Mexico Exam Essay question:

 

Logistics: You will have 1:45 (one hour and 45 minutes) to finish your essay in-class. Please write clearly. It is a good idea to have an outline of what you are going to write before you begin.

Exam books will be provided, bring a good pen (I suggest a free-flowing pen of high quality in order to reduce the likelihood of hand cramping).

This exam is open book/open note

 

 

Exam question:

Take an example of a political, social and/or environmental struggle in Mexico, explain what the main issues of the dispute are, and answer the following questions by applying the readings and lectures covered in course weeks 2-12.

 

Suggested environmental/social conflicts that were discussed in lectures:

 

  1. Atenco Airport Struggle/Mexico City modernization
  2. Tepoztlan 'Golf war' / development-environment politics
  3. Chiapas conflict
  4. Environmental pollution in Mexico City (Excurria Article, Lecture on the micro/macro politics of pollution in Mexico)
  5. Fisheries development in Baja California Sur

 

Answer each of the following questions about the conflict that you have chosen:

  1. NATURE OF THE CONFLICT: Describe the anatomy of the conflict. Who are the interested parties? What are they fighting about? What was the outcome of the struggle thus far?
  2. HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND: Using the perspectives discussed in historical and geographic background lectures (preconquest, colonial-independence, Mexican Revolution, and Bretton Woods to Siglo XXI), say how the experience of Mexican history affects and shapes people¹s responses to, and the outcomes of, the issue in question. Note: not every historical lecture is equally relevant to the suggested environmental/social conflicts listed above; some are deeply rooted in history (e.g., Chiapas), others are of relatively recent origin (Baja fisheries conflicts).
  3. MEXICO¹S DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM: How has Mexico¹s development paradigm caused or exacerbated these conflicts? Select one specific development dynamic such as the EOI/ISI, urbanization, or free trade and say how that specific dynamic has affected the environmental/social conflict in question.
  4. MEXICAN PEOPLE: From your reading of Juan Rulfo, Azuela, Womack, and other authors (also Mike Chibnik¹s lecture), say how the conflict that you have selected affects individual Mexicans. What sorts of choices do Mexicans confront in the face of these environmental/social conflicts? What options do they have? Why do you think they make choice to engage in social struggle instead of move or migrate?