"How do Working People Sustain Global Cities?"
March 28, 2025
9a - 2:30p
Tatiana Seijas, Associate Professor, Department of History, Rutgers University
The term ?essential workers? entered our popular lexicon during the 2020 pandemic, when we all recognized the people who provide goods and services that sustain our everyday lives. Our seminar will consider the role of food vendors, transporters, and healers in Mexico City to understand the long legacy of workers who make urban life possible. Mexico City during the seventeenth century was a global city, with residents from around the world who maintained commercial and cultural ties to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Essential workers made those global connections possible and contributed to the local economy by feeding, transporting, and caring for their neighbors. We will examine historical maps, review primary sources, and discuss urban history more generally to consider historical parallels and what they reveal about the current state and future of cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
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