Agrotropolis: Youth, Street, and Nation in the New Urban Guatemala

by J.T. Way

Overview

In Agrotropolis, historian J. T. Way traces the developments of Guatemalan urbanization and youth culture since 1983. In case studies that bring together political economy, popular music, and everyday life, Way explores the rise of urban space in towns seen as quintessentially "rural" and showcases grassroots cultural assertiveness. In a post-revolutionary era, young people coming of age on the globally inflected city street used popular culture as one means of creating a new national imaginary that rejects Guatemala's racially coded system of castes. Drawing on local sources, deep ethnographies, and the digital archive, Agrotropolis places working-class Maya and mestizo hometowns and creativity at the center of planetary urban history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520965485
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

J. T. Way is Associate Professor of History at Georgia State University and author of The Mayan in the Mall: Globalization, Development, and the Making of Modern Guatemala. He lived in Guatemala for ten years and has extensively studied the country’s popular class.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Agrotropolis
1 • "Power’s Destiny": Political Economy and Popular Culture to 1986
2 • "Americamorfosis": Identities and Urbanization, 1987–1993
3 • "Not Fish, Not Iguana": Organized Bands and Agro-urbanization, 1994–1998
4 • "If Only You Could Live Here": The Emergence of La KY, 1999–2004
5 • "In the Jaws of These Gray Cities": Strategic Territorial Interventions, 2005–2012
Conclusion: "Mi País"

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The book offers a distinctive, convincing, and—dare I say—optimistic look at the young people who will determine Guatemala’s future."

Hispanic American Historical Review

"Agrotropolis is a remarkably authentic work of history that deserves serious attention especially at a time when thousands of Guatemalans continue to flee for their lives from a country where hope for social justice has dimmed."

The Latin Americanist