Against Dispossession: Re/membering My Cousin Héctor, the Huachicolero.

This article examines the state-owned oil giant Pemex, its role in building Mexico's middle class, and the country's continued struggle for resource sovereignty. It argues that gas theft is a potential albeit problematic form of resistance to social death in the face of dispossession, or the "bleeding out" of Mexico's national body to social and economic violence. I use an autoethnographic methodology to depict how one family member's aspirations to join Mexico's middle class turned to modern-day "banditry," for which he paid the ultimate price. Through the lens of my cousin's experience as a huachicolero, or fuel thief, I explore the relationship between neoliberal policies, violence, and resistance in contemporary Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]