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Imagining the West: Marginality and Possible Lives at the Outskirts of a Mexican City
Heřmanová, Marie ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee) ; Grill, Jan (referee)
PhD Thesis Summary: Imagining the West: Marginality and Possible Lives at the Outskirts of a Mexican City Mgr. Marie Heřmanová The thesis aims to develop various results of a long-term fieldwork in the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México, where rural-urban migration was pervasive since the 1960s. The research concentrated on the second generation of Tzotzil and Tzeltal migrants living at the suburbs of the city. Young indigenous people, whose parents came to the city to seek jobs, are now completely bilingual (they speak their maternal language - mostly Tzotzil as well as spanish they have learned in the school in the city). They mostly work in the same areas as the first generation migrants - as shop-keepers, souvenirs sellers or street-food vendors. They are thus in everyday interaction with both tourist and expats in the city centre. These interactions and meetings are in the context of the thesis seen as a consitutive element to imageries of mobility, modernity and Western lifestyles developed by the the young indigenous people from the suburbs. The concept if "Imaginary West" (Yurchak 2005) is central in the thesis, an unseen and yet ever-present homeland of the tourists and most importantly a place where "better lives" happen. The text explores how the search for...
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Imagining the West: Marginality and Possible Lives at the Outskirts of a Mexican City
Heřmanová, Marie ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee) ; Grill, Jan (referee)
PhD Thesis Summary: Imagining the West: Marginality and Possible Lives at the Outskirts of a Mexican City Mgr. Marie Heřmanová The thesis aims to develop various results of a long-term fieldwork in the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México, where rural-urban migration was pervasive since the 1960s. The research concentrated on the second generation of Tzotzil and Tzeltal migrants living at the suburbs of the city. Young indigenous people, whose parents came to the city to seek jobs, are now completely bilingual (they speak their maternal language - mostly Tzotzil as well as spanish they have learned in the school in the city). They mostly work in the same areas as the first generation migrants - as shop-keepers, souvenirs sellers or street-food vendors. They are thus in everyday interaction with both tourist and expats in the city centre. These interactions and meetings are in the context of the thesis seen as a consitutive element to imageries of mobility, modernity and Western lifestyles developed by the the young indigenous people from the suburbs. The concept if "Imaginary West" (Yurchak 2005) is central in the thesis, an unseen and yet ever-present homeland of the tourists and most importantly a place where "better lives" happen. The text explores how the search for...
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