LABOR MOBILITY AND PRODUCTIVE RECONVERSION PROCESSES IN ATLACOMULCO, ESTADO DE MEXICO

From de idea of ‘adaptative strategies’ this paper offers a quantitative analysis of the processes of mobility and productive reconversion in Atlacomulco, Estado de México. To have an approach to the experiences of people involved in these processes, through a qualitative exploration in the village of San Antonio, we analyze the relation between labor mobility to Milpa Alta (Mexico City) and the cultivation of ‘nopal’, and the return migration from United States and the cultivation of ‘nopal’ and tomato. Results show that people who migrated must learn and adapt themselves to the labor market through their trajectory. This assist their participation in reconvention of crops as a labor option face to the scarcity of sources of employment, not without difficulties. So, there is a constant presence of adaptative strategies in the long term, some cases associated but indispensable to solve the reproduction of rural households.