Land & Sovereignty in the Americas: Alberto Alonso-Fredejas, Guatemala

5 August 2013

Alberto Alonso-Fredejas on the narrative contexts in which land grabs are presented and legitimized, and how such activities lead to questions around capital, labor and community relations.

Alberto Alonso-Fredejas is a former researcher at the Institute of Rural and Agrarian Studies in Guatemala, and is currently pursuing a PhD at the International Institute for Social Studies (ISS) in the Hague. He is the author of "Sons and daughters of the Earth: Indigenous communities and land grabs in Guatemala," the first in a series of briefs published through a project of the Land & Sovereignty in the Americas (LSA) activist-researcher collective, coordinated by Food First with the Transnational Institute.

You can download the brief here: Sons and daughters of the earth

Alberto sits down to talk about the land questions and challenges unique to Central America, with a particular focus on Guatemala and Honduras. He explains the narrative contexts in which land grabs are presented and legitimized in broader discussions, and how such activities lead to questions around more than land: capital, labor and community relations are all affected by land grabs. Alberto concludes by tying these themes into similar activities occurring across the Americas.

The Land & Sovereignty in the Americas series pulls together research and analysis from activists and scholars working to understand and halt the alarming trend in "land grabbing"-from rural Brazil and Central America to US cities like Oakland and Detroit- and to support rural and urban communities in their efforts to protect their lands as the basis for self-determination, food justice and food sovereignty.

Recorded Saturday, June 30, 2012 in Oakland, CA.

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