Gustavo Esteva

IHP is filled with interesting people. One in particular is Gustavo Esteva. Although I have never teased out his exact age, Gustavo grew up in Mexico at a time when the term "underdevelopped" just been coined to describe the majority of the world, especially the global South. For them "underdevelopped" left only one option, and that was development. Just like everyother boy his age, Gustavo wanted to be part of it. By his early twenties he was appointed IBM Mexico's youngest executive, then he went to on to work for Procter & Gamble. Quickly, however, Gustavo found that his development work was not helping the Mexican people. It was about making a profit. Eventually, he was asked to leave to when to refused to do what was asked of him.
After working in the development business, Gustavo swung to the left, Latin American style. This was the era of the guerrilla --Che and Fidel's era. It was not long before he realized that the Guerrilla life was not for him. It was too much about killing people. Guerrillas didn't live long, so Gustavo went into government. He began to climb the bureaucratic ladder quickly, and just shy of a minister position he quit. He "saw the logic of the government." It wasn't for the people any more than the corporations were. In 1983 he met Ivan Illich. By this time the discontents of development we becoming more clear. In 1960 the wealthy in Mexico were 20 times richer than the poor. Twenty years later they were 46 times richer. For many, Mexico's struggle with development culminated in 1994 with the armed resitance by the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), which broke out the day that NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) came in effect. Their slogan was, "Ya Basta!" or Enough! They've had enough of development, enough of free trade, enough of the Mexican government, enough of colonization. They wanted the autonomy to develop or not develop on their own terms. Since the out break of the movement and to this day, Gustavo Esteva has been an adviser for the movement. He also helps run Universidad de la Tierra and co-coordinates IHP.