Current Issue Briefs

The mission of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, is to support multidisciplinary research on Mexico, U.S.-Mexican relations, and Mexican-origin populations in North America. The Center also sponsors comparative studies with substantial Mexico components. Beyond serving the University of California, the Center pursues close collaboration with Mexican institutions. As the premier institution of its kind, the Center seeks broad dissemination of its findings in order to inform public and scholarly debates in both Mexico and the United States.

The Director of the Center is Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, who received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University and is an associate professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UCSD.

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Planting Trouble: The Barzón Debtors’ Movement in Mexico

Williams, Heather L.

(1996)

This issue brief provides an introduction to the Barzón movement, including an overview of the factors that prompted its formation and an examination of how the movement went about organizing discontented farmers, businessmen, and urban consumers. It argues that the economic crisis following the 1994 currency crash disrupted economic activity such that people in very different situations came to have common complaints. It further contends that the Barzón movement in particular was able to recruit tens of thousands of members and capture public sympathy because of innovative organizing strategies and a rhetoric that invoked broadly accepted concepts of national salvation, personal pride, and social justice.

The Uncertain Connection: Free Trade and Mexico-U.S. Migration

(1993)

Will the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) decrease Mexican migration?

Migración Oaxaqueña a los Campos Agrícolas de California: Un Diálogo

Zabin, Carol

(1992)

Esta publicación recoge los temas más importantes de la reunión en el mes de febrero de 1990 de más de cincuenta académicos, defensores de los trabajadores del campo, organizadores de sindicatos, y líderes de asociaciones populares de migrantes mixtecos. Ellos participaron en una reunión de trabajo para discutir la situación de los trabajadores agrícolas mixtecos en California, y conocer los esfuerzos que los líderes mixtecos están haciendo para mejorar sus condiciones de vida y trabajo. La reunión fue organizada por Carol Zabin, directora de un equipo de investigación que examina la incorporación de los mixtecos al mercado de trabajo agrícola de California. Su objetivo era intercambiar conocimiento y perspectivas entre académicos y líderes populares sobre aspectos de interés común y posibles vías de colaboración conjunta.