ABSTRACT
This chapter provides local contextual detail regarding Todos Santos, exploring the history of the town, how the war deconstructed local social structures, and the increasing levels of labour migration that underpin deep divisions within the community regarding threats to local Mam-speaking Maya identities. This chapter unpicks the social changes, locally referred to as los cambios – spanning rejection of Maya typical clothing, language, media consumption, the emergence of gangs – and how these changes played into the two attacks: the first attack targeted a tourist, the second targeted one of the first waves of labour migrants. This chapter contextualises the history of the town to provide a sense of how and why this history resonates in contemporary disputes and violence.
