ABSTRACT
Periodically throughout history, peasants have acted collectively and violently to alter the economic and political conditions that affect their daily lives. Economic responses to crisis occur within the peasant household, not in the public arena, and are often overlooked in the search for more dramatic evidence of collective political protest. The source of the extensive evidence of poverty in Jaral is found in the inequitable distribution of economic and political power in the region, structures that grew directly out of the modernization of the agricultural economy. Equally interesting was the lack of political activity beyond endemic factionalism over the allocation of positions in local institutions. The most common responses to questions about political activities indicated cynicism and apathy about the potential to resolve problems through organization and collective protest. A number of conditions unique to Juchitan account for its success in mobilizing poor people in protest against economic and political exploitation.
