Study Abroad

Students investigate:
- the social, political and cultural context within which Mexican social movements struggle,
- grassroots alternatives to predominant neoliberal models of development, and
- the strategies, structures and manifestations of Mexican social movements, including indigenous and campesino movements, globalifóbicos, ex-Braceros, women's organizations, independent labor organizations and NGOs.
 
Educational objectives:
- Introduce students to Mexico's rich and diverse economic, political and social context, with special emphasis on grassroots and community-based initiatives that are struggling for democracy, autonomy and self-determination.
- Understand the depth and scope of the US-Mexico relationship, with particular emphasis on power dynamics, economic and social relations, and important bi-national issues, including immigration, the neoliberal model, narco-trafficking, labor rights, and environmental issues.
- Develop strong Spanish language skills, with emphasis on oral communication and comprehension.
- Improve important organizing and academic skills, including critical analysis, strategic analysis, organizational dynamics, writing, public speaking and field research.
- Develop strong intercultural skills based on a clear understanding of race, class and gender dynamics, and an appreciation of international solidarity in a globalized world.
- Establish productive relationships with grassroots and community-based groups in Chiapas, Tlaxcala, Mexico City, Chihuahua City and/or Ciudad Juárez.
 
Rationale:
The United States and Mexico are bound together in the most important relationship in the world - a virtual laboratory that is defining the process of corporate-centered globalization. Elites on both sides of the border - those who control the economies and political systems - are benefiting handsomely from this relationship, while the rest of us are suffering the consequences. The elites form international class alliances, and have more in common with each other than they do with their fellow populace, while the rest of us are left with less democracy, fewer economic options and increased repression.  In Mexico, maquiladoras take advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental standards to produce for US consumption, while US industrial production flees south and leaves behind a working class in decline. Today, fully one-third of everything produced in Mexico is exported - 90% to the United States. Undocumented immigration has reached historically unprecedented levels, due largely to NAFTA and free trade regimes that destroy domestic markets for Mexico's agricultural production.
 
While political analysts herald a new Mexican democracy, defined one-dimensionally by elections every few years, narco-dollars pervade the judicial, political and security systems. Corrupt political parties vie for power - "a poor politician is a lousy politician (un politico pobre es un pobre politico)" as the infamous saying goes - while the majority of Mexicans struggle for survival.
 
Democracy is indeed blooming, but not in the halls of Congress or the offices of transnational corporations. Genuine democracy is flourishing in indigenous communities struggling for autonomy, in campesino communities demanding re-negotiation of NAFTA, in women's groups struggling to end femicides, and in urban centers where workers are organizing independent unions.