Weaving transnational spaces: Peruvian and Colombian suitcase traders moving across South American borders

Abstract

ABSTRACT Our study addresses suitcase trading that involves buying goods from one country and transporting them across borders in portable packages, so as to avoid government taxes. Although a globally common practice, and a significant source of income for many, we have scant understanding of suitcase trade practices in South America. Therefore, we examine how Peruvian and Colombian suitcase traders establish and sustain transnational spaces by engaging in repeated cross-border trade activities between (1) Peru and Brazil, entailing routes of 3,500 km, and (2) Colombia and Venezuela, involving routes of only 1 km. Further, to analyse the spatialities of transnational practices, a focus absent in many studies on transnationalism and transnational spaces, we propose a perspective that combines mobilities, connections, and meanings. Our study, which employs ethnographic, biographical, and participatory methods with 40 suitcase traders, reveals that transnational space is not just an abstract entity in which transnational social practices occur. Instead, it is structured by frequent or occasional mobilities along specific routes and means, by socioeconomic connections between geographically distant or proximate sites, and by the meanings that individuals give to their transnational practices. Our findings emphasize that the perspective of spatialities helps us understand the heterogeneity of transnational spaces.