Strong, Young, Male, Foreign Bodies at Work: Paraguayan Inequality in Argentina’s Farm Forestry

Abstract

This paper examines the juxtaposition of inequalities in the forestry labor market in the delta of the Paraná River in Argentina. Forestry has traditionally been one of the most masculine rural activities. In the area under study, most of the farmers are men. Workers are also men, but there is a hierarchy among them: managers and machine operators are locals and higher up in the social structure; at the lowest rank of the ladder, one would find chainsaw operators and those who do manual work. The latter are mainly Paraguayan migrants. These migrants are appreciated for their strength, but they suffer the impacts of extremely harsh working and living conditions. The stereotype of the “good Paraguayan forestry worker,” which is also part of their own ethnic pride, catalyzes and is the result of the three types of inequalities: vital, existential, and material. Based on the analysis of ethnographic records of in-depth interviews and participant observations conducted by the author’s research team between 2012 and 2019, this paper characterizes macro-structural conditions related to secondary labor market theory and considers some mesostructural features. It argues that the combination of recruitment strategies and naturalization ideology of Paraguayan masculinity helps explain Paraguayan workers’ inequalities. According to the local common sense, their inequality and harsh life stem from indigenous-foreign origin and eagerness to fulfill masculine mandates. At the microstructural level, the article analyzes their aspirations, which do not necessarily confront domination and are part of adaptive preferences that normalize inequalities.