Well‐off small‐scale tobacco growers and farm workers in the Mexican agrarian reform (1972–1990)

Abstract

AbstractIn this article, I study small‐scale growers of blonde tobacco varieties from the state of Nayarit in Mexico who had contract farming arrangements with the state‐owned company Tabamex (1972–1990). I refer to them as “well‐off small‐scale tobacco growers” given that in the 1960s, 1970s, and the 1980s, they became one of the subaltern social groups that benefited the most from the Mexican Agrarian Reform. I want to set this research apart from the ones carried out on tobacco growers in Nayarit, which have almost exclusively understood this group as agricultural producers and have perceived as secondary, and even as anecdotal, the impact of the high levels of wage labour hired in the region. I argue that in order to have a better understanding of the social relations at play, it is important to take into account that Nayarit tobacco growers have also been employers of farm workers. Hence in my analysis, I have also included the seasonal farm workers hired by these small‐scale tobacco growers because of their importance in the labour force. More specifically, I have looked into the vulnerability and invisibility of these workers both within this branch of agricultural activity and state institutions.