Transformation of the living space of female berry farm workers in Zacapu, Michoacán, Mexico

Abstract

The expansion of berry agribusinesses in Mexico, led by foreign agro-exporting companies, transforms fields, changes land use, degrades fertile land and pollutes it
through the intensive use of plastics and agrochemicals. This implies the degradation of ecosystems and the expropriation of territories; it also generates impacts on women and living spaces, since these are built on relationships between people, the ways in
which they are inhabited and the meanings they represent about what they are, think and their appropriation. This paper, based on mixed-methodology research with a strong
ethnographic component, analyzes the expansion of the berry agribusiness and the demand for female farmworkers who have precarious incomes, live in marginal spaces,
are forced into care work and suffer gender violence at home and at work. It is concluded that the understanding of subjectivity from their feelings and recognition as women responds to roles that keep them subject to dominance relations and unequal work and family situations.