Introduction

For many years it has been argued that art and culture are fundamental for the development of societies, since, among other aspects, they participate in citizen construction processes, and along with education, people can expand both their intellectual and human capacities (^{UNESCO, 2000}). It has also been pointed out that art and culture help to mitigate antisocial behavior and improve people’s mental health (^{Facnourt, D.; Warran, K. & Aughterson, 2020}; ^{Rosas, 2012}). Generally disseminated by international organizations, government documents and cultural organizations, these visions point out that art and culture have a positive impact on societies and lead to social transformation (^{Matarasso, 1997}; ^{Secretariat of Culture, 2014}; ^{Latin American Network Art for Social Transformation, 2008}). Although they can generate positive effects on people, it is important to critically analyze who are the people who make art and culture and in what working conditions they live.

In deepening these reflections, making art and culture implies for its workers to face labor precariousness and uncertainty, as the existing literature has pointed out (^{García, Cruces, Urteaga, 2012}; ^{García, 2013}; ^{Guadarrama, 2019}; ^{Solís & Brijández, 2018}) as well as gender inequality (^{Hernández, 2013}; ^{Jaramillo-Vázquez, 2022}; ^{Olivera, 2018}), inequality in terms of internet and broadband access, as well as knowledge and use of digital technologies (^{Ortega, 2012}; ²⁰¹³). An outstanding issue; however, is the social origin and social capital in labor advantages or disadvantages in the cultural labor market.¹

This article examines the role that social origin and contact (social capital) to access to job opportunities for actors and actresses in Mexico City. With the question: what elements come into play for job placement and career advancement? It is argued that in the context of labor precariousness, inequalities emerge among cultural workers², where origin and the role played by contacts are factors of labor distinction. This implies that certain agents with social and cultural capitals have some advantages to have successful labor trajectories and others face challenges to progress in dignity. In this sense, the cultural labor market involves precarious and unequal experiences for cultural workers in Mexico City, as theater actors and actresses from different social positions.

The importance of this study, in the face of the problem of inequality and labor precariousness, is to have a better understanding of who are the actors and actresses who do theater, in other words, the contribution of this work is the understanding of the processes through which such elements can generate advantages or challenges for the promotion of job opportunities for theater actors and actresses. As shown in this article, the vocations, skills and knowledge of many of them are undoubtedly solid and it could be assumed that their professional careers are successful from a material point of view, however, for most of them they are adverse and resort to strategies such as multiple work activities, establish healthy relationships with their work contacts and rely on their personal networks in order to keep their economies stable and continue with their professional careers.

The work experiences of actors and actresses show the tensions of a labor market characterized by its precariousness and inequality and a rhetoric that praises art and culture for its social benefits, however, it is not always easy to understand how the social benefits of the arts and culture can be perceived, culture is more than a political instrument with positive social effects for people. From Cultural Studies and anthropological studies, which through their analyses dismantled hierarchical visions of high culture, culture and creativity are generated in the daily life of people, from their social relations, actions and meanings (^{Ingold & Hallam, 2007}; ^{Oliver, 2009}; ^{Osborne, 2003}). In other texts it has been understood as the ways in which people produce, share and circulate habits, symbols and customs, or ways of life (Miller & Yúdice, 2020). By transferring these reflections to the cultural work of cultural workers, those who paint, engrave or perform constitute cultural productions, which in the first instance are loaded with meaning for themselves, and in the second instance, “contribute to the development of the art and culture” of societies, whether in an employment relationship or outside it (^{UNESCO, 1980}).

Those who participated in this study are considered cultural workers because they develop their acting activity within the framework of labor relations with independent theater companies, they contribute to the cultural development of the society in which they work. They are also actors and actresses who work in the so-called independent theater. Taking into account the discourse of the people interviewed, independent theater refers to theater subsidized by the State for its production and exhibition. Although the actors, producers and directors of this theater have the intellectual independence to make their plays, the economic and material conditions they have detract from their work and life experiences in a broad sense, which leads to precariousness and experiences of inequality.

Although most of the people interviewed have developed acting in independent theater, some of them have also participated in plays with the support of the private initiative, which in practice provides them with more economic income for their economies, but of a temporary nature. So, the article is divided into three parts. The first part presents a review of labor precariousness and inequality. The second part presents the methodology, and the third part presents the results and conclusions.

Precarious work: multiactivity and intermittency

The labor market in the cultural sector shows contradictions with academic studies that celebrate the configuration of a “creative class” (^{Florida, 2003}) and who understand culture as a catalyst for economic growth. According to Florida, this creative class involves the cohesion of “creative” individuals who share talent, values and contribute knowledge and “creativity” to the technological development of international corporations and economic growth of capitalist economies. Studies in line with Florida, point to the creative industries and culture as a “productive and profitable” sector (^{Piedras, 2010}; ^{Piedras, Rojón, Arriaga & Rivera, 2013}) and that generates economic growth. While there are cultural workers (or creative in Florida’s logic) whose work and economic experiences are generous, other cultural workers experience the opposite situation. Other academic research, however, shows the fractures of flexible capitalism where labor conditions in the arts are marked by precariousness and inequality.

These elements have been present for several decades, approximately since globalization and the technological transformations of the 1980s, which brought about the flexibilization of employment, an increase in informal employment and unemployment (^{Guadarrama, Hualde & López, 2012}; ^{Mora & Oliveria, 2011}; ^{Reygadas, 2011}). In the context of the information and knowledge age, people with low levels of education as well as those with high, particularly artists and cultural managers, face serious experiences of job insecurity and inequality.

It has been documented that the characteristics of cultural work in Latin American countries are characterized by multi-activity, intermittency and uncertainty (^{Guadarrama 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴; ^{Solís & Brijández, 2018}). Multi-activity, which involves simultaneously performing several jobs with some or no employment benefits; intermittency, which refers to periods where there is work or development of projects with generous income, but with a defined time frame. These circumstances make it difficult to save, invest and plan for the future. Experiencing these circumstances affects the private lives of cultural workers and leads to situations of uncertainty about the future (^{García, 2013}; ^{Gerber & Pinochet, 2013}).

Multi-activity and intermittent work are symptoms of labor precariousness. According to Reygadas, precariousness refers to: unstable jobs, without a contract, with low wages, without benefits, with irregular, part-time or excessively long working hours and poor working conditions (^{Reygadas, 2011, p. 22}). In the language of cultural workers, the displacement of work by “project” implies replacing the vision of conventional, salaried work with working conditions associated with flexibility and lack of social security (^{García, 2013}). Likewise, project work “constitutes the most common forms of labor flexibilization” (^{Guadarrama, Hualde & López, 2014, p. 130}; ^{Solís & Brijández, 2018}) without signed contracts, social protection and constant income.

In non-Latin American countries, there are also records of precariousness in the cultural labor market, such as in the United Kingdom (Brook, O’Brien & Taylor, 2019; ^{McRobbie, 2016}) and in Spain (^{Rowan, 2009}), where the working conditions of the workers are very similar to those of Latin Americans, as they do not have social security, work on a project basis and generate creative ventures. These circumstances continue to damage the labor rights of cultural workers and create labor precariousness, understood as a structural problem of flexible capitalism and where competition and labor intermittency are more the norm than the exception, brings problems in the working conditions of cultural workers such as theater actors and actresses. In addition, it generates inequality, which is another issue that runs through the subjectivities of these agents and is detailed in the following section.

Inequality: behind economic resources

The analysis of inequality in Mexico is a subject of extensive research conducted by sociologists, anthropologists and economists.³ This paper situates the discussion of inequality in the area of Cultural Studies and Anthropology with special emphasis on theater actors and actresses.

A fundamental text for understanding inequality from a social and cultural point of view is La Distinción: criterios y bases sociales del gusto (^{Bourdieu, 1988}), which examines the formation and differences of social classes by focusing on “cultural capital”. According to Bourdieu, cultural capital refers both to the cultural practices of the subjects (visits to museums, concerts, choice of food) and to the internalized relationships and practices that motivate subjects to prefer and maintain certain cultural tastes and consumption. Such relationships and practices are observable both in their social origin (considering the father’s occupation) and in their educational and social capital.

Building on Bourdieu’s contributions, analyses have been developed to understand inequality in cultural work. For example, in the UK, ^{Brook, O’Brien, Taylor (2020)} argues that the arts labor market in the UK is characterized as “profoundly unequal” (2020, p. 4) by examining how inequalities and exclusions are reproduced by gender, social origin and the role of “contacts” in labor market insertion. Their mixed-methodology study shows that the cultural workers surveyed maintain a meritocratic view when reflecting on the elements for having a successful artistic career, even though they recognize that there are structural inequalities, such as social origin, school and “who do you know?” (p. 72). On this last point, the authors acknowledge that cultural work in the UK is “highly dependent on social networks.” (^{Brook, O’Brien, Taylor, 2020, p. 73}) especially when short term and temporary projects arise. They also point out the predominance of cultural workers of middle social origin and the minimal presence of workers of working social origin. (^{O’Brien, 2020, p. 245}).

Studies carried out in Mexico show the power relations and their importance in maintaining a place in the cultural sector. For example, ^{Ejea (2011)} studies power relations in the labor world of the artistic sector, with emphasis on the theatrical field. It examines the role of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA, by its acronym in Spanish) and the National System of Creators (SNCA, by its acronym in Spanish), and shows the web of power relations that allowed some Mexican artists to generate economic and symbolic resources and that today they are individuals in the highest spheres of artistic power. The author argues that such artists, from their positions and decision-making in the councils and commissions of both organizations, reproduced practices that turned out to be contradictory in light of the principles of FONCA, which propagated the democratization of the arts and culture through its stimuli and actions aimed at decentralization. Some of these practices were the inclusion of artists from the Federal District in the ranks of the councils and commissions, which generated more centralization than decentralization, greater economic support to individual projects than to collectives, as well as to people 50 years of age and older.

According to Ejea, such practices were carried out in a vertical and unipersonal manner, which has led to the existence of a group of elite artists who have resources, recognition and prestige. This situation means that those who are not part of this elite group, such as young artists and actors starting their careers, experience precariousness and inequality. As will be shown below, the pursuit of being “connected with, being a student of and managing to work with” are socio-labor strategies that they employ in practice for the sake of their labor insertion, to enhance their professional careers and to achieve social recognition.

Mixed methodology studies (^{García, Cruces & Urteaga, 2012}; ^{García & Piedras, 2013}) examine “collective collaboration networks” in young artists as a response to job insecurity and labor market uncertainty in visual arts, music and publishing. Through a survey addressed to young artists in Mexico City, they inquired about their sociodemographic profile, socioeconomic level, working conditions and forms of collaborative work (^{Piedras, Rojón, Arriaga & Rivera, 2013}). The results were augmented with qualitative interviews and ethnographies to gain insight into the artists’ direct experience of networking, entrepreneurship practices and the use of digital technologies.

Although not all the research studies delved into the differences that legitimize inequalities among cultural workers, some studies pointed out that those engaged in artistic production in Mexico City came from an affluent socioeconomic level, which allowed them to engage in consumption practices and affluent lifestyles in spite of facing precarious labor circumstances (^{Gerber & Pinochet, 2013, p. 137, 141}).

From these readings, there are coincidences in terms of the profile of cultural workers: they have high levels of education, live in urban environments and have a medium socioeconomic level (^{Ortega, 2012}, ²⁰¹³. See also ^{Flores, Nivón & De la Garza, 2020}; ^{Urteaga, 2012}). This is important because, on the one hand, it seems to be an indicator that those with low socioeconomic status are absent from the artistic labor market, and on the other hand, despite the precarious labor market context, the middle socioeconomic levels and above can perhaps cope better with precarious circumstances than those who experience economic and material difficulties.

In line with the readings analyzed, contacts are understood here as social interactions between subjects involving power relations. Such social interactions or web of relationships are established and maintained, among other reasons, to reduce the uncertainty of job insecurity. In this search and maintenance of contacts, there are advantages for some and disadvantages for others.

Those who grew up in a context where both parents have university studies and occupations related to the artistic field may have greater possibilities to be connected with other people who contribute to the development of their children’s successful career path. Growing up in an artistic family context, it is very likely that from childhood children will develop cultural consumption, knowledge and social relations that will allow them to interact and face the unstable artistic labor market with some success.

In the context of a flexible capitalism, precariousness and its features (multiactivity, intermittent work and flexibility) restrict labor insertion and the development of dignified careers for cultural workers. Likewise, social capital and social origin can provide opportunities for some cultural workers, as well as exclusion for those whose social capital and social origin is weak compared to that of their peers. The experiences of independent theater actors and actresses illustrate these issues.

Methodology

This research was developed from a qualitative perspective to understand the precariousness and inequality in the work environment of theater actors and actresses. By prioritizing the subjects’ point of view, precariousness and inequality are situated processes that are experienced from different social positions. In this sense, both those from a well-to-do social position and those from a humble background experience precarious work circumstance, but the origin and contacts modify the way in which they face precarious work experiences.

Being a “conversational practice” where the interaction between the interviewer and the interviewed generates knowledge about the object of study (^{Brinkmann, 2008, p.470}), the interviews allowed us to delve deeper into the working relationships and practices in the working lives of actors and actresses in the theater. These aspects were contextualized with the quantitative information we have regarding the sociodemographic and socio-labor profile of the study participants. Twenty-one qualitative interviews were conducted with actors and actresses living in Mexico City over eight months (September 2020 to February 2021 and September 2021 to December 2021). In order to respect the health contingency for Covid-19, the interviews were conducted online using Zoom and Messenger, with a duration of approximately 90 minutes. Most of the people interviewed were in the 25 to 38 age range, with 30 to 35 being the age group that predominated over the others. The participation of the people interviewed was 11 actresses and 10 theater actors.

According to ^{Brook, O’Brien, Taylor (2020)} and ^{O’Brien (2020)} examining the jobs and occupations of subjects provides insight into their social background. While work or “positions” in the labor market provide information on the social position of the subjects, together with social and cultural elements, occupations provide information on labor trajectories. Likewise, by examining the parents’ occupations it is possible to observe “the impact of the parents’ occupation on social mobility” (^{O’Brien, 2020, p. 44}). The criteria for analyzing the social origin of theater actors and actresses were: the educational level of their parents and their occupations. (^{Brook, O’Brien & Taylor, 2020, p. 58}; ^{O’Brien, 2020, p. 244}).

The topics covered in the interview were: profile of the interviewees (age, highest level of education and where they studied, place of residence), working conditions (benefits, multiactivity and intermittent work), social origin (parents’ level of education and occupations), contacts (teachers and parents who in some way supported the labor market insertion of the study participants). To maintain anonymity, fictitious names were used, and where necessary, work locations were altered.

Being residents of Mexico City, the choice of city was due to the existing contradiction between the cultural infrastructure and the working conditions of the study subjects. It has been documented that Mexico City concentrates a large number of artistic spaces (e.g., museums, galleries, theaters) (^{Piedras, Rojón, Arriaga & Rivera, 2013}) which implies an important cultural participation of the people and contribution of the cultural sector of Mexico City to the GDP of the country (^Cruz,2022). However, precarious working conditions affect the working and existential lives of Mexican artists.

Sociodemographic profile of cultural workers in Mexico City

According to the Culture Satellite Account of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (^{INEGI, 2020}), 1,220,816 people were engaged in the cultural field nationally in 2020, as opposed to 2019 with 1,394,358⁴. This represents a difference of 173,542 people, who could have become unemployed or informally employed, among other reasons, due to the impact of the Covid-19 health contingency.

The expanded questionnaire of INEGI’s Population and Housing Census (2020) indicates that in the country there are 22,721 people with academic training in the performing arts nationwide, of which there are 6,926 in Mexico City. This figure is equivalent to 30% of the performing arts professionals trained in the city. Professional women and men in the performing arts are 4,543 and 2,383, respectively. In terms of employment, according to Census data (2020), 15,832 professionals are employed nationwide, of which 4,782 are employed in Mexico City alone, equivalent to 31%.

The average monthly income of these professionals at the national level is $10,768 Mexican pesos, while in Mexico City it is $15,834 Mexican pesos. This data is important because it indicates that the average monthly income in Mexico City is five times higher than in the rest of the states of the Republic. However, although income is higher, the costly standard of living in Mexico City, in terms of rent and utility payments, results in insufficient income.

Based on these data, Mexico City concentrates a considerable percentage of people who decide to study a career in the Performing Arts and who develop their careers in the city. This is due to the concentration of infrastructure in the west and south, the possible connections they can make to access greater job opportunities and the slightly higher income level than in other states of the country. Likewise, although we have presented quantitative data on cultural workers in the performing arts, we now present the results of the qualitative interviews. The study was carried out with theater actors and actresses who have completed their university studies, residents of Mexico City and at an early stage of their careers, since, as mentioned above, it is in these experiences that inequality and labor precariousness can be made visible.

Cultural policies and labor rights

In Mexico, for several years there have been legislative initiatives for the recognition and implementation of the labor rights of cultural workers. These initiatives have been in line with the Recommendation concerning the Status of the Artist (1980), a document of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In the Recommendation, UNESCO invites member countries to recognize both the freedom of expression of artists and to maintain and ensure their labor rights, including social security and a decent income. As a result of this Recommendation, there have been several initiatives in Mexico. For example, the proposal of the Support Fund for the Access of Artists, Creators and Cultural Managers to Social Security, created by Senator María de Lourdes ^{Rojo Incháustegui (2010)}. This proposal sought to include artists in the social security system, in order to contribute to a dignified life. The creation of the trust promoted that the State, artists and other types of individuals or legal entities make contributions so that they would have labor benefits, such as: disability, old age, life, involuntary termination of employment, illness and accident insurance. However, this initiative was stalled because it did not conclude its “legislative cycle” (^{Centro de Estudios Sociales y de Opinión Pública, 2020, p. 11}).

Subsequently, in 2018 there were consultations and national forums where the problems of the artistic guild in labor matters were identified and there was an exhortation to legislators to take up the pending issue of social security for artists (^{Centro de Estudios Sociables y de Opinión Pública, 2020, p.11})⁵. Despite calls from artists’ civil organizations and legislative initiatives, the incorporation of artists into social security continues to be an issue that has not progressed legislatively.

Certainly, from the State, scholarships and economic support for artistic creation have been generated, which support individual and collective proposals of cultural workers, however, as ^{Guadarrama (2019)} points out, these policies are based on merit and excellence, rather than on criteria of social welfare, membership or union affiliation (2019, p. 219-220). This implies that it will be necessary to stand out and prove to be suitable to obtain support, a situation that is meritocratic and may generate inequalities for those who apply (see, for example, ^{Ejea, 2011}).

Although grants and financial support allow cultural workers to implement their cultural initiatives, their economic solvency is determined by the duration of their projects, a situation that puts them at a material, economic and personal disadvantage, especially for those with a low socioeconomic level. Once their project is completed, they need to seek financing, expand or maintain their secondary jobs, or rely on family and friends to support them. Therefore, if there is no public policy from the State that guarantees the labor rights of cultural workers (including theater actors and actresses), stimulating the cultural participation of theater audiences, the State will not be able to guarantee the rights of cultural workers, as well as access to and strengthening of artistic education from an early age, the living conditions of many will continue to be unequal and precarious compared to those who have the social and cultural capital to open doors in the competitive artistic labor market. In order to put their vocations into practice, there will be those who take jobs that have little or nothing to do with their profession, participate in more public calls and rely on their family and friendship networks, which will have a negative effect on their living conditions.

Conclusions

This article shows that origin and social capital are elements that influence access to job opportunities for actors and actresses in Mexico City. From their experiences they consider the importance of making and maintaining contacts for their labor insertion, followed by visions where they recognize a balance between contacts and their individual effort, as well as meritocratic visions that consider that individual talent allows them to open up job opportunities. Likewise, some actors recognize that social origin and place of educational formation are circumstances of inequality with respect to those whose family context is influential in the theater and who were educated in elite schools, whether in Mexico or abroad.

Based on the results of this study, social background and social capital imply that work experiences in the theater are different, bringing advantages for some and challenges for others. Job insecurity and inequality are subjective and situated processes, which leads us to think of insecurity and inequality in the plural, i.e., insecurities and inequalities that, from the social position of the subjects, are faced in different ways. The artistic labor market in Mexico City seems to be characterized by its precariousness and inequalities. In addition, the lack of implementation of labor rights and the circle of artistic power are circumstances that constrain the working conditions and possibilities of cultural workers to pursue dignified professional careers. In this sense, the implementation of public policies with a focus on equality, so that actors and actresses from different social contexts have opportunities and labor maintenance, is a pending issue of the State towards the cultural sector. Given the difficulties in developing solid labor trajectories, the recognition and enforcement of the labor rights of cultural workers by the State becomes fundamental.