Publication Date

Spring 4-14-2021

Abstract

Despite the importance of chile to New Mexico, the future of the chile industry in the state is uncertain. Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, chile producers in New Mexico have struggled to compete in a globalized marketplace. Additionally, predicted environmental problems, like impending water shortages and climate change, cast further doubt about the industry’s future. In this dissertation, I show how the New Mexico chile industry has become a binational endeavor. I examine the multiple future-making projects that are being undertaken by individuals and groups involved in the chile industry as they try to secure a viable future, such as mechanization projects, plant breeding, creating value through labeling, confronting water scarcity issues, and investing in multispecies relationships with microbes. Ultimately, this project provides an ethnographic analysis of future-making in practice, and interrogates how and why some future-visions materialize and others do not.

Keywords

chile, New Mexico, future, NAFTA, agriculture

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Les Field

Second Committee Member

David Dinwoodie

Third Committee Member

Michael Trujillo

Fourth Committee Member

Josiah Heyman

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