List of Publications
List of Publications
2024 Cabrera Pacheco, A.; Cupples, J.; Gleghorn, C.; Puac Álvarez, C.A.; Ribeiro, R. “Desastre, Reconstrucción, Liderazgo. Sistematización de las experiencias tras el deslave de Panabaj de 2005” [Disaster, Reconstruction, Leadership. Systematisation of experiences after the Panabaj landslide of 2005]. The University of Edinburgh. https://doi.org/10.2218/ED.9781836450658
Summary: This book systematises the events before, during, and after the 2005 landslide in Panabaj, Guatemala. It was requested by local Indigenous leaders and it includes the experiences of local communities, and of individuals who participated in the different processes as part of the civil society, local government, and international cooperation agencies. The aim was to offer a critical analysis and identify the external and internal factors that characterised the response to the disaster.
2025 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. (Online 2024). Traditions and territories of Maya women in the Peninsula of Yucatán. Gender, Place & Culture. 32(5), 775-795. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2024.2443210
Summary: This paper looks at the everyday (re)productive work of Maya women in their home gardens in the Peninsula of Yucatán in Mexico. Within these spaces, women do multiple activities necessary for sustaining life. In the work they do, women generate and reproduce knowledge and traditions that highlight the connections between communities and their territories.
2022 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. La (re)producción de las tradiciones agroalimentarias en los solares mayas de la Península de Yucatán, México [The (re)production of agri-food traditions in the Maya solares of the Peninsula of Yucatán]. Estudios Sociales. Revista de Alimentación Contemporánea y Desarrollo Regional. 32(60). https://doi.org/10.24836/es.v32i60.1263
Summary: This paper explored how the agrifood knowledges and practices of Maya women enable the continuous reproduction of the Maya ways of life in the Peninsula. Maya women’s agrifood activities within the biocultural territories of the Peninsula of Yucatán combine knowledges and practices that come from memories and traditions transmitted generationally. This work is a vital component for the autonomy and sovereignty of Maya people.
2022 Urban ECA Collective, Ahmed, N., Baker, A., Bhattacharya, A., Cawood, S., Cabrera Pacheco, A., Daniel, M., Grandi, M., Grimaldo-Rodríguez, C., Guma, P., Habermehl, V., Higgins, K., Lata, L., Liu, M., Luederitz, C., Macktoom, S., Macrorie, R., Melgaço, L., Morales, I., Noterman, E., Owen, G., Oyalowo, B., Purvis, B., Robin, E., Sawyer, L., Terruhn, J., Unnikrishnan, H., Verbeek, T., Villegas, C. & Westman, L. et al. Redefining the role of urban studies Early Career Academics in the post-COVID-19 university. City 26 (4), 562-586, https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2022.2091826
Summary: This paper explores the implications of COVID-19 on precarious academics. It was written as part of an international collective of Early Career Academics (ECAs). We aimed at voicing commonly shared experiences and concerns and to reflect on the extent to which the pandemic offers opportunities to redefine Higher Education and research institutions, in a context of ongoing precarity and funding cuts. We also explored avenues to build solidarity across institutions and geographies and to allow for more inclusivity, diversity, security and equitability in our research practice.
2017 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. Primitive Accumulation in Indigenous Mexico: The Contested Transformations of the Maya Solar of Yucatán. City, 21 (2-3), 503-519. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2017.1335476
Summary: This paper analyses the transformation of the Maya home garden (solar) in relation to the contested Marxian theory of primitive accumulation. The paper argues that a spatial–temporal reworking of primitive accumulation that draws on both a decoloniality perspective and critical geography can help us to better understand both the historical and contemporary significance of the plight of Maya people within this space. Following a historical lens, the paper also shows how Maya populations in Yucatán have been able to quietly resist primitive accumulation by re-encroaching on their solares and reconstituting forms of commons to support their way of life.
2014 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. Estrategias de sustentabilidad en el solar maya Yucateco en Mérida, México [Sustainability strategies in the Yucatec Maya solar in Mérida, Mexico]. GeoGraphos, 56, 1-32. https://doi.org/10.14198/GEOGRA2014.5.56
Summary: The aim of this paper was to identify the social, economic and environmental strategies of the site that contribute to the recovery of the guano palm (Sabal spp.) and traditional Maya housing in the periurban area of Mérida, Mexico. The analysis was based on livelihood indicators. The paper showed that the sustainability of the solar is favoured by the diversity and associations of natural resources. When these are lost, it is increasingly difficult to develop sustainable livelihoods.
2010 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J., Hamhaber, J. and Ayllón Trujillo, M. Wastewater Management Alternatives in Refugee Camps. Ingeniería. Revista Académica de la Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, 14 (2), 121-125.
Summary: This paper examines multiple options for dealing with produced wastewater in a refugee camp. It considers that every option has to be analysed by experts and consulted with refugee population, since the solution should take into consideration not only costs and viability, but also cultural acceptance. I contributed to most of the literature review, analysis, and writing (85%).
2025 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. Building biocultural territories in the solares of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. In D. Morales, L. Sariego, & T. Teixeira (Eds.), Territorial Development in Latin America. Cultural, Economic and Environmental Dimensions. (pp. 92-111). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032650241
Summary: See chapter in Spanish below.
2022 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. Construyendo territorios bioculturales desde el solar familiar en la Península de Yucatán, México [Building biocultural territories from the family solar in the Peninsula of Yucatán, Mexico]. In D. Morales, L. Sariego, & T. Teixeira (Eds.), Territorios y desarrollo: Teorías, debates y casos desde América Latina [Territories and development: Theories, debates and cases from Latin America] (pp. 136-161). Universidad de Costa Rica, CICAP. Available online.
Summary: This chapter analyses the construction, recovery and strengthening of the biocultural territories of the Peninsula of Yucatán from the practices and experiences in the solares, as geographic and symbolic spaces. With a decolonial approach and from a Maya vision of “living well” (buen vivir), I question the development demanded by modernity for the peninsular region and reinforce the alternatives proposed by local Indigenous populations and organisations for the correlated wellbeing of peoples and territories. A shorter translated version of this chapter is currently in press (see below).
2012 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. (lead-author of 4 sections, co-author of 11) Indicadores de Desarrollo, Zona Metropolitana de Mérida – Reporte 2012 [Development Indicators, Metropolitan Zone of Mérida – 2012 Report]. Mérida: Cinvestav – Unidad Mérida. Available online.
Summary: This document presents the results of the research done around development indicators in the metropolitan area of Mérida, Mexico.
2024 Calder, E., Armijos, T., Sala, C., Petzey, A., Reanda Sapalú, D., Cabrera Pacheco, A., Sosof, M., McKean, T. (2024). Santiago Atitlán - Una excursión sobre cultura, riesgo y reasentamiento [Santiago Atitlán – An excursion on culture, risk and resettlement]. Gaceta de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Volcanología, Edición Especial Cities on Volcanoes 12, 23-29.
Summary: This article analyses the Cities of Volcanoes 12 fieldtrip to Santiago Atitlán in Guatemala, which was organised with the aim of increasing understanding of the multiple layers of cultural contexts of risk and resettlement. The trip and subsequent article showed our belief that improved resilience to volcanic hazard risk can be achieved through increasingly robust science along with the critical inclusion of community and Indigenous knowledge, facilitated through methods from the social sciences and humanities.
2021 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. (2021). Territorios sustentables: El solar maya como modo de vida [Sustainable territories: The Maya solar as a way of a life]. Landuum Magazine. Available here.
Summary: In this article I analyse the role of the home gardens in Yucatán as a space for the continuous resistance of Maya people to the imposition of a “modern and urban” way of life. Maya houses and ways of life are part of the strategies of Indigenous communities for sustaining life through a link between land, livelihoods, and identities.
2020 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. (2020). Where the Maya People Live: Land Management in Yucatán, Mexico. Our Voices, Our World Blog. Available here. Reposted by The Sociological Review in here.
Summary: In this blog post I analyse the Maya solar of Yucatán as the space that has historically supported an intricate Indigenous system of land, livelihoods, and identities. I explain how the different spaces and activities contribute to the connection between livelihoods and territories, and how the solar has been produced and shaped by the relations of Maya families and communities with the local environmental and cultural conditions.
2023 Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. (Online 2021). Ch’ixinakax utxiwa on practices and discourses of decolonization, Book Review, Gender, Place & Culture, 30(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.2000581
Summary: In this review I argued that Silvia Rivera Cusincanqui’s work is relevant for for scholars and activists who are re-thinking and questioning how we have seen and interpreted the world, especially when working with/from decolonial perspectives, and what it means to truly participate in decolonising processes. I dialogued with her recognition of diverse epistemologies and ontologies, such as the Aymara-Quechua, with my own recognition from a Maya lived and academic experience.
Ixqui Ajtz’utjila; Reanda Sapalú, D.; Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. “Mujeres Tz’utujiles: Recetas para la Recuperación en Chuk Muk” [Tz’utujil Women: Recipes for Recovery in Chuk Muk]. The University of Edinburgh. https://doi.org/10.2218/ED.9781836451259
Summary: In this book we present the research work done around knowledge, practices, and experiences of Maya Tz’utujil women in Guatemala within post-disaster contexts in a series of food recipes. Our co-investigators shared their recipes with the co-authors and we worked along two local artists to bring this book into reality. Recipes are both in Spanish and Tz’utujil languages.
Cabrera Pacheco, A.J.; Reanda Sapalú, D.; MacKenzie, L.; Armijos Burneo, T. Plants for Recovery: Indigenous Women’s experiences in a post-disaster resettlement in Guatemala. In: O’Grady, N. & Sou, G. (eds.) Disaster Geographies: Places, Processes, Events and the Human Geographical Imagination. Rowman and Littlefield (expected publication December 2025).
Summary: This chapter elaborates on the topic of plants and home gardens as part of a recovery process for Tz’utujil women after a disaster and resettlement based on place-making and memories. The women use Maya knowledge passed on to them through the generations about food and medicine growing practices and share it between each other as they tend to any growing spaces, they can find around resettlement homes. The significance and benefits of traditional agrifood knowledge systems in post-disaster localities is understood as crucial to formulating novel approaches to disaster response that are more context and culturally specific.
Cabrera Pacheco, A.J.; Cupples, J.; Calder, E. (to be submitted to Antipode in March 2025). “Beyond refugee camps and post-disaster shelters: the construction of liminal geographies in Guatemala”.
Summary: This paper proposes a new understanding of the liminality conditions of refugee camps and disaster shelters through the experiences of one Indigenous community in Guatemala.
Cabrera Pacheco, A.J.; Martínez Rodas, A. (to be submitted to the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies in April 2025). “Forced to move, forced to stay: Disasters and resettlement processes in Guatemala”.
Summary: This paper engages with resettlement processes following disasters in three case studies in Guatemala. It is based on empirical evidence and a legal framework analysis, as there is no official figure for internal displacement in Guatemala.
Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. (to be submitted to ACME). “The alternatives to ‘development’ from the resistance of the everyday life and the ma’alob kuxtal in the Yucatan Peninsula”.
Summary: This paper addresses the grassroots alternatives to development that originate in Maya Indigenous communities in Yucatán, Mexico, particularly those around the agrifood work of Maya women in their home gardens.
Sala-Valdes, C.; Cabrera Pacheco, A.J.; Armijos Burneo, T. (tbd). “Re-existences, resistances and leaderships for dignified lives in Latin American territories”.
Summary: This paper is based on our decolonial-transformative research work with Indigenous communities in marginalised territories. We aim at highlighting the endogenous efforts and resistances that enable the sustenance of life and the continuity of the territory as a space of collective permanence, in addition to the struggles for the re-dignification of life, through various experiences of co-research in Guatemala.
Vendrome, M. & Cabrera Pacheco, A.J. (paper from MSc dissertation, tbd).
Summary: This paper will be based in the dissertation “Exploring the influence of seed libraries on community engagement and post-disaster recovery: an exploratory project with a women's community in Chuk Muk, Guatemala”.
Cabrera Pacheco, A.J.; Calder, E.; Cupples, J. (expected publication December 2025). “Resurgir de las cenizas: La historia de La Trinidad” [Coming back from the ashes: The history of La Trinidad].
Summary: This book follows the history of the community of La Trinidad, as they navigate the armed conflict and genocide in Guatemala (1980s) that forced them into refugee camps in Mexico, their return in 1998 to Guatemala and their life next to an active volcano. We accompany them after the events around Fuego Volcano’s eruption in 2018 which spurred them into action for finding new and safer land. This book was requested by the community leaders and we have been developing the book with feedback from them.