Some doubts have been expressed over whether the slowing pace of urbanization suggested by the 1990 census of Mexico was an accurate reflection of changing conditions, or whether it resulted from some intentional or unintended bias. Comparison of data from succeeding censuses indicates that the growth rate of the city of Puebla declined from 6.32% in 1980 to 2.63% in 1990. This work argues that, in Puebla, a trend to deconcentration of the population within the city of Puebla during the 1980s was accompanied by rapid growth in smaller and medium sized nearby cities, resulting in increased overall concentration in Puebla's metropolitan area. The absolute population of the city of Puebla increased from 772,908 in 1980 to 1,007,170 in 1990. The central area of the state of Puebla, which surrounds the city, increased its share of the state population from 51.67% in 1980 to 52.21% in 1990. The number of places with over 5000 inhabitants in the area surrounding the city of Puebla increased from 27 in 1980 to 39 in 1990. Construction of the Puebla-Atlixco highway will undoubtedly attract growth to the area southwest of Puebla. Small cities to the east of Puebla have shown significant growth although their region remains strongly rural. The same process of deconcentration of population in Puebla and concentration in its surrounding metropolitan regions can probably also be detected in patterns of investment of public funds. The trend is likely to continue through the 1990s.
A descriptive study was conducted in late 1991 of factors determining the satisfaction with life of a group of retired Mexican factory workers of rural origin. Twenty retired workers at a steel plant in the state of Puebla were interviewed. Their ages ranged from 61 to 79 years. The study instruments included a questionnaire concerning sociodemographic data and the "Purpose in Life" test, a 20-item attitude scale designed to measure the degree to which the individual has found significance and purpose in life. Each respondent was also asked what currently gave greatest significance to his life, and to provide an example. The responses were classified into nine categories. The only variable significantly related to the degree of satisfaction with life was appreciation of the amount of the pension. Twelve of the men were found to be satisfied with life, seven were undecided, and only one was dissatisfied. The three categories of factors providing most significance to the lives of the workers were relationships with others, pleasurable or recreational activities, and service to others.
An abbreviated primer on the sociology of the family is presented. The work defines family, describes different types of family structure, outlines the family life cycle, and discusses the functioning of families. Human beings in all societies require membership in a family of some type for reproduction and socialization. One of the most basic human needs is for a mother who will feed, protect, and instruct her offspring. Families have always changed in response to societal changes. The functions of a family are devoted to two different sets of objectives, the internal ones of psychosocial protection of the members and the external ones of accommodation to and transmission of a culture. Families in all cultures provide their members with a sense of identity. Families must respond to internal and external changes and should be capable of transforming themselves to adjust to new circumstances without losing continuity. Family systems differentiate themselves to carry out their functions through their subsystems. Individuals and dyads such as maternal-child or husband-wife are the subsystems. The family life cycle entails a series of stages: courtship, marriage, the birth and growth of children, separation of the children, retirement, old age. Each stage has its own pitfalls and challenges. Each family has a hierarchy of status and power, although in some cases the proper hierarchies are inverted, and the children carry out functions that should be completed by the parents. A series of explicit and implicit, rigid and flexible rules guide the functioning of the family. Various roles are carried out, including parental, marital, and sibling roles, as well as roles of authority, administration, and messenger.
Mexico's peasant sector is undergoing great change as a result of the insertion of capitalist relations into areas that were previously remote. The traditional peasant subsistence economy has been displaced, and peasants have been forced to adopt a series of new strategies for survival, entailing proletarianization or selling of labor. Women in the community of San Nicolas Zoyapetlayoca, in the municipio of Tepeaca, have lived in a situation of poverty and precariousness for some time. Most of the population historically depended on the neighboring haciendas for their livelihood. Women and children also worked there, mistreated and without social protection. The lands that were distributed after the Revolution are insufficient to support the community, and most families must look elsewhere for employment. Incomes are insufficient to cover all the necessities of education, health, nutrition, and other aspects of life. Most women are educated no farther than the primary level. They spend most of their time preparing food, carrying water, washing clothes, caring for their children, and in other domestic chores. Some women work for wages as laborers, factory workers, or domestics. Rural women are disadvantaged by poor working conditions, insufficient education, low levels of health and nutrition, limited participation in social and political life, poor housing and lack of services, and frequently by their own attitudes of traditionalism or fatalism.
This work analyzes two essays by Anibal Quijano and Paul Singer on urbanization, dependency, social change, and marginality in Latin America and suggests some elements for a theoretical interpretation of urbanization in Latin America. The work is divided into three major sections, each of which examines a specific question. The first section explores whether urban phenomena in Latin America are or are not attributable to a situation of dependency or whether they are derived from capitalism. The second section discusses whether changes in urban society and in the urban profile are also derived from dependency or from capitalism. The third section discusses factors leading to urban concentration and suggests some policies that have not yet been developed for urbanization and development, to be analyzed in later articles. Throughout this work, the theoretical approaches of Quijano and Singer are contrasted, and additional commentary on the author's own views is supplied. It is suggested that a policy to add subsidiary or complementary activities to zones that are currently exclusively agricultural would help to retain some part of rural population growth and would have other desirable effects.
