For too long, debates over international trade have been dominated by corporate elites and economic ideologues, rather than rooted in the experiences of ordinary people. 

The Trade Stories Project allows those who have been affected by policies and institutions like NAFTA and the WTO to share their views on a matter crucial to the global economy. 

This includes displaced workers, farmers, small business owners and immigrants who have been typically excluded from the trade debate.

Gustavo Lopez Pozos

Toluca de Guadalupe, Tlaxcala, Mexico

Gustavo's family has farmed on the same land in rural Mexico for generations.  Subsidized agricultural imports from the United States under NAFTA have reduced the price his family can receive from their crops.  

Hear part of Gustavo's story...

“My grandparents were some of the founders of this community.  We’ve been here since 1935.  Before that my family were workers in the local hacienda… Today, we plant corn, hops, wheat.  My mother has a small section of land that is irrigated, which the whole family works collectively, and there we grow tomatoes, lettuce, beats and sometimes beans.

“The vast majority of what we produce, we eat.  If we have a bumper crop, then we will sell some of it.  The biggest effect that NAFTA has had is that our crops aren’t worth anything anymore.  So for example, we might sell a ton of something, and sell it for only 2,000 pesos…  Because of that, it doesn’t do any good to sell corn or wheat anymore.  So lots of time what we’ll do if we have extra is feed it to animals and turn it into meat. 

“The only people that are left working in the countryside are the old people.  All the young people look at it and say, ‘Well, I invested 5,000 pesos in the crops, and at the end of the year, sold them for 8,000 pesos.  At the end of the day, it’s just not worth it.’

“Every community is different.  Every community has its own story.  In this particular community, it has been in the past ten or twelve years that migration has really taken off.  About 30 percent of the young people from Toluca de Guadelupe have left for the United States.  About 40 percent have gone to work in the maquiladoras, so it is only about 30 percent that are left in the countryside. 

“Things are changing a lot.  We’re losing our roots, we’re losing our culture, and we’re seeing a disintegration of the family.  What we see is that the parents leave, and the children are being raised by their grandparents.  A lot of times, we’ll end up seeing increased drug and alcohol use…

“A lot of the time what a family will do is sell two hectares of land so that they can afford to pay a coyote to go to the United States… Our ancestors struggled for the land.  Now we’re seeing that the same rich families that used to own the land are buying it up again for 10 or 15,000 pesos a hectare, which is about 5 or 7,000 pesos an acre, which is 300 to 500 dollars an acre.

“We know that a lot people look down on campesinos and think that we’re stupid, or we’re dirty, or we smell bad because we work with our hands in the countryside… I would ask you to look with your hearts to other people down here as your brothers and sisters.  It’s the only way to construct a world in which we’re all equal.”