Those Who “Don’t Move” Dynamics of Mobility at Two Crossing Points on the Guatemala-Mexico Borderland, from the Experience of Workers Who Vitalize the Region

Carmen Fernández-Casanueva
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Carmen Fernández-Casanueva: CIESAS, Sureste, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas CP 29247, Mexico

Land, 2020, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Drawing on qualitative research carried out in 2018 at two crossing points at the Guatemala-Mexico border, I focus my attention on individuals enabling movement and border crossing. These include money changers ( cambistas or cambiadores ), so-called tricyclists ( tricilceros , people whose activity facilitates the transport of merchandise), motorcycle taxi drivers (locally called tuk tuks ), rafters ( balseros o camareros , in charge of the rafts that cross the border river), and, in general, people directly linked to movements in the region and across the border. Local actors like them, often overlooked, are the cogs that allow one side of the border to be connected to the other. Mobility and this specific space are affected by their imprint, their actions, and by the way they relate to their environment. Their aim is to be able to remain and protect their livelihood; in order to be able to not move, they allow movement across the border, shaping mobility, and also immobility, in the borderland. They are key actors in the construction of the border dynamic, mobility, and the space surrounding the line that divides both countries geopolitically. Although they play a role in the construction of (im)mobility of this space, they are subjects whose lives, destinies, and opportunities are intimately linked to the interactions and dynamics that take place there.

Keywords: Guatemala-Mexico border; immobility; mobility; borderland crossing; borderland workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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