Extractivismos en el Golfo de California: Una Expresión Colonial del Antropoceno

Abstract

Extractivisms in the Gulf of California: an environmental history of the Capitalocene

Abstract

Knowing the history of extractivisms that has been carried out for more than five centuries in the Gulf of California, offers the possibility of sizing the socio-ecological impacts of the Anthropocene in a specific region and in a precise context. From the 16th century to the present, the exercise of power in turn has been expressed through policies that denote the colonial asymmetry between those who make the decisions and those who suffer the consequences of these, condemning the region to be a sacrifice zone at the service of the capitalist system. This article aims to show how different forms of overexploitation of work and nature have imposed productivity vocations on a sea perceived and used as an empty space, and whose extraordinary biocultural diversity has been transformed into commodities, turned into valued and coveted resources. Valuing profit over life, exchange value over use value, is rapidly leading the region towards an environmental collapse typical of the Capitalocene era.

Keywords: Anthropocene; Mining extractivism; Overfishing; Touristization.