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Science), Humanities (Anthropology), and Architecture; and the Catholic University (Center
for Bio-Ethics, Journalism, Psychology).
In the early stage of fieldwork I followed a “detective model” of ethnographic
research, piecing together the puzzle of how the epidemic was created, and trying to uncover
official and industry occlusions. My early interviewing consisted of broad, open-ended
questions. I let my interviewees direct the content and orientation of the interview, as I was
interested in their framing of lead as a political issue, the key questions or problems they
signaled as relevant, as well as how they attributed responsibility for contamination and
intervention. I found that almost all actors I interviewed at various levels of society had much
to say on the issue and I had few problems getting them to “open up.” Grassroots activists
were keen on raising awareness and maintaining public attention to the lead issue. They were
receptive to my research and facilitated it greatly. State, municipal, and industry
representatives could be more guarded with their time and information, but on the whole I
found them to be receptive to this “North American researcher.” I strategically used my
cultural capital as a foreign social scientist to gain access to them and to lend authority to my
research (cf. Hale 2006). I received a few veiled threats, some “thinner” than others,
particularly from industry representatives, but on the whole, I had good access to informants
throughout my research.
I conducted regular participant observation at CVSP organizational meetings,
community meetings, labor marches and street protests, academic, NGO, and governmentsponsored
conferences, meetings between families and officials regarding lead exams, lead
poisoning clinic activities, children’s art shows, and the housing relocation process for
families of the Rodolfo Rincón squatter settlement. I reviewed secondary sources drawn from
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