Imports from the United States into Mexico are an important part of the North American Free Trade Alliance (NAFTA) and have been implicated in Mexico's recent economic instability. Heyman's chapter looks at the historical roots of imports in a Mexican border region, discovering how Mexican working class women and men used imported goods in their everyday lives--how they became consumers and what it meant to them to have U.S. goods. The chapter then contrasts two different Mexican political responses to import dependency: the nationalism of the mine cities of the mid-twentieth century; and the right-wing populist critique of Mexico's governing party characteristic of the border cities in the last two decades.

Author's e-mail: jmheyman@mtu.edu