The global food industry, shaped largely by United States interests, has promulgated Latino American and Caribbean countries into the periphery through the creation of U.S.-dependent Latino American economies. These systems of dependency, in turn, has subjugated Latino America to many of the negative ethno-racial depictions it faces in the modern era, the result of which stems from U.S. interests during South American colonialism and the crave for territorial expansion. In this manner, the process of subjugation almost perpetuates itself; negative ethno-racial depictions of the Latino allow industrialists to diminish their wages and worsen their working conditions, which in turn solidifies said ethno-racial depictions across economic hierarchies. In order to break these social tendencies, one must analyze current events in the food industry and how dynamic shifts can help define a path closer towards ethno-racial economic equality.
One of the most potent examples of ethno-economic divisions across the food industry workforce arises with the Cuban migrant population in Miami. The ethno-racial tensions from the island have seeped into mainstream Miamian economics and politics, evident in the University of Miami’s 2006 UNICCO scandal. According to Dr. Aranda in Making a Life in Multiethnic Miami: Immigration and the Rise of a Global City, UNICCO, the third-party catering business which UM was then hiring, employed marielitos (Cuban second-wave immigrants who fled from the Port of Mariel in 1980) at $6.40 per hour (below poverty-level wages) with no potential opportunity for economic upward mobility. Marielitos are often viewed negatively by the first-wave 1960’s Cuban majority in Miami. They are falsely associated with the regime in Cuba and its ideologies, "justifying" their subjugation to lower wages. The Cubans on the UM board, which migrated in earlier waves to Miami, thus, remained silent for a month as the workers went on a hunger strike. They unionized under the Janitors for Justice movement, and only then did the board comment on the scenario.
Likewise, in 2019 in Matamoros, Mexico, Mexican workers went on strike from Coca Cola and other major culinary industrial producers. They demanded higher wages. The strike eventually erupted into the 20/32 movement, in which workers demanded a 20% wage and a 32,000-peso annual bonus, both of which they eventually won in most industrial plants, excluding Coca Cola at the current moment. Mexican workers have been thus subjugated to the same lower wages and maltreatment marielitos were subjugated to in Miami. In Colombia, the maltreatment experienced by the lower farming class is often more political than economic. As of the beginning of Colombia’s civil war (which lasted over 52 years) each citizen from the age of 18-55 has been required to serve two years in the military. While middle- and upper-class citizens can buy their certificate declaring they have already served, the lower-class farmers are often conscripted, creating a economic and racial divide between the peoples.
Upon reflecting on the food industry, I cannot help but think of the long-term division these ethno-racial tensions create within cultural groups. They can and often do lead to revolution, as is evident now in the revival of guerilla groups in Colombia, despite the signing of a peace treaty with the government in 2016. It was also evident in Cuba’s 26 de julio revolution and its basis on alleviating hunger. Thus, subdividing ethno-racial groups through hierarchies in the food industry leads to cyclical conflict. In my opinion, it is only through the unionization of groups in the privatized industry that these ethno-racial tensions can be alleviated, as was the case with marielitos, but I struggle to find a resolution to the problem when the public sector is involved, as is the case in Colombia. There is no single industrial entity to strike against other than the government, and that only would perpetuate violence. It is a difficult scenario to solve.
Reference:
1. Aranda, Elizabeth M., Sallie Hughes and Elena Sabogal. “Inequalities and Perceptions of Social Mobility.” Making a Life in Multiethnic Miami: Immigration & the Rise of a Global City, Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc., 2014, 111-160.
