In January 2007, Mexicans filled the Zócalo in Mexico City to express opposition to rising corn
prices and corn imports. The price of tortillas had risen dramatically across the country—in some
regions, prices had quadrupled since the summer. Marching under the banner “without corn there
is no country,” consumers and producers, middle class and campesinos united to demand access
to affordable, explicitly Mexican corn. Through an analysis of the discourse and symbols
deployed during the tortillazo, this paper explains both the cooperation across sectoral lines and
the participation of a largely unorganized consumer base by focusing on corn itself. How corn
took on meanings in the Mexican context explains the broad-based appeal of the the tortillazo
protest. For many Mexicans, tortillas, and corn more generally, are not only a cornerstone of
both urban and rural diets but also appear in well-known myths, serve as a centerpiece of daily
ritual, and are part of how many conceive of themselves as Mexican. When individuals imagined
that they or other Mexicans might not be able to consume a good at the center of daily life and
imaginings of nation, they reached across established divides and took to the streets. These
insights help us better understand broader patterns of mobilization and quiescence in response to
market reforms, reminding us not only of the contingent and conditional character of protest but
also of the importance of attention to what markets—and the goods getting marketized—mean
across contexts