Starting in the 1970s the United States began to demonstrate an interest in expanding their economic market far beyond their national borders. This process soon got the name of Globalization. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is the third agreement the United States signed into effect. This free trade agreement liberalize trade between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Before and after the negotiations much debate existed as to the potential success and the set backs of this agreement. To this date debate exists, however more evidence is available as to the success of this economic policy. In this paper, I explore the negative effects that Mexico has endured as a result of NAFTA. I examine the economic, public health, and environmental impacts of this agreement. Furthermore, I dive into a series of labor strikes that took place in the later part of 2015 and earlier part of 2016 around the Lexmark Maquiladora. I examine the reality that laborers in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico experience on a daily basis. I examine this case study through a post-colonial lens. Looking at the “left-over” entanglement from Colonialism. My goal in researching this topic is to analyze the potential effects that developing countries like Mexico, might face upon integrating their economy into the Global Market. More specifically what can a developing country suffer upon entering a free trade agreement with an industrialized, imperialist country like the United States.
This Senior Thesis is centered around three spaces in the Southwest of the United States— the U.S. Mexico Border (in The Rio Grand Valley, Texas and San Diego, California), The Mission District (San Francisco, CA) and Chicano Park (Barrio Logan, CA). This Thesis in organized in three chapters— one for each place. These spaces are united by their significance to those who identify as Chicano— a Mexican-American identity with political roots. I recount my experiences in these spaces— what I saw, smelled, felt, heard— how bodies moved, connected, and engaged— what my presence meant/means. I then investigate the dynamics of each space— focusing particularly on the power, subversion, and resistance of art. In discussion, I draw from scholars’ work on performance, body and spacial politics as well as my own experience as a dancer and choreographer. I am interested in investigating space and bodies. I want to understand the meanings these entities have, take on, or are forcibly given. I argue that in the three spaces I focus on this Thesis, we witness what I call “a choreography of reclamation”. This is a process of reordering, challenging and shifting space and the entities within both physically and emotionally.
