347Chapter 9
Transnationalism and the Political
Economy of Mesoamerica
A young Maya woman sits at a sewing machine by the open door of a small adobe
room, the only source of light. She is putting together a black sport jacket. It is a
shiny polyester-and-cotton blend with a fashionable style. Her employer, who likes to
copy some styles and innovate others, designed it. He purchases the materials in the
city, designs and cuts the pieces, and then hires young, single women and men to as-
semble them. The woman is using his sewing machine, whereas other workers whom
he employs work at home using their own equipment. While she sews jackets, two of
her brothers with their father are planting their cornfields. Her older sister and her
mother are at a tourism resort, a few hours away, selling handmade textiles to foreign
tourists. And her uncle is in Los Angeles, California, working as a landscaper with
other men from other Mesoamerican towns.
These are examples of the wide and complex range of activities that the present-
day peoples of the Mesoamerican region practice in order to make a living. Individ-
ually and collectively, native Mesoamericans engage multiple economic strategies in
order to make a living and take care of their families. The most industrialized sectors
currently produce for international markets, assemble goods for the most developed
countries using labor-intensive programs, and produce items that require highly de-
veloped technologies. Most industrial centers are located in or around urban centers.
Labor, however, is drawn heavily from rural areas. In the rural areas, we find pro-
ducers of diverse crops, foodstuffs, and crafts; and smaller, labor-intensive industries,
such as the garment producers of the western highlands of Guatemala, exemplified
before. Just like their urban counterparts, they are dependent on the whims and
fluctuations of international markets. And just like increasing numbers of their urban
counterparts, they are becoming transnational workers who travel to the United
States and Canada for work.
In this chapter we will introduce the various ways in which people earn a living
and the ways in which they organize themselves in the process of production. In in-
troducing the economies of Mesoamerica, our emphasis will be on the ways in which