Those Who “Don’t Move” Dynamics of Mobility at Two Crossing Points on the Guatemala-Mexico Borderland, from the Experience of Workers Who Vitalize the Region

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative research carried out in 2018 at two crossing points at the Guatemala-Mexico border, I focus my attention on individuals enabling movement and border crossing. These include money changers (cambistas or cambiadores), so-called tricyclists (tricilceros, people whose activity facilitates the transport of merchandise), motorcycle taxi drivers (locally called tuk tuks), rafters (balseros o camareros, in charge of the rafts that cross the border river), and, in general, people directly linked to movements in the region and across the border. Local actors like them, often overlooked, are the cogs that allow one side of the border to be connected to the other. Mobility and this specific space are affected by their imprint, their actions, and by the way they relate to their environment. Their aim is to be able to remain and protect their livelihood; in order to be able to not move, they allow movement across the border, shaping mobility, and also immobility, in the borderland. They are key actors in the construction of the border dynamic, mobility, and the space surrounding the line that divides both countries geopolitically. Although they play a role in the construction of (im)mobility of this space, they are subjects whose lives, destinies, and opportunities are intimately linked to the interactions and dynamics that take place there.

A Diversity of Migration and Land Couplings: An Introduction to the Special Issue “Migration and Land”

“…Fernández Casanueva [7] contributes to our knowledge of the Guatemala-Mexico border, a crucial territory connecting Central and South America with North America, in terms of transnational trade and human mobility. She examines the role of the local actors who enable the connection between the two countries along the Suchiate River.…”

“…To be able to stay, they facilitate the movements of others across the border. Fernández Casanueva [7] emphasizes the need for migration studies to consider not only regional, national, and international levels, but to also focus on the local level, where intricate land-migration relations such as these can be detected.…”

“…Other studies in this collection demonstrate how conflict between uses, or "land meaning," by different actors with varying power is central to land-migration couplings (e.g., [13]). Fernández Casanueva's [7] work at the Guatemala-Mexico border, in contrast, demonstrates the differing meanings of a border and its land, as a place to be traversed and regulated versus as a home.…”

“…Five articles address case studies set in Guatemala, Mexico, and Chile. Three of these articles (Johnson [6]; Fernández Casanueva [7]; Angelsen et al [8]) involve migrants heading to international destinations to escape precarious livelihood conditions. The two others are focused on internal migration.…”

The Border-Development-Climate Change Nexus: Precarious Campesinos at the Selva Maya Mexico–Guatemala Border

“…Much of our recent knowledge of the Mexico-Guatemala cross-border region derives from research on the section between Chiapas, Mexico and San Marcos and Huehuetenango, Guatemala. There, the border constitutes a crucial territory connecting Central and South America with North America (Fernández-Casanueva 2020). This cross-border region is characterized by poverty, violence, and organizations demanding autonomy and resisting extractivist projects (Villafuerte Solís 2017), but also by strong social, commercial, and cultural ties that go beyond state boundaries (Fuentes Carrera 2020).…”