Rebecca Maria Torres

Linkages between tourism and agriculture in Mexico.

Establishing linkages between tourism demand for food and local agricultural production is critical in maximizing host country benefits. Drawing on surveys of Cancun hotels and Yucatan Peninsula tourists, as well as interviews with chefs, food suppliers, farmers, ejido comisariados and urban immigrants, this study takes a holistic approach to analyzing existing linkages between tourism and agriculture in Quintana Roo and understanding factors constraining the development of linkages. The article contends that tourism and agriculture linkages in Quintana Roo are weak due several constraining factors examined in depth. Conclusions suggest areas of potential for fostering linkages.

Challenges and potential for linking tourism and agriculture to achieve pro-poor tourism objectives.

With tourism rapidly increasing in developing nations there is an emerging focus on integrating pro-poor tourism into both the international tourism and aid agendas. Following a brief review of the pro-poor tourism literature, this article argues for the explicit creation of tourism and agriculture linkages to achieve pro-poor tourism objectives. To understand both the potential and the problems associated with linking the two sectors, we present an in-depth case study of tourism and agriculture in Cancun, Mexico. The case study draws on the perspectives of Cancun hotel chefs, who control hotel food purchasing, and Quintana Roo farmers, who have attempted to supply the tourism industry, to provide a unique thorough examination of the challenges and potential for such linkages in a mass tourism resort.

Gringolandia: The construction of a new tourist space in Mexico

Abstract With Cancun, the site of the 2003 World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, being presented as a metaphor for the inequities purported to emerge from globalization, this is an opportune time to examine the resort and its surrounding region as a product of transnational forces. Locals refer to Cancun as “Gringolandia,” a term that reflects the circus-like spectacle of the overbuilt resort, embedded in a region deeply divided by uneven development and the ensuing inequitable power relations. The principal objective of this article is to understand how transnational forces have reshaped local realities and power structures in the Yucatan to construct and reproduce Gringolandia as a new tourist space. We commence with an historical overview of the planning, inception, and subsequent evolution of the physical and socioeconomic spatial divisions manifest in the resort today. We then analyze the two forces that have played perhaps the greatest role in constructing Gringolandia: the transnational economic structure of the resort and the consumption- and production-led migratory flows to Cancun. Detailed understanding of the construction of Gringolandia, and its regional influence, holds valuable lessons for future tourist resort planning and development in lesser-developed countries.

Cancun's tourism development from a Fordist spectrum of analysis.

Tourism scholars in recent years have posited a global paradigmatic shift from Fordist to more post-Fordist and neo-Fordist modes of tourism production and consumption. This article provides a brief literature review of transformations in global tourism production and consumption from a Fordist spectrum of analysis. Following a discussion of tourism development in Cancun and the surrounding state of Quintana Roo, this article draws on empirical data from a survey of 615 visitors to the Yucatan Peninsula and 60 Cancun hotels to provide a contextual application of the Fordist spectrum in understanding the nature of tourism production and consumption in the region. Cancun is situated as a predominately Fordist mass tourism resort, however, analysis reveals that the region’s tourism landscape, which is experiencing processes of diversification, is in reality a complex combination of both Fordist and post-Fordist elements manifest in different ‘shades’ of mass tourism, ‘neo-Fordism’ and ‘mass customization’. The article concludes that the Fordist spectrum of analysis provides a useful perspective from which to examine the changing nature of tourism production and consumption.

Planned Tourism Development in Quintana Roo, Mexico: Engine for Regional Development or Prescription for Inequitable Growth?

In the 1960s the isolated tropical forest enclave of Quintana Roo was targeted by the Mexican Government to serve as the cornerstone for launching what is now considered to be one of Mexico’s most successful economic development strategies – Planned Tourism Development (PTD). This paper commences with a brief review of the role of state-driven PTD in Mexico’s national economic development agenda. Government discourse surrounding the Cancun project emphasised tourism as a mechanism for promoting ‘regional development’through creation of backward linkages to other economic sectors – notably agriculture and small industry – to benefit the region’s marginalised Mayan peasant population. Based on research in Quintana Roo, this paper contends that while PTD has generated profit for the Government, transnational corporations and entrepreneurial elites, it has failed to achieve backward linkages that may have improved conditions for the region’s impoverished rural population. Employing a case study approach, the paper illustrates the failure of PTD to stimulate balanced regional development, while analysing PTD’s role in reinforcing existing relations of domination and subordination to produce new patterns of uneven development and inequity within Quintana Roo.

Undocumented Students’ Narratives of Liminal Citizenship: High Aspirations, Exclusion, and “In-Between” Identities

This study illustrates how national immigration policy relegates undocumented immigrant children to spaces of liminal citizenship, which shape their aspirations for higher education. Recognizing the power of migrant narratives, and the importance of privileging youths’ voices through childrens geographies, we present the narratives of undocumented high school students from several rural North Carolina communities. Despite various barriers facing undocumented students, most have high academic aspirations. Students construct new forms of citizenship, legitimating their claims to higher education access through their achievement. Their liminal status, however, contributes to the formation of conflicted, “in-between” identities.

Montezuma's revenge - how sanitation concerns may injure Mexico's tourist industry.

Nearly one-third of the 615 travelers responding to a 1997 survey reported being indisposed by gastrointestinal illness during their trips to Cancun. Those reporting illness were disproportionately residents of the United States. One accepted way to avoid traveler’s diarrhea is to eat only cooked food. In addition, many of the sixty hotel chefs surveyed attempted to interdict disease by avoiding local suppliers and instead ordered frozen foods from distant markets. Neither of those strategies will work, however, if kitchen workers themselves cause disease, which appears to occur. Rather than risk being shunned by international travelers, Cancun’s hoteliers would do well to create alliances with local producers to provide appropriately handled foodstuffs and to work together to ensure a sanitary environment for employees. By improving workers’ health, hotel chefs can close another door to disease. Similarly, by partnering with local growers, hotel chefs can ensure a supply of the freshest produce possible.

Tourism and agriculture: new geographies of consumption, production and rural restructuring.

1. Introduction Rebecca Maria Torres and Janet Momsen Section I Tourism, Agriculture and Rural Restructuring 2. Tourism and Agriculture in Hungary: Post Productivist Transistion or New Functions in Rural Space? Iren Szorenyine Kukorelli 3. The Nexus Between Agriculture and Tourism in Ghana: A Case of Unexploited Development Potential Alex Asiedu and Tometi Gbdema 4. Life Between the Two Milpas: Tourism, Agriculture and Migration in the Yucatan Rebecca Maria Torres 5. Female Empowerment Through Agriculture in Rural Japan? Atsuko Hashimoto and David Telfer Section II Building Tourism and Agriculture Linkages: Challenges and Potential 6. Sustainability on a Plate: Linking Agriculture and Food in the Fiji Islands Tourism Industry Tracy Berno 7. Cracks in the Pavement: Coventional Constraints and Contemporary Solutions for Linking Agriculture and Tourism in the Caribbean Benjamin F. Timms and Stern Neill 8. Agritourism Linkages in Jamaica: Case Study of the Negril All-Inclusive Hotel Subsector Kevon Rhiney 9. Tourism and Agriculture in Barbados: Changing Relationships Pamela Richardson-Ngwenya and Janet Momsen Section III: New Forms of Tourism and Agriculture Production and Consumption 10. Adopting a Sheep in Abruzzo: Agritourism and the Preservation of Transhumance Farming in Central Italy Rosie Cox, Lewis Holloway, Laura Venn, Moya Kneafsey, and Elizabeth Dowler 11. Farm Stay Tourism in California: The Influence of Type of Farming Jill Donaldson and Janet Momsen 12. Tourism and Agriculture Viability: Case Studies from the United States and England Ellen L. Rilla 13. Visiting Winery Tasting Rooms: Venues for Education, Differentiation and Direct Marketing Deborah Che and Astrid Wargenau 14. New Forms of Tourism in Spain: Wine, Gastronomic and Rural Tourism Gemma Canoves and Raul Suhett de Morais

Child Migration and Transnationalized Violence in Central and North America

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied migrant children attempting to enter the United States. In 2014, total numbers peaked at 68,000 apprehensions, mostly from Central America and Mexico. Since then, rising immigration enforcement strategies within Mexico have decreased the ability of unaccompanied migrant youth to reach the US border. However, underlying factors driving child migration have not changed. Children continue to flee high levels of violence, particularly from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, which are currently among the most violent nations in the world. Yet, violence does not end for youth once they leave the borders of their countries; as youth ride buses, trains, boats and trucks north, they continue to encounter it along every step of the way. Due to increasing militarization and punitive immigration policies in the United States, migrant children contend with further violence when they cross the US/Mexico border. In this paper, we examine how varied nuanced manifestations of violence shape migrant children’s lives and experiences. While youth may be able to escape immediate and corporeal violence, we explain how different forms of violence influence not only their decisions to leave, but also their journeys and encounters with Mexican and US immigration policies. We argue for a more spatially expansive understanding of violence that considers how state policies and practices extend far beyond national borders to negatively affect migrant children’s lives.Resumen:En los últimos años, ha habido un aumento dramático en el número de niños migrantes no acompañados que tratan de entrar en los Estados Unidos. En 2014, el número total alcanzó un máximo de 68,000 aprehensiones, en su mayoría de Centroamérica y México. Desde entonces, el aumento de las estrategias de control de inmigración en México han disminuido la capacidad de los jóvenes migrantes no acompañados de llegar a la frontera con Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, los factores subyacentes que impulsan la migración infantil no han cambiado. Los niños siguen huyendo de altos niveles de violencia, en particular de El Salvador, Honduras y Guatemala, que actualmente están entre los países más violentos del mundo. Sin embargo, la violencia no termina para los jóvenes una vez que salgan de la frontera de sus países; como los jóvenes toman autobuses, trenes, barcos y camiones al norte, ellos lo siguen encontrando a lo largo de cada paso del camino. Debido al aumento de la militarización y las políticas punitivas de inmigración en los Estados Unidos, los niños migrantes luchan contra más violencia cuando cruzan la frontera de Estados Unidos/México. En este trabajo, examinamos cómo matizados y variadas manifestaciones de violencia forman las vidas y experiencias de los niños migrantes. Mientras que la juventud puede ser capaz de escapar de la violencia inmediata y corporal, explicamos cómo las diferentes formas de violencia no sólo influyan su decisión de salir, sino también sus viajes y encuentros con las políticas de inmigración de México y EEUU. Argumentamos a favor de un entendimiento más amplio y espacial de la violencia que tiene en cuenta cómo las políticas y prácticas estatales se extienden mucho más allá de las fronteras nacionales para afectar negativamente la vida de los niños migrantes.

Migration and Development? The Gendered Costs of Migration on Mexico's Rural “Left Behind”

Abstract Governments, civil society, and policymakers assert the potential of international migration to foster development and alleviate poverty. Often such claims are rooted in macroscale geopolitical analyses of migration and development, which mask the localized, uneven, and embodied ways family members “left behind” bear the costs and subsidize the U.S./Mexico (inter)national integration project. Informed by feminist geopolitics, this article demonstrates how the left behind disproportionately bear the hidden costs of neoliberal restructuring and migration. We draw upon Mexican Migration Project () ethnosurvey data to frame the narratives of migrant family members left behind. Narratives were constructed through in‐depth interviews conducted in rural Veracruz. We conclude that in the absence of geographically specific examinations of the hidden costs associated with neoliberal development and migration it is possible that “migration for development” programs and policies may exacerbate inequities that will perpetuate migration and further weaken Mexican origin communities.