat workers are mostly young and unmarried compounds the issue of statusin the household. As unmarried youngsters, the workers are expected tocontribute to the home but are not considered to be the main source ofsupport. Particularly daughters, who give less to the households than marriedwomen, are less likely to question their father's authority (Safa 1995; Lamphere1987). However, the very fact that they have access to cash and can supple-ment the household's income, assigns these young workers a certain aura of

Maquila Age Maya 49

power and independence that they would otherwise not have. Access tocash is access to some degree of decision making. Most women and menworking in the factories in Guatemala are too young to be fully independent,especially when single and living at home with their parents. They feel a dutyto bring to their parents a large part of their earnings. However, their abilityto help their families, to purchase items that they need, "not just the cheapestshoes," or to pay for the education of their younger brothers and sisters, canhave a positive impact on their lives. As in other places, their employmentdoes not directly result in more power, but it may improve their ability tonegotiate more egalitarian household relations (Raynolds 1998.166).

An examination of these households reveals how global conditions maybe inserted into new contexts by coming together in transformed local set-tings (Fernandez-Kelly 1983b; Collins 1995). The expanded household con-tributes to factory production. The new salaries, even when depressed in aworld context, appear attractive to a sector of the population that has beenparticularly undervalued by their ethnic, age, and gender locations. The inter-national factory makes use of undervalued laborers and reinforces the vari-ous relations of domination and subordination existing in the household.Similar structures of discrimination orient institutional and family relations(Kopinak 1995). The new tensions created in the households reflect the ten-sions of new inter-ethnic relations in the towns and the potential for newpolitical dynamics in the country.

With the arrival of the maquiladoras, there has been increased depen-dence on insecure forms of labor, exploitation of the labor force in theform of low wages and, at times, poor working conditions, coupled withmore widespread crime and violence. But there are also elements of socialand psychological liberation and some potentially beneficial changes associ-ated with a more plural, diversified, and some would say, more socially inte-grated society. It would thus be incorrect to suggest that there are no gains.At least from the perspective of the young workers, there are hints at whatthey see as improvements in their lives. There is the shift from field to factoryin itself, a shift which workers conceive as necessary and generally positive.There is the relative access to some funds, a degree of independence, and theopportunity to work side by side with men, women, and ethnic groups tradi-tionally viewed as separate and unequal.

The employment in the factories may be just a symptom of the workers'own vulnerability, as Fernandez-Kelly observed for Mexican women work-ers. Fernandez-Kelly (1983b: 192) did not argue against women's participa-tion in the labor force "but against the perpetuation of the sexual segregationin the labor market which fosters underdevelopment and economic atro-


phy." The fact that Guatemalan-based factories hire more women than mensuggests an extension of a practice that takes advantage of an already unem-ployed or underemployed labor force which is relatively submissive and withfew other options. The fact that factories are also employing men suggeststhat both men and women are undervalued. In Santa Maria no statisticalsignificant differences were found between male and female industrial salaries(Asturias de Barrios 1996a:46). The need for workers is greater than the needfor very cheap workers.

The changing and diversified households are more consistent with thechanging cultural perspectives, as are the conversions to Evangelical religions,which are more widespread among maquila households.4 We are document-ing an important time, when families are literally "all over the place" in theirstruggles to survive. In their partial proletarianization, families have foundways of coping with uncertain and fluid economic patterns.

Conclusion

In conclusion, households and community have been greatly impactedby the economic changes in the region. Those changes is not unidirectional.In part, factories are able to find workers due to the tenuous situation inagriculture and the flexible nature of the household. Just as Maya people inGuatemala have been willing to convert to new religions in the last twentyyears—a change that ultimately reflects more profound cultural and eco-nomic changes—Maya households have been fluid and able to cope withadverse economic conditions by diversifying and contributing certain mem-bers to the industry. In turn, industries rely on workers who are devalued atvarious levels: The workers are young, most of them are female, they areindigenous people, and they are frustrated by the insecurity of agriculturalendeavors. Structural adjustment policies combine with these socioculturallocal patterns to guarantee an effective change process. The process includessome of the dynamics of urbanization. As industry moves to the rural areas,it brings new migration paths, population increase, a more diverse popula-tion, increase in crime, a departure from traditional marriage patterns, lan-guage use, the relaxation of social norms around dating, courting, marriage,and network building,5 and traditional forms of social control. While it ispossible that the changes may lead to increased levels of proletarianizationand informalization of those sectors that are slowly abandoning agriculture,overall it appears that combined economic strategies may become the norm,as long as there is a sector of the labor force that has sufficient agriculturalskills and incentives to continue working the fields, and as long as there issufficient demand for nontraditional exports.

Maquila Age Maya 51

The new communities on the fringes of the world economy are nothingmore than the materialized expression of capitalist expansion at its best orworst. The slow decampesinization of a sector of the peasantry is but onestep from the massification of the labor force and 'robotization' of the newworkers. Whether they are Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, or Honduran, whetherthe community is in Asia, Central America, or the Caribbean, the picture isincreasingly repetitive and the prospects are intriguing. Families find them-selves involved in every source of revenue possible, combining the best ofrural values with the "best" of capitalism: Household solidarity for diversifi-cation. In the pursuit of diversification and the exploration of economicopportunities other than "our parents' jobs," the poorer sector of the Gua-temalan youth experience the hopes and encounter the limits of social mobil-ity as they speak for the dreams that few may achieve. Painfully aware of thepotential of cultural loss and subjugation in the context of the expansion ofcapital, it seems that sectors of Maya society are struggling with understand-ing current developments and their implications for Maya culture and iden-tity. As personal and community values change alongside structural condi-tions, there is no going back and only the new actors in the newly createdlandscapes can ultimately evaluate the outcomes and devise strategies for thefuture.

There are no simple ways to describe the impact of the factories as eitherpositive or negative. Conflicting assessments are part of the necessary re-elaboration constituted by capitalist expansion in the periphery. Whetherthrough agricultural export participation or factory work, rural peoples ofGuatemala are redefining their options and their sense of identity. The semi-proletarianization of many in agriculture and apparent proletarianization ofothers in the factories are part of the same process of diversification forsurvival.

Notes

Acknowledgments. This research was possible thanks to a Faculty ResearchAward, The University at Albany, State University of New York. I wouldlike to thank the Asociacion de Investigation y Estudios Sociales, Guatemala(ASIES) for generously allowing me to perform additional analyses on asurvey conducted in Santa Maria Cauque, under the direction of Linda Asturiasde Barrios. I remain responsible for the analyses and interpretations pre-sented in this article. I also thank John Watanabe and the anonymous review-ers for their thoughtful comments.

1. The discussion on households was developed in part from the database from the ASIES' survey. Interpretations are guided by our open-ended


interviews with workers and their families. I thank Estuardo Galdamez Zapetafor interviews he conducted in Chimaltenango.

2. The term "maras" also appears in descriptions of groups of workersin the factory, as in a 'mara' per line (production line). In that context it doesnot seem to have the same negative connotations as in the one I translate as"gang."

3. See Susan Tiano's (1994) discussion of theories that may explain thenature of women's participation in the labor force: integration, assimilationand exploitation.

4. Forty percent of maquila households in the sample are Evangelical,compared to 15 percent in non-maquila households. There may be a relation-ship between the work ethic associated with evangelism and a proclivity to-ward change and risk taking (Goldin and Metz 1991; Goldin 1992) and thepropensity for wage work.

5. Comments were made by many about the changes in women's cloth-ing that involved the lack of use of the traditional huipil and corte, the recentadoption by native women of the use of make-up which was always rel-egated to non-Maya women, and the general socializing behavior of womenoften criticized as too promiscuous.

References

Arizpe, Lourdes1981 The Rural Exodus in Mexico and Mexican Migration to the United

States. International Migration Review 15(4):626-649.Arizpe, Lourdes and Josefina Aranda1981 The "Comparative Advantages" of Women's Disadvantages:

Women Workers in the Strawberry Export Agribusiness inMexico. Signs 7(2)453-473-

Asturias de Barrios, Linda, et al.(Coordinator)1996a Production y comercializacion agricolas en Santa Maria Cauque.

Guatemala: Asociacion de Investigation y Estudios Sociales(ASIES).

Asturias de Barrios, Linda, Brenda Tevalan and Sergio Romero1996b Socioeconomic Impacts of Non-Traditional Export Crops in

Guatemala: A Literature Review. IPM-CRSP, Estudio 1360 S.A.,Guatemala, July.

Asturias de Barrios, Linda, Brenda Tevalan and Glenn Sullivan1997 Economic and Socioeconomic Impact Assessment of Non-

Traditional Crop Production on Small Farm Households inGuatemala: A Summary of Results. In Progress in IPM-CRSP


Research (Integrated Pest Management Collaborative ResearchSupport Program). Proceedings of the Second IPM CRSPSymposium, Guatemala. Office of International Research andDevelopment, Pp. 110-125. Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Tech.

AVANCSO1994 El signiflcado de la maquila en Guatemala. Asotiacion para el

avance de las ciencias sociales en Guatemala. Cuademos deInvestigation No. 10, Guatemala.

Barham, Bradford, Mary Clark, Elizabeth Katz, and Rachel Schurman1992 Nontraditional Agricultural Exports in Latin America. Latin

American Research Review 27(2):43-82.Bastos, Santiago and Manuela Camus1995 Los Mayas de la capital. Guatemala: FLACSO.Beneria, Lourdes and Shelley Feldman, eds.1992 Unequal Burden: Economic Crises, Persistent Poverty, and

Women's Work. Boulder: Westview Press.De Janvry, Alain1981 The Agrarian Question and Reformism in Latin America. Balti-

more: Johns Hopkins University Press.El Grafico (Guatemalan Newspaper)1994 Editorial. El cierre de las maquiladoras y el desempleo. December,

1994.Elson, Diane and Ruth Pearson1981 The Subordination of Women and the Internationalisation of

Factory Production. In Of Marriage and the Market: Women'sSubordination in International Perspective. Kate Young, CarolWokowitz, and Roslyn McCullagh, eds. Pp. 144-66. London: CSE.

Etienne, Mona and Eleanor Leacock, eds.1980 Women and Colonization. New York: Praeger.Fernandez-Kelly, Maria Patricia1983a For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in

Mexico's Frontier. Albany: SUNY Press.1983b Mexican Border Industrialization, Female Labor Force Participa-

tion and Migration. In Women, Men and the International Divisionof Labor, J. Nash and M. P. Fernandez-Kelly, eds. Pp.205-223.Albany: SUNY Press.

GEXPRONT (Gremial de Exportadores de Productos No-Tradicionales)1997 Origin of the Capital. Quota Office, Gexpront, Guatemala. July.

http://www.quetzalnet.com/gexpront

5 4 The journal of Latin American Anthropology

Goldln, Iiliana1992 Work and Ideology in the Maya Highlands of Guatemala: Eco-

nomic Beliefs in the Context of Occupational Change. EconomicDevelopment and Cultural Change 41:103-124.

1998 Fabricando identidades. Mayas y ladinos en la production indus-trial. Estudios Sociales Cuarta Epoca (Guatemala) 59:57-64.

1999 Identities in the (Maquila) Making: Guatemalan Mayas in the WorldEconomy. In Identities on the Move: Transnational Processes inNorth America and the Caribbean Basin. Iiliana R. Goldin, ed. Pp.151-168. Albany: IMS and University of Texas Press.

Goldin, Iiliana and Brent Metz1991 An Expression of Cultural Change: Invisible Converts to Protestant-

ism Among Highland Guatemala Mayas. Ethnology 30:325-338.Halperin, Rhoda1994 Cultural Economies, Past and Present. Austin: University of Texas

Press.Holmstrom, Mark1984 Industry and Inequality: The Social Anthropology of Indian

Labour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Isaac, Claudia B.1995 Class Stratification and Cooperative Production among Rural

Women in Central Mexico. Latin American Research Review3(X2):123-150

Klass, Morton1978 From Field to Factory: Community Structure and Industrialization

in West Bengal. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of HumanIssues.

Laclau, Ernesto1986 Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America. In Promise of Deve-

lopment: Theories of Change in Latin America. Peter F. Klarenand Thomas J. Bossert, eds. Pp. 166-90. Boulder: Westview Press.

Lim, Linda1983 Capitalism, Imperialism, and Patriarchy. In Women, Men and the

International Division of Labor, June Nash and M. P. Fernandez-Kelly, eds. Pp.70-92. Albany: SUNY Press.

Nash, June1983 The Impact of the Changing International Division of Labor on

Different Sectors of the Labor Force. In Women, Men and theInternational Division of Labor, June Nash and M. P. Fernandez-Kelly, eds. Pp.3-38. Albany: SUNY Press.

Maquila Age Maya 55

Nash, June and Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, eds.1983 Women, Men and the International Division of Labor. Albany:

SUNY Press.Ong, Aihwa1987 Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline: Factory Women in

Malaysia. Albany: SUNY Press.Perez Sainz, Juan Pablo1996 De la finca a la maquila: modernization capitalista y trabajo en

Centroamerica. San Jose, Costa Rica: FLACSO.Petersen, Kurt1992 The Maquiladora Revolution in Guatemala. Occasional Paper

Series, 2. Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International HumanRights at Yale Law School.

Population Census, Guatemala1996 Censo 1994. Caracteristicas generales de poblacion y habitation.

Guatemala: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica.Prensa Libre (Guatemalan Newspaper)1994 Sube a 62 numero de maquiladoras que han cerrado en Guatemala

durante 1994. December 16,1994.1995 Despegue y consolidation de la maquila en Guatemala. Revista

Dinero. March 22,1995.1998 Pernoctan en la calle. Erick Campos, Guatemala, December 31,

pg.8.Raynolds, Laura T.1998 Harnessing Women's Work: Restructuring Agricultural and Indus-

trial Labor Forces in the Dominican Republic. Economic Geogra-phy 74(2): 149-69.

Roseberry, William1983 From Peasant Studies to Proletarianization Studies. Studies in

Comparative International Development 18(l-2):68-89.1988 Domestic Modes, Domesticated Models. Journal of Historical

Sociology l(4):423-430.Rothstein, Frances1988 Global Views and Human action in a Rural Community in Mexico.

Urban Anthropology 17(4)365-381.Rothstein, Frances Abrahamer and Michael L. Blim, eds.1992 Anthropology and the Global Factory: Studies of the New

Industrialization in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Berginand Garvey.


Safe, Helen1983 Women, Production and Reproduction in Industrial Capitalism: A

comparison of Brazilian and U.S. Factory Workers. In Women,Men and the International Division of Labor, June Nash and M. P.Fernandez-Kelly, eds. Pp. 95-116. Albany: SUNY Press.

1995 The Myth of the Male Breadwinner. In Women and Industrialization in the Caribbean. Boulder: Westview Press.

Sklair, Leslie1989 Assembling for Development: The Maquila Industry in Mexico

and the United States. Boston: Unwin Hayman.Smith, Carol1987 Culture and Community: The Language of Class in Guatemala. In

The Year Left 2: An American Socialist Yearbook, Mike Davis etal., eds. London: Verso.

1990 The Militarization of Civil Society in Guatemala: EconomicReorganization as a Continuation of War. Latin American Perspec-tives 17(4):8-4l.

Tiano, Susan1990 Maquiladora Women: A New Category of Workers? In Women Work

ers and Global Restructuring, Kathryn Ward, ed. Pp. 193-224. Ithaca:Cornell University.

1994 Patriarchy on the line: Labor, Gender and Ideology in the MexicanMaquila Industry. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Thrupp, Lori Ann, Gilles Bergeron and William F. Waters1995 Bittersweet Harvest for Global Supermarkets: Challenges in Latin

America's Agricultural Export Boom. Washington D. C. World Re-sources Institute.

Truelove, Cynthia1990 Disguised Industrial Proletarians in Rural Latin America: Women's

Informal Sector Factory Work and the Social Reproduction of Cof-fee Farm Labor in Colombia. In Women Workers and Global Re-structuring. Kathryn Ward, ed. Pp.48-63. Ithaca: Cornell University.

Von Braun, Maarten, D. Hotchkiss and D. C. Immink1989 Nontraditional Export Crops in Guatemala: Effects on Production,

Income, and Nutrition. International Food Policy Research Institute.Wolpe, Harold1980 Introduction. In The Articulation of Modes of Production: Essays

from Economy and Society. Harold Wolpe, ed. pp. 1-44. Boston:Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Maquila Age Maya 57

Maquila Age Maya: Changing Households and Communities of the Central Highlands of Guatemala

Documents

Transcript of Maquila Age Maya: Changing Households and Communities of the Central Highlands of Guatemala