118: Pink Gold - Women, Shrimp, and Work in Mexico with Dr. Maria L. Cruz Torres
The idea of fish industry tends to feel big, vague, and hyper-masculine \u2013 it\u2019s easy to think of tales of fisherman and ideals of masculinity. But as my guest this week shares, there are so many complexities to how gender, fishing, and identities intersect.\xa0
My guest this week is Dr. Mar\xeda L. Cruz Torres. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and a cultural anthropologist whose areas of teaching and research include: political ecology; impact of globalization upon local communities and households; gender and work; sustainability and the environment; migration; food systems; and the environmental and social aspects of natural resource management. Her research has always combined a mixed methods approach of qualitative ethnography, ecological analysis, archival research, and household surveys.
She speaks today about the \u201cshrimp ladies\u201d in southern Sinaloa, Mexico, who are locally known as changueras. Through her new book Pink Gold: Women, Shrimp, and Work in Mexico, Mar\xeda describes how women shrimp vendors sell seafood in open-air markets that form an extralegal but key part of the local economy built around this \u201cpink gold.\u201d She shares the stories of how the women struggled and evolved from marginalized peddlers to local icons depicted in popular culture, and how their roles in Sinaloa and Mazatlan offer fresh insights into gender and labour, street economies, and commodities as culturally valuable experiences.
Learn More About Mar\xeda:\xa0
- Website: https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/maria-cruz-torres/\xa0
- Book: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477328026/