Land and Freedom has been more than ten years in the making. Hence, numerous people have directly and indirectly contributed to it. Firstly, I could never have embarked on this journey without my ‘compañera’ Paula Hevia-Pacheco, who carried out most of the fieldwork for this book with me. I thank Paula for her love, unconditional support and passionate involvement in our never-ending dialogues, discussions and reflections. She has been the testing ground for most of my ideas, analysis, and projects for almost two decades now. Her acute critical sense, which has often put me in front of my own contradictions, has been invaluable in my work and in my life. Land and Freedom would simply not have been possible without her.
Earlier or shorter versions of Chapter 1 and 2 were published respectively in the Journal of Peasant Studies in 2012 and the Journal of Agrarian Change in 2009, and some of the arguments in Chapters 3 and 5 appeared in Latin American Perspectives in 2009 and in 2012 in the book The New Latin American Left: Cracks in the Empire edited by Jeffery Webber and Barry Carr. Thus, throughout the years, many editors (notably Jeff), friends and colleagues have provided crucial support and feedback on many of the topics explored in this research. In so many ways, this book is the result of my journey as a graduate student in the department of political science of York University in Toronto. During the time that this book was still in its embryonic phase, I had the opportunity to learn from its faculty and my cohort at the time. Samuel Knafo, Thierry Lapointe and Geoff Kennedy, with their critical engagement with political Marxism, provided feedback on Chapter 1. Govind Rao helped me with my comparative method. Maya Eichler and Isabelle Masson, along with Paula, have made sure I take gender relations seriously. Susan Spronk, by sharing her insights from her work on social movements in Bolivia, and Angela Joya, by discussing her findings on peasant dispossession in Egypt, led me to sharpen my analysis of the MST and the EZLN and reinforced my decision to insert my understanding of their struggles within the processes surrounding what Marx referred to as the ‘so-called primitive accumulation’. I also want to thank Greg Albo for his support and for encouraging me to dive into the literature on agrarian issues in Mexico in his course on North American integration. George Comninel’s course on the state in historical perspective was also very important in getting me thinking about Marxian categories, the specificity of capitalism, and agrarian issues from the lens of social property relations. Leo Panitch, Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, Aijaz Ahmad, John Saul and Esteve Morera all contributed to enriching my understanding of critical theories and many of the ideas I explored with them are scattered throughout this book.
Two outstanding scholars, Judith Adler-Hellman and Cristóbal Kay, have been instrumental in developing the arguments of Land and Freedom. As my PhD thesis supervisor, Judy generously mobilized all her extensive knowledge of Latin American politics, especially her profound understanding of Mexican society and politics, as well as social movements in Latin America, to make me realize how the MST and the EZLN are in some instances very specific and in others more typical of the history of social movements in the continent. She encouraged me when I first thought of venturing into Brazilian politics, recommending numerous articles and books, and believed in my capacity to carry out such an ambitious comparative research project. Her comments, critiques and suggestions on every aspect of the book challenged me to think beyond my standpoint and reflect critically on my arguments. Cristóbal, whose profound knowledge of Latin American peasantries is probably unmatched, also took my argument with great seriousness and made countless suggestions to improve my analysis, notably on my understanding and use of Marxist agrarian categories. As can be seen in this book, his work has truly been an invaluable source of ideas and inspiration for my research and his appreciation of my work has given me more confidence in my own perspective. I will be forever thankful to both of them for their continued support, constant encouragement, honest advice, and enormous generosity.
To Luin Goldring, Liisa North and David McNally, I express my gratitude for their extremely valuable comments and suggestions on the very first draft of the book. Luin, by pointing me to James Scott’s reworking of E. P. Thompson’s concept of moral economy, greatly stimulated my reflection on peasant agriculture. Liisa’s comments and insights on the political economy of Latin America in general, and peasant agriculture in particular, helped broaden my understanding of Brazil and Mexico. I also want to express my gratitude to David, whose analysis of the current process of global resistance to capitalism through Marx’s concept of alienated labour, way of synthesizing my argument, and insightful comments were extremely helpful to begin building the argument of this book. I also want to thank Harriet Friedmann for commenting on initial ideas for this book and suggesting readings.
When one carries out fieldwork abroad, one is bound to find help from ‘benevolent strangers’ along the way, strangers who have become dear friends. To help me develop and improve my understanding of Brazil, I had the great pleasure of benefiting from the insights of outstanding critical scholars such as Lúcio Flávio Rodrigues de Almeida, Renata Gonçalves, Bernardo Mançano Fernandes, and Cliff Welch, who with their profound knowledge of Brazilian politics, and particularly the land struggle of the MST, allowed me to sort out some issues and sharpen my comparison. Lúcio and Renata provided comments on some of my arguments in Chapter 5 and the hospitality of their home in 2009. Bernardo and Cliff provided comments on different sections of the book and, with their respective partners Ana and Patricia, also a home away from home in 2009. I am particularly indebted to Lúcio for introducing me to the classics of Brazilian political economy in 2003 and to Cliff for pointing me to a whole set of literature on the social history of agrarian capitalism in Brazil and forcing me to ‘get the history right’ in Chapter 1. Similarly, my understanding of Mexico, which dates back to the time of my Master’s at UNAM, benefited greatly from the knowledge and friendship of Enrique Semo, with whom I enjoyed countless hours of discussion on the EZLN and the Mexican left. Many other friends, especially Lorena Loeza, Arturo Albor, Daniela Díaz, Luis Gerena, and Ivan Franco Cáceres, allowed me to slowly build knowledge for this book by simply engaging in numerous heated discussions on the ‘surrealism’ of Mexican politics while I benefited from the hospitality of their homes. In San Cristóbal de las Casas, I am indebted to Xochitl Leyva Solano, from the CIESAS-Sureste, for agreeing to be my fieldwork supervisor in 2004, assisting with reading suggestions, and helping me to clarify my ideas. I am also grateful to Alicia Swords for sharing her ideas and experiences, and for always being willing to hear about my research findings during that year in Chiapas. For commenting on some of my original ideas during a seminar at CIESAS, I want to thank Gemma Van der Haar, Mercedes Olivera, José Luis Escalona, and Daniel Villafuerte Solís. In San Cristóbal, we were also especially fortunate to meet and build friendships with Gladys Alfaro, Fredi Nango, Natalia Arias Leal, and Eduardo Serrano González, all from the Centro de Investigación y Acción para la Mujer Latinoamericana (CIAM). Their extensive knowledge of Chiapas, their concrete experience with alternative development projects with indigenous communities, and their commitment to changing all aspects of power relations in Chiapas and Mexico have greatly influenced me.
The argument of Land and Freedom has benefited directly and indirectly from my affiliation with very dynamic academic institutions. At the University of Groningen, Pieter Boele Van Hensbroek and Yongjun Zhao, my colleagues at the Centre for Development Studies (now Globalization Studies Groningen), on numerous occasions acted as a sceptical audience to my ideas about peasant agriculture, land tenure systems, and capitalist development. The argument of the book was also influenced by my teaching in the minor in development studies that led me to collaborate and share ideas with several colleagues, among them Sandrine Nonhebel, Sjaak Swart, Jacques Zeelan, Inge Hutter, Ajay Bailey, and Dirk Bezemer. All my colleagues and the staff at the Department of International Relations and International Organization made it a unique place to work and freely develop research. I especially wish to express my gratitude to Cecile de Milliano, Frank Gaenssmantel, Bastian Aardema, Ron Holzacker, Jaap de Wilde, Herman Hoen and Gerda van Roozendall for their collegiality, hospitality and warmth, as well as their respectful criticism of some of my ideas. In the University of Groningen, the seminar on alternative theories and approaches to democracy, in which Pieter Boele Boele van Hensbroek, Hans Harbers, Mark Pauly and Joris Kocken participated, was also a space where I further developed my taste for the inter-disciplinary approach to theory that is perceivable in this book. Finally, my current academic home, the Department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, could not have been a better place to finalize this book. The friendship and camaraderie of a very special group of people, including Tom Marois, Subir Sinha, Paolo Novak, Alessandra Mezzadri, Dae-oup Chang, Adam Hanieh, Gilbert Achcar, Jens Lerche, Alfredo Saad-Filho, Tim Pringle, Matteo Rizzo, Carlos Oya and Helena Pérez Niño, has allowed me to feel at home as soon as I arrived. Subir Sinha and Alfredo Saad-Filho deserve a special mention for commenting on the book, but exchanging ideas with colleagues as well as the students has also stimulated me in so many ways, not least by encouraging me to revisit, assess and reinforce my ideas about capitalist development, social change and social movements. Institutionally, the Seminar of Journal of Agrarian Change (and many of its follow-up dinners), as well as my teaching commitments, have provided fertile grounds to share and test several ideas that guide the argument in this book. My involvement in teaching the course ‘Agrarian Development, Food Policies and Rural Poverty’ with Carlos Oya, Jens Lerche and Deborah Johnston, partly because they do not share my perspective on peasant agriculture and because they work on other regions of the South, led me to further specify my theoretical approach to rural issues and be more aware of the particularities of the Latin American countryside. My ideas on alternative development and the relationship between social movements and the state were also influenced by my teaching in our core course ‘Theory, Policy and Practice of Development’. I also wish to thank Kika Sroka-Miller at Zed Books for believing in this project and providing support throughout the different stages.
Above all, Land and Freedom would not have been possible without the persevering and courageous resistance of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil and the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in Chiapas. Considering the harsh conditions of their struggle for land, I feel extremely fortunate that I was allowed to live among them and learn from them about the daily preoccupations and challenges of peasant families in the midst of globalization. The interest and openness of the MST towards my research will always have my admiration and gratitude. In particular, I want to acknowledge the assistance of Wanusa, Dulcinea and Gabriela at the Secretaría de Relações Internacionais (SRI) of the movement, Simone at the SRI São Paulo, Padre René and Rosevaldo in Andradina; João Lorenço in Sumaré; Silvina, Sócrates, Tião, Zezinho and Márcia in Itapeva; Jacques in Paranacity; Claudemir in Sarandí, Armando in Ronda Alta, and the students at the Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes of the MST. I also want to extend my gratitude to Juana and René; Claudia and Rosevaldo in Andradina; Cecilia and João Lorenço in Sumaré; Silvina and Sócrates, Tião and Nazaré in Itapeva; Antoninho and Salete, Armando and Nair in Ronda Alta; João Estevão and Irene, Terezinha and Marcon in Pontão; Vera and Censi in Jóia; Leto, María and Teixara in the encampment ‘Seguindo o sonho de Rose’, the families of COPAVI in Parana City, and finally Valmir and Fátima in Sandovalina for offering their roof, and sharing their food and experiences. I also want to thank the EZLN, the Junta de Buen Gobierno of La Garrucha, the Municipio Autónomo Ricardo Flores Magón and the village of Santa María, our host community, for accepting us and sharing their views on the years of struggle since 1994. In Santa María, Juan and Magdalena, our immediate neighbours, who visited us in our cabaña every once in a while at the end of a busy day of work to talk, made us feel at home in an environment that could not have been more distant. Through our conversations with them we surely learned as much about ourselves as we learned about them. The same is true of our discussions with Marco, Pedro, Gloria, Juan and Manuel, and our exchanges and games with the children of the community. I feel extremely privileged to have had the opportunity of this experience. I hope the efforts we made to contribute to the community with our simple teaching skills was appreciated and made a little difference in the lives of our students and the community of Santa María as a whole.
Last but by no means least, I want to express my enormous gratitude to my family, the Vergara-Camus, the Pacheco and Hevia-Deschamps-Dupuis for their love, emotional support and interest in my work. My gratitude goes especially to Pía and Angélica who, as grandmothers, have stepped in to help with the ‘social reproduction of the household’, especially with the caring of their grandchildren Eluney Emiliano and Itzel Nina, when we required assistance so I could carry out the final stage of fieldwork and writing. I also want to thank my brother Mauro and my sister Anyela for their support and encouragement throughout the years, and especially my parents, José Vergara Turra and Angélica Camus Navea, for the values they have taught me, their example as persons who have surmounted their share of adversities, and their continued commitment to social struggles in Latin America. If I was able to relate to the struggles of the landless people in Brazil and the Zapatista indigenous people in the Lacandona jungle, it is in great part due to the way they educated me. I hope to be able to do the same with our own Eluney and Itzel.