Moore and Patel’s story of the Chichimec woman offers a great view regarding the context of historical capitalist development in Latin America. It provides a glimpse into the impact of capitalist expansion on Latin American and their experiences as indigenous communities. The story states the region’s profound economic and social changes during the colonial period, as European colonists sought to extract resources and wealth from the New World. How the authors account for the Chichimec woman puts her within a broader context of slavery, colonialism, and capitalist exploitation in Latin America. Through their analysis, the authors draw attention to how the interplay of the many economic, social, and political forces, including imperialism, colonialism, and globalization, has shaped the history of Latin America. By examining the Chichimec woman story, we can better understand how capitalism has shaped the region and the struggles faced by those its spread has marginalized. Through this lens, we can explore the contradictions and complexities of capitalist development in Latin America and the enduring legacies of colonialism that continue to shape the region today.
Moore and Patel’s story of the Chichimec woman highlights some violent dispossession of indigenous lands in Latin America during the capitalist expansion era. The development of capitalist agriculture in Latin America was based on the forced removal of indigenous individuals from their traditional territories. For instance, the Spanish colonizers violently expelled the Chichimec woman’s family from their land, forcing her to survive as a subsistence farmer after fleeing the mountains. Besides, the authors state that “at the core of these novel solutions was global conquest, not just by guns but also by making new frontiers at once cultural and geographical….at the heart of this core is Columbus, who crops up profits from estates previously occupied by Moors”(, (Patel & Moore, 2017pg.50). The story by the authors highlights the ongoing struggles of indigenous Latin communities to resist the theft of their resources and lands in the face of capitalist development.
The story of the Chichimec woman is no exception when studying the significant role that the exploitation of natural resources played in the history of capitalist development in Latin America. This story depicts how the region’s natural wealth, including oil, rubber, and minerals, has been exploited by many corporations for centuries without considering the consequences of their actions on the environment (Patel & Moore, 2017). Indeed, the Chichimec woman’s story happens in the mountains of Mexico, where the forests have been systematically destroyed by mining and logging operations such that the survival of the Chichimec woman as a subsistence farmer relied on her ability to find new resources of sustenance in her efforts to adapt to the changing landscape.
The development of capitalism in Latin America was intertwined with the history of forced labor and slavery. The development of capitalist agriculture was equally important as the exploitation of natural resources. The Chichimec woman’s story depicts the struggle the Latin indigenous communities underwent to resist the imposition of labor, which has been in many forms over the past centuries. For instance, the authors state that “landlords were not simply grabbing land. They were transforming the way others could relate to nature by placing customary lands under a system of competitive rents that reduced the commons in areas that of lands in which peasants had exercised some autonomy, (Patel & Moore, 2017pg.59)”. This, among others depict how the expansion of capital into agriculture was interwoven with the long history of criminalizing and exploiting the dispossessed and the poor, while those who could not afford were turned into enslaved people.
The story of the Chichimec woman can be regarded as an illustration of the gendered dimensions of capitalist development in Latin America. This story depicts how disproportionately Latin American women were affected by the exploitation and violence associated with capitalist expansion, both as agents and victims of resistance. The Chichimec woman’s story shows some of the challenges faced by women in surviving and resisting a world being shaped by capitalist exploitation, such as her forced ability to survive as a subsistence farmer to provide for her family in the face of hardship and violence that faced their region (Patel & Moore, 2017). Indeed, the authors state that when Sepulveda and Las Casas debated the fate of indigenous Latin Americans, the Chichimec women were enslaved people who endured the pain of racialized violence, incarceration, and mass unemployment.
Moreover, in exploring the contradictions and complexities of capitalist development in Latin America, it is evident that many of the themes in Sidney Mintz’s book “Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History” can help understand the relationship between capitalism and the state that is at the heart of the story of the Chichimec woman. Although the book does not primarily focus on Latin America, its argument that hat the growth of the sugar industry relied on the exploitation of both human and natural resources is crucial. For instance, Mitz writes that planting sugar in its first two centuries was among the most brutal and inhumane human activities. The large sum of capital investments required to establish sugar plantations was largely facilitated using profits from the slave trade. Capitalism led to the growth of the “Spaniards’ obsession with metallic riches; being excessively authoritarian controls and being the chronic lack of capital for investment; the so-called dishonor de/Trabajo (ignobility of [manual] labor) which were not entirely convincing (Mitz 1986. Pg.35)”. Therefore, the collusion of state power with plantation owners can be considered one of the major factors that led to the contradictions and complexities of capitalist development in Latin America.
Lastly, the exploitation of natural resources, oil, and rubber was often accompanied by the exploitation of human labor, and the collusion of state power with multinational corporations was a common feature constituting another dynamic that the contradictions and complexities of capitalist development in Latin America. According to Mitz, the multinational corporation in the mining industry often led to local communities being forced to bear the social and environmental costs of the mining operations (Mitz 1986. pg54). Focusing on the story of the Chichimec woman, the same idea is evident, entailing how the ongoing struggles of indigenous communities in resisting this type of exploitation. Therefore these two resources question the state’s role in the development of capitalism and which state power has been used to enforce the ruling class’s interests at the expense of marginalized communities. As a result, we learn that capitalism led to the struggles faced by those marginalized by its spread leading to the continued shape of Latin America.
In conclusion, the story of the Chichimec woman, as told by Moore and Patel, provides valuable insights into the impact of capitalist expansion on Latin America and its indigenous communities. The story sheds light on the economic and social changes during the colonial period as European colonists sought to extract resources and wealth from the New World. It highlights the violent dispossession of indigenous lands during capitalist expansion, the exploitation of natural resources, the history of forced labor and slavery, and the gendered dimensions of capitalist development in Latin America. By examining the Chichimec woman’s story through the lens of capitalism, we better understand the struggles marginalized communities face and the enduring legacies of colonialism that continue to shape the region today.
References
Mintz, S. W. (1986). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. Penguin.
Patel, R., & Moore, J. W. (2017). A history of the world in seven cheap things: A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet. Univ of California Press.
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