BUILDING BELIZE CITY: AUTONOMY, SKILL AND MOBILITY AMONGST BELIZEAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS Giuseppe Troccoli A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2019 Full metadata for this thesis is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/17441 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © Giuseppe Troccoli This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. 2 Candidate's declaration I, Giuseppe Troccoli, do hereby certify that this thesis, submitted for the degree of PhD, which is approximately 82,000 words in length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, or principally by myself in collaboration with others as acknowledged, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for any degree. I was admitted as a research student at the University of St Andrews in September 2014. I received funding from an organisation or institution and have acknowledged the funder(s) in the full text of my thesis. Date Signature of candidate Supervisor's declaration I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date Signature of supervisor Permission for publication In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews we understand that we are giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. We also understand, unless exempt by an award of an embargo as requested below, that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that this thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use and that the library has the right to migrate this thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I, Giuseppe Troccoli, confirm that my thesis does not contain any third-party material that requires copyright clearance. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the publication of this thesis: Printed copy No embargo on print copy. Electronic copy No embargo on electronic copy. Date Signature of candidate Date Signature of supervisor Underpinning Research Data or Digital Outputs Candidate's declaration I, Giuseppe Troccoli, hereby certify that no requirements to deposit original research data or digital outputs apply to this thesis and that, where appropriate, secondary data used have been referenced in the full text of my thesis. Date Signature of candidate 3 In Loving Memory of Zofia Adamczyk, my babcia Who let me turn on the recorder for the first time to capture old stories from Nazi occupied Poland 5 6 Abstract This thesis ethnographically explores the connections between labour and social life among workers informally employed in the small-scale construction industry of Belize City, the major urban centre of Belize on the Caribbean coast of Central America. It is grounded in participant observation among workers native to Belize as well as those born in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala who moved to Belize City because of civil wars in the 1970s, economic crisis and a recent rise in gang-related crime. The thesis first addresses how work is organized according to builders’ skills, and how skill acquisition is tied to the forms of sociality afforded by workers’ relationship to waged work. Labourers who need to generate income by moving around the city and hustling are excluded from forms of sociality which permit skilled workers to stabilize their employment. Moreover, labour is implicated in personal and social worth, as becomes clear through an examination of male workers’ status, reputations and multiple positionalities as kin. Through ethnography both on and off the worksite, the research shows the entanglement of work, friendship and kinship ties, providing an analysis of the social, personal and economic differences these entail. The study foregrounds relationships in the lives of those born in the city as well as recently arrived migrants, while privileging subjective accounts which reveal multiple ways of experiencing the urban environment. This experience of working and living in Belize City is revealed through the future aspirations and ambitions that are conveyed through personal narratives. The thesis captures this plurality of perspectives through the idea of autonomy, a condition valued by workers which serves as a tool for understanding their circumstances at large and the relations between their work and daily life. 7 8 Acknowledgements There are many who I wish to thank for their contributions of different kinds to this thesis. Firstly, and most importantly, the people whose lives feature in this thesis and without whom this text wouldn’t exist. Thanks for welcoming, feeding, teasing, teaching, and bearing with me. --- In Belize. Many have helped to alleviate the pressures and tiredness of fieldwork and made me feel at home, thank you. Ms. Irma Montez has welcomed me in her house and has been a true friend. Her nephew Renan ‘DFL’ Blake. Her daughter Veronica and her grandchildren Corey, Zachary, Deon Jr. and Madeline. Her sons, my great friends Deon and Micah Vernon. All the other regulars of their yard: KG, Rude, Bones, Marvin and Mckell. My dearest friend Katie Numi Usher. Linette Sabido, for chats and friendship. Carlos and Tonio, for the laughs. A couple of street-corner groups for evening chills. Marcos Manzanero, Adriana Sánchez and little Noah for hospitality and adventure. Alessandro Bricco, beyond the northern border, for introducing me to el Caribe. The members of the Belize Commission: Initiative for Justice and Reparations who kindly took me with them around the country and shared their political enthusiasm. Others have helped institutionally and in researching data. At the Institute for Social and Cultural Research, Rolando Cocom. The staff of the Statistical Institute of Belize and Ministry of Agriculture. The staff of the National Heritage Library in Belmopan and especially the director Felene Cayetano. --- In Scotland. At the University of St Andrews. 9 My supervisors. Dr Huon Wardle, for being a mentor who carefully and gently guided me through this process, stimulated thought and collegiality, and whose comments and discussions have been fundamental for the development of this work. Dr Stavroula Pipyrou, for her thoughtful feedback and guaranteed energetic encouragement. Dr Paloma Gay y Blasco, Professor Nigel Rapport and Professor Christina Toren who chaired writing-up seminars and enriched my vision of this work through their peculiar perspectives. All the colleagues who attended these seminars and those others with whom I shared the hallways of the Department and in different ways helped me thinking about my work. Especially the other dwellers of ‘office 47’, and the fellow Caribbeanists Pablo Herrera Veitia, LauraJan Obermuller and Adom Philogene Heron. Molly Rosenbaum, for engaging discussions and companionship in academic endeavours, as well as the warmth of friendship. Priscila Santos da Costa, Luca Lamoni and Sandra Fernandez, thank you for your friendship and hospitality. At iELS, Mary Carr has been a fantastic tutor in guiding me through the intricacies of the English language for the last couple of years. The secretaries of the Department of Social Anthropology, especially Lisa Neilson and Mhairi McColl for their assistance. The staff at the University who assured the conditions for working in a clean and safe environment, especially Margaret Hutcheson also for uplifting morning chats. In Dundee, for making it Fundee. Sebastian Arze and Nani Elias; Hakon Caspersen, Sara Asu Schroer and little Ingerid; David Humphrey and Shohana Shabnam; Simone Toji, Benjamin Bridgman, Laura Roe. 10 --- James Bradbury, for helping me polishing my written thoughts. --- Maria Apolonia Adamczyk Troccoli and Nicola Troccoli, for their parental love and long-term commitment to my education which brought me this far. --- Irena Troccoli, who alongside me shares the walk of life with siblinghood and care. --- My compañera Angélica Maria Cabezas Pino, who helped with the Spanish, read drafts and discussed with me tirelessly. But more importantly made it happen by sharing this journey and taking care of me in all the ways possible. --- The students who invited me to present at the Visiting Post-Graduate Seminar in May 2018 at The University of Manchester, for their comments and suggestions. The Society for Latin American Studies and Caribbean In/Securities: Creativity and Negotiation in the Caribbean, for making available the means to engage with audiences outside St Andrews. --- The Department of Social Anthropology of the University of St Andrews for the Social Anthropology Postgraduate Scholarship, which gave me the opportunity