Jones Faculty Lecture by Mónica Salas Landa, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology

“Rough Topographies: Grounding the History of Oil Extraction on Mexico's Gulf Coast”

In January 1917, geologist Edwin B. Hopkins explored the lowlands of northern Veracruz, aiming to identify rocky formations potentially rich in oil. Despite discovering promising geological formations in the region—such as layers of sandy limestone, shale strata, and igneous rocks—Hopkins encountered an enormous lava flow that nearly covered the sedimentary formation across hundreds of square miles. This “rough topography,” from Hopkins's perspective, made it hard to justify investment in the area. Although his assessment of the area was later found to be incorrect, his report highlights how geology transformed seemingly mundane physical qualities of rocks, such as their porosity, color, or durability, into issues of broader significance as new domains of economic and political calculation based on oil extraction took shape.

If geological and topographical knowledge, as argued by feminist geographers, is critically important to capitalists and other agents of domination, and to the maintenance of uneven development, its strategic appropriation, they contend, should be instrumental in opposing them. Drawing on this perspective, my presentation will use Hopkins’s assessment—specifically his characterization of the region’s topography as “rough”—to highlight the extended and gradual destruction and violence stemming from the development of the “Poza Rica” oil field in the area Hopkins labeled as unfavorable. To ground this history of destruction and violence, this talk will concentrate on the most recent instances in which the region’s roughness—its crudeness and cruelty—was highlighted, not by scientists, but by those most directly impacted by the adverse conditions and messy reality of late industrialism.

The talk is sponsored by the Thomas Roy and Lura Forest Jones Faculty Lecture and Awards Fund, established in 1966 to recognize superior teaching and scholarship at Lafayette College.