From telephones in rural Oaxaca to mobile phones among Mixtec farm workers in Oxnard, California

    Collection:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
    Contributers:
    Jimenez, Carlos (author)
    Format:
    Online journal article
    Publication Date:
    2017
    URL:
    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444816655098#articleCitationDownloadContainer
    Published:
    USA: SAGE Journals
    Location:
    Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 152 Document Number: D10148
    Journal Title:
    New Media & Society
    Journal Title Details:
    19(12) : 2059–2074
    Subject Term:
    California, USA, communication analysis, communication barriers, communication patterns, farm workers, rural communities, telephone communications, communication technology, mobile phone, indigenous population, social networks, agricultural communication, cell phone, Mexico (Latin America; Central America), isolation, anxiety, immigrants, seasonality, and labor relations
    Notes:
    16 pages., Via online journal., Indigenous Mexican immigrants (Mixtecs) from rural Oaxaca, Mexico, experience a high level of isolation and seasonal farm work, but the increasing speed of communication technology stands to overcome these difficulties. For farm workers, the initial experience of landlines and public pay phones was filled with anxiety and missed connections. Despite the benefits of mobile phones, their adoption was delayed among Mixtec in Oxnard, California, because of a combination of legal status, high cost, and seasonal work. This article finds that a surge in mobile phone adoption and use took place during a time where production of labor-intensive crops like strawberries increased throughout California, farm worker settlement patterns matured, and mobile phone plans changed becoming more affordable and easier to understand. The widespread adoption of mobile phones brought more predictability to the informal agricultural job market for farm workers, but this did not necessarily mean higher wages in the strawberry fields.

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