Mexican Lives

by Judith Adler Hellman

On the eve of the most significant trade agreement in recent Mexico-U.S. history, Judith Adler Hellman, a leading authority on Mexican politics, went into the homes and workplaces of a variety of Mexicans, from rich industrialists to poor street vendors. In bringing us their stories, Hellman puts a human face on the political and economic transformation currently under way in this rapidly changing country, and puts in context the rage and frustration that is feeding the current rebellion in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The Mexicans interviewed in this remarkable book share their views on an array of subjects, including pollution, the political elite, corruption, economics, and the migrant experience in the United States. Some seek collective solutions to the challenges they face; others, for a variety of interesting reasons, have no involvement with any group beyond their immediate or extended family, and rely for their well-being only on themselves and their kin. Here we meet a small subsistence farmer, eager to break into the more profitable gourmet fruit and vegetable export market; a very wealthy family pondering how best to position its company to profit from NAFTA; and a former housewife turned union organizer, who must figure out what to do with her life underwrite her son's migration to the United States, put down a payment on a new house with running water, or buy an industrial sewing machine with which to start her own business. These personal portraits, combined with Hellman's concise and engaging presentation of recent Mexican economic and political history, make this essential reading for those concerned about Mexico and the growing global economy.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Oral History

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, short read about several different types of Mexicans (business owners, farm owners, seamstresses, psychics, etc.) and how they live their lives, hence the title of the book. Each chapter is a different character’s story about how that person lives in Mexican society and how he or she gets by in the inner workings of the economy. The stories are very real and describes how wealthy and poor, simultaneously, the country is and how because of this, each person utilizes different strategies for surviving.

[Sarah Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book for anyone seeking to better understand the economic crisis and other forces that resulted in the massive wave of Latino immigrants into the United States in the last two decades. You'll learn a lot, but I promise you won't feel like you're back in school because it is a great read!

[Jill Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh wow. If there is any question in your mind about why Mexicans illegally immigrate to the U.S. or hardness in your heart about them doing so, then PLEASE read this book. It's a bit academic in places, but it's moving in many more.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, and the individual approach gave a very different view of the situation. Obviously it’s a bit out of date by now and all kinds of changes likely have occurred, but there is a great deal here I felt I should have been familiar with and wasn’t.

[Pan Ellington · Rating 3 out of 5]

fascinating. another time capsule, this of mexico's people across classes right as nafta was finalized. incredibly sad, frustrating, as well

[Tatum · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author does a fantastic job of demonstrating the different perspectives of people from different economic backgrounds and how politics were directly impacting their lives.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mainly interviews with Mexicans ranging from day laborers to border runners to factory owners, written immediately before the passage of NAFTA. The treaty is feared to mute the voice of the individual in favor of corporate giants, and, well, shit I guess that came true.

I read this before I went to rural Mexico for a week to try to understand the life I would encounter. The book describes Mexico as a system that favors powerful patronage, one that event subsumes socialist labor movements. Survival depends upon knowing the right person and paying him off, the classic third-world stereotype.

Is it true? I assume so; the interviews are honest and don't seem to select for spectacular success stories or the people most firmly lodged under the boot of industry. I saw no direct evidence of patronage, but nobody in my borrowed corner of San Luis Potosi seemed to be particularly high nor low, a permanent lower-middle class. Business was conducted through relationships though, a tacit endorsement of the patronage system. We bought fruit trees from one vendor because our host "knew he was a good man who cared" and a second nursery-owner insisted upon re-packing our truck because "it would be wrong to take your money and send you home without helping you."

A cynical reading chalks that up to naïvety - You bought the trees, that's your problem, and now each of you is beholden to the other and you can REALLY get screwed! Such an interpretation damns that patronage system as a corrupt old-boys club that could exclude you, a human without a connection to that caring nursery owner. I find nepotism troubling and ossifying, but having seen a flavor of it, I was touched by the consideration placed upon relationships between people. In a nation without a cornucopia of money and stuff, relationships are essential because you can't hide in your fortress of dollars and silently throw a pile of Hamiltons at a problem.

I don't know how that affects my interpretation of the book, but the relationship between people, their bonds, and power is inescapable.

[Dorothee Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a collection of different life stories from different corners of Mexican society. Every story adds to a larger, more complex picture. The 15 life reports of Mexican men and women, from worker to street merchant to farmer to factory owner are based on longer interviews, and the book also includes chapters on the historical background, the political system, and the agricultural and rural development in Mexico.

It was a fascinating read, especially the contrasts and parallels of the life stories. While reading it, a new issue of Words Without Borders went live: "The Mexican Drug War". It features 11 pieces of fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction exploring the world of a modern-day Mexico held hostage by drug lords. again, this added a different layer.

more notes and links are online in a blog note on reading about Mexico: http://virtual-notes.blogspot.de/2012...

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very interested in Mexican culture and history, so this book caught my eye as I was browsing in a small independent bookstore last week. This is basically a collection of field interviews with Mexicans from all walks of life, conducted by a Canadian poli sci professor, in the early 90s. It captures a unique slice in time--the time after Mexico entered the GATT, but before NAFTA came into effect, before the internet, and before the so-called "war on drugs."

[Marge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hellman explores the lives of particular individuals, and intersperses chapters on economic and historical realities with the chapters on those individuals. So, the reader comes away with an idea about the lives of people on all levels of the social classes, and with a sense of how the larger world (both US and Mexico) helped create those lives. A powerful and moving book.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in college. I regret selling it back to the bookstore. If you really want to know what life is like in Mexico, read this Canadian sociologist's account of the lives of various Mexicans, from the family that owns a factory and finds itself competing more and more with China to the woman who buys used T-shirts in Laredo and sells them in el D.F.

[Remington Krueger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent work that utilizes numerous interviews to paint a broad picture of the economic burdens placed on Mexicans by the GATT and NAFTA from the 1980s into the 1990s. A great read for anyone wanting to understand the more recent influence the US and Canada have had on Mexico's economy. This comes through in the book through the many personal stories of Hellman's interviewees.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good book containing true accounts from a handful of struggling Mexicans. Will give a whole new outlook on what many have to overcome living in Mexico and the reason for their immigration to the US.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some fascinating people, but the work does not cohere.

[Kendall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book on how NAFTA impacted Mexico

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat repetitive but an enlightening look at problems Mexicans have been facing since the return of liberalism and the passing of NAFTA.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perspective that many could probably use.

[Mwall21 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific....however, I am biased as Judith Hellman is my absolute favourite professor ever.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dense, but accessible collection of adapted interviews that are able to illustrate the suffering caused by neoliberal exploitation on a human level.