For our last class, we’ll discuss two texts that take a critical look at the construction of Mexico and the Yucatán in particular as a party zone for middle-class Americans. The first selection is from John Robert Gast and Jennifer P. Matthews’ Sugarcane and Rum: The Bittersweet History of Labor and Life on the Yucatán Peninsula (2020). This chapter from Gast and Matthews’ book considers the differences between the drinking cultures in Cancún and Mérida. It’s a wonderful piece on the sociology of alcohol, and it’s super-short. Definitely read it!
We’ll also read the introduction to American Studies scholar M. Bianet Castellano’s A Return to Servitude: Maya Migration and the Tourist Trade in Cancún (2010). I’ve uploaded the whole book, but you just have to check out the “Introduction” (p. xv – xliii).
As you read both, consider the following:
- We tend to think of drinking/partying as meaningless activities, but both of these texts demonstrate the sociological impact of tourism and the kinds of drinking cultures tourism encourages. How did reading these texts alter your own relationship to any partying you may or may not have done while on this trip?
- How is Castellanos’s description of Maya labor in A Return to Servitude different from the cooperative capitalist enterprise that you saw in Yaxunah?
- What is the difference between a cantina, bar, and club, in your experience? According to Sugarcane and Rum?
- What have you observed of the labor culture in Mérida? Think about: the price of Ubers, the price of drinks, the conditions under which cantina/club employees work, etc. Have you had conversations with anyone about living costs in the city, or average wages?
- Our course is called “From Colonialism to Tourism.” Where do you see elements of the colonial experience in the tourist experience? Looking backward, where have you seen the roots of “tourism” (a very contemporary concept) in the colonial-era writings we’ve investigated?
- Specifically re: A Return to Servitude: Can you draw together anything from last week’s lecture on the Caste Wars and this week’s lecture on tourism in the Yucatán?
