From the Ashes of the Poet Kings: Exodus, Identity Formation, and the New Politics of Place in Mexico City's Industrial Suburbs, 1948–1975

Abstract

This essay explores working-class political culture in Mexico City's burgeoning industrial suburbs and traces the emergence after 1968 of vigorous protest movements demanding union democratization and improved urban services. The first postwar generations of factory workers took on cosmopolitan identities and considered the suburbs an escape from the problems of the countryside and inner city. By the 1970s, however, unresponsive and corrupt union and municipal officials had made many workers feel like second-class citizens. Protest movements, while highly disparate, all sought more meaningful political participation and advocated ideas of equal opportunity and access, thus indicating that suburban laborers had begun to question a state that previous generations had viewed as sympathetic to the working class.