THIS BOOK IS a detailed account of the development of three low-income community organizations in the metropolitan area of Mexico City during the 1970s and 1990s. As a member of a small group of students, the author first became closely involved in the mid-1970s with a rural settlement in an area with little or no infrastructure known as San Miguel Teotongo. He lived in the settlement for a number of years during which he not only witnessed at close quarters the innumerable problems faced by the members of the community but also provided continuous support (even subsequently as a professor at the university) to the formation of a community organization which would subsequently give rise to a
national movement of low-income settlers. The book is as much a narrative account of a quarter of a century of direct experience as a continuous reflection on the rise, potential and difficulties of grassroots organizations in empowering people and improving living conditions among the urban poor.
San Miguel Teotongo developed as a result of the migration of a number of individuals and families, mostly from the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Michoacán. Like the several million who migrated to Mexico City between 1950 and 1990, they were after improved living conditions and greater opportunities for themselves and their children. Although most migrants initially lived with relatives or friends, often in relatively central locations of the city, many soon moved to peripheral areas where rents and land for sale were more affordable. The core of the metropolitan area (the Federal District) grew from 1.6 million in 1940, to 6.9 million in 1970. The municipality of Iztapalapa, where San Miguel Teotongo is
located, grew from 76,000 in 1950, to 522,000 in 1970.
The book comprises 20 chapters and examines in great detail the growth of the Iztapalapa settlements of San Miguel Teotongo, El Molino and Cabeza de Juárez. Each of these represents a different instance of the evolution of grassroots groups. The different actors and stakeholders involved in the process are closely studied and their role in the success of the wider urban community movement assessed in the light of the constraints and potentials faced by the rapidly growing communities. The search for stability and group unity, the desire to improve basic infrastructure and provide services, the outside threats from a political system dominated by the hegemonic national ruling party (PRI) seeking at
times to coopt the movement, and at times to repress it, are all dissected with a wealth of information.
The reflections contained throughout the book culminate in a final chapter where the author highlights those factors which, in the three cases analyzed, helped support a successful grassroots organization. As he remarks, “...the quality jump needed for a social movement to become a social organization is a rare occurrence” (page 558). Much emphasis is given tothe fact that San Miguel Teotongo's peripheral location, away from the denser urban settlements, meant that there was a power vacuum in terms of the local government responsible for it. This meant that obtaining services was more difficult although at the same time it offered the settlers an opportunity to work independently towards solving their
own problems, with little or no interference from entrenched local interests. The author also stresses the importance of a disparate group of people (culturally and ethnically) working towards a positive common goal rather than emphasizing collective action as a defence against a common enemy, as is often the case in politically motivated community work.