From the Grounds Up is a study of how peripheral places grappled with globalization at the end of the nineteenth century. Through extensive use of local archives in the Soconusco district of Chiapas, Mexico, the book redefines the body of actors who integrated Latin America’s countryside into international markets for agricultural goods. Alongside plantation owners and foreign investors, a dense but little explored web of indigenous and mestizo villagers, migrant workers, and local politicians quickly adopted and adapted to the production of coffee for export. Following their efforts to overco ... More

From the Grounds Up is a study of how peripheral places grappled with globalization at the end of the nineteenth century. Through extensive use of local archives in the Soconusco district of Chiapas, Mexico, the book redefines the body of actors who integrated Latin America’s countryside into international markets for agricultural goods. Alongside plantation owners and foreign investors, a dense but little explored web of indigenous and mestizo villagers, migrant workers, and local politicians quickly adopted and adapted to the production of coffee for export. Following their efforts to overcome violence, isolation, and the absence of reliable institutions, the book illustrates the reshaping of rural economic and political life in the context of integrating global markets. By taking up new export crops like coffee and making use of liberal reforms around private property and contract law, smallholders and laborers defended their interests and secured spaces for their own ongoing participation in rural production. Vast swaths of Latin America’s population were sending the fruits of their labor abroad by the turn of the century. Only by taking into account all those who produced for market can we understand rural Latin America’s transformation in this era.