In 2019, Stahl Foundation funding supported my dissertation fieldwork in southwestern Queretaro, Mexico. In Queretaro, research efforts largely focused on amassing a body of research materials associated with land reform. In particular, Stahl Foundation funding supported trips to manuscript depositories which resulted in the recovery of a significant amount of digital surrogates of archival material from local and state depositories. These historical materials describe how communities in southwestern Queretaro managed statutory changes and reallocation of agricultural land in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Moreover, Stahl Foundation Funding also supported production of oral history interviews in nine communities. In these places, oral histories were taken down from "Old-timers" interested in discussing the impact of land reform after the Mexican Revolution and also talk about impacts of ongoing "neoliberal land reform" on their community. These places were chosen because they contained hacienda buildings in ruins. Monetary support from Stahl Foundation significantly benefited my dissertation fieldwork. All together, the money allocated to me help recover over 150 thousand digital surrogates of archival material and to facilitate dozens of hours of video-taped oral history interviews all of which are currently being organized and analyzed with the help of undergraduates at UC-Berkeley.
Mario
Castillo
Research Date:
2019
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Campus Affiliation: