Inés Durán Matute, a doctoral graduate of the University of Sydney, Australia, is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), Mexico.

'Strongly committed to collaborating with the people of Mezcala and letting us hear their voices, this insightful book explores the local and transnational drivers of an ethnogenesis that resists state denial of their indigeneity. Offering a rich analysis of how neoliberal governmentality transforms society, Durán Matute shows how experiences linked to racism, Mexican political culture, the regional political economy, and consolidation of a migrant diaspora in the United States promote social divisions and contradictory ideas about "development" and "progress," but also produce new kinds of counter-movements in defence of indigenous identities and patrimony.' - John Gledhill, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, The University of Manchester'Weaving together granular field research and theoretically sophisticated analysis, Inés Durán Matute has delivered an outstanding place-based account of neoliberal governance in Mexico and how space is configured by the relation of local power structures, transnational migration, tourist development, and indigenous identity.' - Adam David Morton, University of Sydney, author of Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development

• Preamble [Rocío Moreno] Preface [Jorge Alonso] Introduction 1. The Local Impact of Political Culture 2. The Local Workings of a Global Political Economy 3. The Transnationalisation Of Informal Power: Setting the Path to ‘Progress’ 4. Tourism: A Fight to Define Progress 5. Identities Across Borders: Legitimising or Challenging Stratifications? Conclusions Postface [John Holloway]