University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Anthropology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 4-15-2017 Paradise Found? Local Cosmopolitanism, Lifestyle Migrant Emplacement, and Imaginaries of Sustainable Development in La Manzanilla del Mar, Mexico Jennifer Cardinal University of New Mexico Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Cardinal, Jennifer. "Paradise Found? Local Cosmopolitanism, Lifestyle Migrant Emplacement, and Imaginaries of Sustainable Development in La Manzanilla del Mar, Mexico." (2017). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/anth_etds/112 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jennifer Cardinal Candidate Anthropology Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Ronda Brulotte, Chairperson Dr. Les Field Dr. David Dinwoodie Dr. Roberto Ibarra i Paradise Found? Local Cosmopolitanism, Lifestyle Migrant Emplacement, and Imaginaries of Sustainable Development in La Manzanilla del Mar, Mexico by JENNIFER CARDINAL B.A., Anthropology, University of Kansas, 2004 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2009 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Anthropology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2017 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank everyone who played a role in this dissertation, including those who participated in and funded research, those who provided support and guidance during the writing process, and those who generally made things cool during the years of researching and writing. First, a huge thanks to research participants and friends in La Manzanilla who generously shared their time and experience. Special thanks to those who spent time and shared stories with me at places that came to feel like home- around the yellow table, in the spot that started by the crocodiles and moved to the beach where the best fish tacos in the universe are made, and under the palapa where there was often music and always tequila and friends. This research was generously funded for various durations by grants from the Tinker Foundation/Latin American and Iberian Institute, Department of Anthropology, Office of Graduate Studies, and Graduate and Professional Student Association at the University of New Mexico. The writing process was supported by the Louise Lamphere Ortiz Center Public Policy Fellowship and the Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Scholarship at the University of New Mexico. Thanks to my committee members, who graciously read drafts of this document as it progressed, and helped me to shape it in ways that have generated more interesting discussions and possibilities for future research that span both geographic and disciplinary distance. I also appreciate the thoughtful discussions and feedback from anthropologists, sociologists, and geographers with whom I have presented research at the American iii Anthropological Association, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, and Society for Applied Anthropology meetings. I am grateful for the fantastic students I have been fortune enough to teach during this writing process. Our classroom discussions often inspired new thinking in my analysis, and reminded me why I love anthropology. And finally, to those I am continually thankful for- to my amazing cohort; to my absolutely essential writing partner; to the incredible friends who supported me during my time in the field and at the computer, and also dragged me out for much needed respites; to the person I can only think to describe as my mentor, who always had the best advice, encouragement, Campari cocktails, and Cava; and to my husband, who is the coolest- I couldn’t have done it without them. iv PARADISE FOUND? LOCAL COSMOPOLITANISM, LIFESTYLE MIGRANT EMPLACEMENT, AND IMAGINARIES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN LA MANZANILLA DEL MAR, MEXICO by JENNIFER CARDINAL B.A., Anthropology, University of Kansas, 2004 M.A., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2009 Ph.D., Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 2017 ABSTRACT The southern Jalisco, Mexico coast is experiencing a transition as much of the beach-front land is being privatized for luxury resort development. In this dissertation I consider sustainable development in the coastal community of La Manzanilla del Mar in the context of this shifting social and material landscape. La Manzanilla is a tourism destination of approximately 1,700 residents, including an estimated 300 foreign residents. These foreign residents have been categorized as lifestyle migrants by social scientists, and lifestyle migration is distinguished from labor and forced migration as the consumption-based form of migration practiced primarily by the middle and upper classes of the Global North. What researchers have given little attention to, however, is that the lifestyle at the core of lifestyle migration extends beyond the migrants themselves. I investigate the material and sociocultural development of La Manzanilla through the interrelated practices of various groups of residents who are not easily categorized but rather overlap and intertwine, including local youth entrepreneurs, lifestyle migrants, artist entrepreneurs, conservationists, and nonprofit founders and participants. Whether considered local or foreign, mobile or immobile, mono or v multilingual, I suggest that these La Manzanilla residents may all be described as cosmopolitan, and that the developing cosmopolitan identity of these residents, and the place itself, is inextricably linked to imaginaries of sustainable tourism development. I present a range of discourses about sustainability and sites of community development in this coastal Mexican destination, and discuss the implications of the connection between local understandings and manifestations of cosmopolitanism and global patterns of mobility, consumption, and development. In order to investigate the multiple, conflicting, and concurrent visions of sustainable development in La Manzanilla and the neighboring coast, I examine the relationship between cosmopolitanism, local youth entrepreneurialism, lifestyle migrant emplacement, and tourism imaginaries. I argue that La Manzanilla residents are challenging ideas of environmental, economic, and sociocultural sustainability with interrelated initiatives that comprise a competing model of tourism development distinct from large scale resort development and elite enclave ecotourism characteristic of the surrounding coastal region. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The Hidden Gem …………………………………………………..1 Scope of Inquiry …………………………………………………………………..4 Imaginaries of Sustainability ……………………………………………………..6 Place, Emplacement, and Cosmopolitanism …………………………………….11 Mobility and Privilege …………………………………………………………..14 Lifestyle Migration in Latin America …………………………………………...19 Lifestyle Migration and Lifestyle Migrants ……………………………………..23 Methods ………………………………………………………………………….25 Chapter Outline ………………………………………………………………….30 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to La Manzanilla del Mar, Jalisco, Costa Alegre, Mexico ……………………………………………………………………………………33 La Manzanilla del Mar …………………………………………………………..33 A Brief History of Mexico/U.S. Relations Via Tourism Development …………36 The Development of La Manzanilla …………………………………………….46 Costa Alegre ……………………………………………………………………..56 La Manzanilla in the Big Picture of Tourism Development …………………….62 CHAPTER 2 The Next Generation: Cosmopolitan Spaces, Places, and Identities ..63 vii “Locals,” Nonprofits, and the Artist Community ……………………………….64 A Cosmopolitan Community ……………………………………………………75 Entrepreneurial Plans and Practices ……………………………………………..79 The Cost of Living in Paradise ………………………………………………….86 Local Aspirations and Agency …………………………………………………..87 CHAPTER 3 Competing Imaginaries of Sustainable Tourism Development ……..89 But What is Sustainable Development? …………………………………………92 Competing Sustainability Imaginaries …………………………………………..94 Nonprofits and Local Projects …………………………………………………..99 Ecotourism and Environmental Perspectives on the Costalegre ……………….101 Elite Utopias ……………………………………………………………………104 Elite Environmentally Sustainable Development ……………………………...110 Destination Mexico …………………………………………………………….113 An Imaginary of Cosmopolitan Sustainable Development ……………………116 Locally Directed Development ………………………………………………...118 CHAPTER 4 Emplacement: The Global and the Local in La Manzanilla ……….120 Emplacement and “Community” Development ………………………………..123 Emplacement and Capital: Forms and Transformations ……………………….130 viii Lifestyle Migration in Mexico …………………………………………………133 Mobility, Cosmopolitan Tastes and Consumption Practices …………………..136 Learning to “Be Local” in La Manzanilla ……………………………………...138 Beyond Brie: Intentional and Unintentional Emplacement ……………………142 CHAPTER 5 The Authentic Global and the Cosmopolitan Local ………………...145 Playa La Manzanilla …………………………………………………………...148 Consuming Authenticity ……………………………………………………….153 Discovering Paradise …………………………………………………………..154 Life in Paradise ………………………………………………………………...157 Still Searching for Home ………………………………………………………160 A Cosmopolitan Authenticity ………………………………………………….163 The Authentic Cosmopolitan …………………………………………………..165