Much of the produce that Americans eat is grown in the Mexican state of Baja California, the site of a multibillion-dollar export agricultural boom that has generated jobs and purportedly reduced poverty and labor migration to the United States. But how has this growth affected those living in Baja? Based on a decade of ethnographic fieldwork, Made in Baja examines the unforeseen consequences for residents in the region of San Quintín. The ramifications include the tripling of the region’s population, mushrooming precarious colonia communities lacking basic infrastructure and services, and turbulent struggles for labor, civic, and political rights. Anthropologist Christian Zlolniski reveals the outcomes of growers structuring the industry around an insatiable demand for fresh fruits and vegetables. He also investigates the ecological damage—"watercide”—and the social side effects of exploiting natural resources for agricultural production. Weaving together stories from both farmworkers and growers, Made in Baja provides an eye-opening look at the dynamic economy developing south of the border.

About the Author

Christian Zlolniski is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the author of Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists: The Lives of Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. The Birth and Development of Export Agriculture in the San Quintín Valley
2. Transnational Agribusiness, Local Growers, and Discontents
3. Labor Recruitment: From Local to Transnational Labor Contractors
4. “They Want First-Class Workers with Third World Wages”: The Workplace Regime of Transnational Agriculture
5. Resisting the Carrilla in the Workplace: Forms of Labor Protests
6. Colonizing and Establishing Roots in Arid Lands
7. Watercide: Export Agriculture, Water Insecurity, and Social Unrest
Conclusion

Appendix: Policy Recommendations
Notes
References
Index

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Read an interview with Christian Zlolniski

Reviews

"Zlolniski’s book is a detailed account that demonstrates very effectively how ethnography can be marshaled to rehumanize the global processes of production, consumption, and exchange that often seem to leave little room for any form of humanity, community, or social solidarity."
— American Anthropologist

"This is an important and recommended book for anthropologists with a political economy orientation and interested in agriculture and capitalism beyond the topic of peasant studies."
— Anthropology Book Forum

“A comprehensive description of the regional transformation brought to Baja due to transnational agricultural production, grounded in sound and solid ethnography.”—David Craig Griffith, author of American Guestworkers: Jamaicans and Mexicans in the U.S. Labor Market

“The single best description and analysis of the increasingly important shift of high-value, specialized agricultural goods from Canada and the United States to Latin America.”—Josiah Heyman, coeditor of The U.S.-Mexico Transborder Region

"Made in Baja is an important contribution to our understanding of global agriculture in all its dimensions. Zlolniski describes, analyzes and reveals the plight and creative strategies of indigenous and Mexican field workers, migrants and settlers in Baja California. In this book agricultural development goes beyond labor and crop development, and includes the consequences of population growth and lack of infrastructure, while introducing new concepts that address the human/social issues that are a result of large scale transnational agriculture."—Roberto R. Alvarez, author of Mangos, Chiles and Truckers: the Business of Transnationalism

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

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Reviews