This paper examines street vendors’ political activism and struggles to make a living in the city of Puebla, Mexico from 1969 to 1977. Facing city authorities’ threats of removal and seizure of merchandise, street vendors organized an independent, militant union with student radicals in the aftermath of Mexico City’s 1968 massacre. Government officials responded to the emergence of this group, the Popular Union of Street Vendors (UPVA), by cracking down with violence. Authorities were especially concerned because these informal sellers challenged the elites’ control over public space and because vendors built alliances with left-wing students while refusing to be co-opted by the then ruling party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).

All papers are pre-circulated electronically to those who plan to attend the seminar in person. For a copy of the paper, e-mail Jenny Butler at scholl@newberry.org, or call 312-255-3524. Please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.

*Please note that requests for the paper made after 5:00pm on Thursday, January 8, are unlikely to be read before the seminar begins on Friday afternoon. If you plan to attend the session, please request the paper early.*

The Newberry Library Seminar in Labor History is co-sponsored by the History Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University and the Labor and Working Class History Association