Tourism creates and depends on an entanglement of temporary and permanent displacements; at the same time it manipulates and projects dreams of freedom. This film looks at visions of freedom at “La Punta” on the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Peasants formed the community in the 1980s. At the same time tourism began to grow, first with surfers and backpackers, and now with retiree communities. The ongoing project explores the tensions and contradictions of those who wish to escape capitalism, those who wish not to be crushed and exploited by it, those who revel in its excess, and those who salvage a life at the fringes.
About the Author
Paul Reade is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Bern. He completed his PhD in 2014 at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. He is currently employed as part of the SNF funded research project, “Trapped in Paradise: entangled mobilities and imaginaries of freedom,” and is working in the tourist town of Puerto Escondido, Mexico.
