Spatial reconfiguration and relocations after disasters in rural contexts: the case of Tacotalpa, Tabasco

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Capitalist historical processes are described surrounding coffee exploitation by the local elite and the lifestyle they imposed on the ethnic Chol Indigenous people in northern Chiapas, Mexico. Part of the population of this region was displaced, as they fled from what they describe as slavery under the regime of Porfirio Díaz. They sought uninhabited lands in the jungle, which they found in the municipality of Tacotalpa, Tabasco. An overview outlines the main processes the local population experienced in the subsequent decades, period of relative bonanza. However, in the neoliberal phase of capitalism their circumstances changed. In the years that followed, they experienced new restructuring processes, which forced them to seek temporary employment outside the municipality, although initially this shift was related to the eruption of the volcano Chichonal in 1982. It is necessary to consider the state of Tabasco’s long history of disasters associated with hydrometeorological phenomena. One of the most severe occurred in 2007, when almost the entirety of the state was affected. This chapter also specifically analyzes the relocation management of a Chol community that was overseen by a non-governmental organization, because it represented a new modality in providing disaster relocation attention in Mexico. eng