For Whom the Taco Bells Toll

Abstract

■ This article explores recent forms of Mexican popular nationalism in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Drawing on ethno graphic research in a colonia popular of Mexico City, I maintain that analyses of nationalism and class, including within critical theory, should re-examine cul tural questions pertaining to national sovereignty within contemporary globaliz ation. Responses to the Free Trade Agreement among the urban poor in Mexico, for instance, indicate a growing disparity between elite and popular perceptions regarding issues such as democracy and nationalism. Although grassroots leftist politics in the last two decades have been successful in overcoming a previous neglect of daily needs and realities for the poor, the article also argues that recent popular social movements have too often ignored debate on questions of trans nationalism and nationalism.