Living with Oil: Promises, Peaks, and Declines on Mexico’s Gulf Coast

Acknowledgments

Most of my thanks are owed to the community of Isla Aguada, Campeche, Mexico, where I began carrying out research in 2007. Despite all of the challenges thrown its way, this resilient Gulf coast fishing town is filled with vibrancy and vitality. I am especially indebted to “las hermanas cabañas”—Marina Perez Dorantes and Alma Perez Dorantes de Hinojosa and her husband, Carlos Hinojosa Shields—for their incredible warmth, hospitality, and friendship. Bertha Acosta Reyes, Nidia Hernandez Fuentes, Luisa Morales Baños, Rocio Jimenez Lopez , and Jesús Espinosa Mendoza were truly kind and accommodating. Community leaders and activists in Isla Aguada and neighboring Ciudad del Carmen were especially important in supporting this research. In Isla Aguada, I thank the comisario Martín Ramirez Barrera as well as Javier Aguillón Osorio. In Carmen, Lourdes Rodríguez Badillo as well as Mario Antonio Rodríguez Badillo provided valuable insight. Both the scope and depth of research necessary for this study required the participation and patience of many friends and colleagues, especially at George Mason University. First, I owe Mason’s Center for Global Studies, under the directorship of Terrence Lyons and Peter Mandaville, a huge debt of gratitude for launching this project with a grant that funded my initial research. In the Global Affairs program, which I have made my home for the entire length of this project, I would like to thank T. Mills Kelly for his support. I was able to turn my attention to this project only because I could count on Erin McSherry, Emily Jones, and Stephanie Burton holding down the fort—with uncommon competence and attention. Countless colleagues across the disciplines and indeed across the world provided excellent and incisive feedback on this work at various Acknowledgments x Acknowledgments stages. Ludy Grandas helped in more ways than I can say. Michael Klare, Terry Lynn Karl, Jane Collins, Chelsea Chapman, Imre Szeman, Gisa Weszkalnys, Jeanne Simonelli, Stephanie Paladino, Roger Lancaster, John Foster, Tim Kaposy, Jeff Mantz, and Andy Bickford all played roles in helping me think through the issues at different stages of this project. I was fortunate to become involved about halfway through this project with a group of like-minded “anthropology of energy” researchers , spearheaded by Tom Love, Sarah Strauss, and Stephanie Rupp. I hope this work is a valuable contribution to the ongoing efforts to establish this important field of research. Two anonymous reviewers at the University of Texas Press were generous in their time and attention to this book in an earlier manuscript form. I am forever in their debt, as well as that of my editor, Theresa May, and the staff at the University of Texas Press. Theresa is the kind of editor who makes an author consider writing another book. My second time working with her was even more pleasurable than the first. Drawn to the sea since my childhood spent surrounded by beautiful Floridian coastlines, I knew that my research would eventually bring me back to the ocean. Above all, the support of my family has made this possible. My parents first brought me to dip my toes in the Gulf of Mexico and gave me the sense of both the strength and vulnerability of oceans. My childhood beach companion—my sister, Deanna Breglia— generously prepared the maps for this book. Also deserving special mention are Leslie Tingle and Tana Silva. Without Tana’s heroic efforts, especially, this book—and I—would have suffered. Living with Oil THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ...