An Impossible Living in a Transborder World Culture, Confianza, and Economy of Mexican-Origin Populations

• Main Author: CARLOS G. VÉLEZ-IBÁÑEZ
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Tucson University of Arizona Press 2010
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Border regions; Class; Credit co-operatives; Economic conditions; Ethnic Studies; Exchange; Hispanic American Studies; Hispanic-Americans; Interpersonal relations; Mexican Americans; Mexican Americans-Southwest, New-Economic conditions; Mexican-American Border Region; Mexican-American Border Region-Economic conditions; Mexican-American Border Region-Social conditions; Mexicans; Mexico; Microfinance; Rotating credit associations; Rotating credit associations-Mexico; Rotating credit associations-Southwest, New; Social conditions; SOCIAL SCIENCE; Sociology; Southwest, New; Trust
• ISBN: 0816526354; 9780816526352

They are known as cundinas or tandas in Mexico, and for many people these local savings-and-loan operations play an indispensable role in the struggle to succeed in today's transborder economy. With this extensively researched book, Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez updates and expands upon his major 1983 study of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), incorporating new data that reflect the explosion of Mexican-origin populations in the United States. Much more than a study of one economic phenomenon though, the book examines the way in which these practices are part of greater transnational economies and how these populations engage in-and suffer through-the twenty-first century global economy.Central to the ROSCA is the cultural concept of mutual trust, or confianza. This is the cultural glue that holds the reciprocal relationship together. As Vélez-Ibáñez explains, confianza "shapes the expectations for relationships within broad networks of interpersonal links, in which intimacies, favors, goods, services, emotion, power, or information are exchanged." In a border region where migration, class movement, economic changes, and institutional inaccessibility produce a great deal of uncertainty, Mexican-origin populations rely on confianza and ROSCAs to maintain a sense of security in daily life. How do transborder people adapt these common practices to meet the demands of a global economy? That is precisely what Vélez-Ibáñez investigates.