Indigenous Migrant Day Workers in Los Altos of Jalisco, Mexico

Abstract

The objective of this document is to describe some of the working conditions of indigenous migrant women and their families who work as day laborers in the agricultural fields of Aranda, and the gender implications of the fact that they are women, migrants, and indigenous people whose bodies are territories of exploitation, domination, exclusion, and discrimination. The methodology employed is ethnography; information was collected through participant observation, interviews, and field diary entries. It was processed using an Excel data matrix and interpretive analysis. Among the findings, job insecurity stands out, despite wages that may be above minimum wages, due to the fact that the jobs are temporary and short-term, and they lack contracts and employment benefits. The crops that employ migrant labor are agave, corn, green tomatillos, and berries. The women perform agricultural work while also caring for their young children, who also often participate in the cultivation and harvesting tasks. They also perform domestic chores and generally do not receive the products of their labor. In addition to the above, these families also suffer discrimination from the local population.