Loud & Proud: “Las Polleras de Mississippi” Part 2

05/14/21 • 49 min

The Nuestro South Loud & Proud series focuses on the Poder y Cultura that Nuestra Gente in the South can possess. From the comida que cocinamos, the music we play, and our labor which plants, cleans, and builds-- Nuestra Gente has grown deep roots in the south.
Part 2 of "Las Polleras de Mississippi" takes a deeper dive into the history and context of these polleras through the research and work of professor Angela Stuesse.
In this episode- The history and economy of the South is profoundly defined by the labor structures and hierarchies. There is a through-line from slavery, to sharecropping, and more modern low wage work settings that exploit those most vulnerable for their labor.

Immigrants and their labor are used to prop up industries which benefit from the lack of worker protections. Many of these southern regions have historically suppressed labor organizing and unions. The chicken plant or “Las Polleras” embody much of this history ever since Jim Crow segregation until the present. Las Polleras are some of the largest immigrant minority employers in rural southern towns whose economies largely revolve around the poultry industry.

Angela Stuesse is an associate professor of anthropology and global studies at UNC Chapel Hill. She spent the last 20+ years doing activist research alongside Latinx Immigrant communities in the south. She is the author of Scratching Out a Living: Latinos, Race, and Work in the deep South. She continues to write and advocate for workers that are increasingly vulnerable in the times of heightened immigration enforcement and health and safety within a pandemic.

To learn more, check out:
https://nuestrosouth.org/

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Instagram: http://instagram.com/nuestrosouthTwitter: https://twitter.com/nuestrosouthFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/NuestroSouth/The Nuestro South Loud & Proud Interview Series is produced by Axel Herrera, Julie Weise, and Erik Valera with generous sponsorship from the Whiting Foundation, the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences, and LatinxEd.

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Previous Episode

Loud & Proud: “Las Polleras de Mississippi” Part 1 (En Español)

The Nuestro South Loud & Proud series focuses on the Poder y Cultura that Nuestra Gente in the South can possess. From the comida que cocinamos, the music we play, and our labor which plants, cleans, and builds-- Nuestra Gente has grown deep roots in the south.
Part 1 of "Las Polleras de Mississippi" is a bilingual conversation with a fellow friend and immigrant from Guatemala and professor Angela Stuesse.
In this episode- ¡Es como un mini-Guatemala! A pesar de vivir en una región que tiene una historia bastante compleja y racista para personas Afro-Americanas o cualquier otra minoría, Mississippi ha llegado a ser un hogar para muchos inmigrantes.

Nuestro invitado nos cuenta su historia acerca de cómo fue que llegó a decidir dejar su hogar en Guatemala, su experiencia al llegar a Mississippi, y como ahora tiene sus propias raíces y comunidad en Mississippi.

To learn more, check out:
https://nuestrosouth.org/

Next Episode

Loud & Proud: Mexican Atlanta...Under Construction

The Nuestro South Loud & Proud series focuses on the Poder y Cultura that Nuestra Gente in the South can possess. From the comida que cocinamos, the music we play, and our labor which plants, cleans, and builds-- Nuestra Gente has grown deep roots in the south.
In this episode- Why did Latinos in Texas pack their bags and move to Georgia in the 1980's and 1990's? How did new immigrant communities navigate a space donde no habia ni chiles, ni tortillas? How did "Mustache Mike's" come to be known as "El Mustacho" and what is the significance of a second generation Chicano Atlanta rapper?

Unlike most traditional Latin American immigrant destination cities and states, the journey into the south can involve a larger need to build your own sense of home and community. For the early Latinx immigrants arriving in cities like Atlanta, finding food and entertainment was a necessary plight to feel comfortable. Future generations, those who arrived as children or those born in the south, now push for a greater sense of belonging and ownership of the place they call home through their Poder y Cultura.

Yami Rodriguez is a historian of Latinx communities whose interdisciplinary research engages questions of race, ethnicity, labor, and migration. With a regional focus on the U.S. South, Rodriguez’s scholarship examines Latinx political, economic, and cultural place-making practices in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Her current book project, “Mexican Atlanta: Migrant Place-Making in the Latinx South,” traces the history of Metro Atlanta’s ethnic Mexican community formation with attention to the region’s longer Latinx histories beginning in the mid-twentieth century. She is currently a post-doc at Emory University.

To learn more, check out:
https://nuestrosouth.org/