Page 1 Intra and Inter Community Redistribution and Food Security in Four Tseltal Communities in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico Sindy Yaneth De La Torre Pacheco 1 , Oswaldo Méndez Ramírez 2 1 Associate Professor , Department of Social and Political Sciences, Universidad Autónoma De Coahuila 2 Boulevard Revolución 530 Ote, Torreón, Coahuila, México sindytorre@uadec.edu.mx Introduction Worldwide one in eight people is food insecure, in the Mexican state of Chiapas the proportion is eight in every ten (FAO, 2013; Trujillo-Oliveira, Noriero-Escalante, Martínez-Rodríguez, García-Chong,2015). Public policies on food security (FS) are insufficient to reduce child malnutrition and food insecurity in the area, for example, per an analysis of ENSANUT data only thirteen out of every one hundred households benefited by the Mexican´s government OPORTUNIDADES (now PROSPERA) is food secure, the rest have some level of food insecurity. Forty three percent of households in the state have mild food insecurity, so they had to decrease the quality of their diet, another 25% are classified as moderately food insecuredecreasing the amount of food eaten by one or all of the family members. And finally, in 15% of households, some or all the members went hungry, that is, they did not eat for a full day in the three months prior to the survey (Trujillo-Oliveira, et al, 2015). Contrary to what the political discourse says, hunger is a reality in Chiapas. Traditionally, communities have developed diferent strategies to address food insecurity, including reciprocity and redistribution (Broughton, Janssen, Hertzman, Innis, & Frankish, 2006; Frankenberger & McCaston, 1998). In much of Latin America, cooperation and reciprocity are essential for personal and community survival (Cohen, 2010). However, in the Highlands, these strategies have been altered by public policy, migration, religious conversions and political conflict, diminishing the importance of the institutions of the traditional political-religious system within which many of the reciprocal and redistributive exchangestake place(Gossen, 2013, Pérez-Enríquez, 1994, Urbalejo, 2003 and Veltmeyer, 2000). 1 Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, sindytorre@uadec.edu.mx. 2 Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, oswaldomendez@uadec.edu.mx. American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences ISSN (Online) : 2378-7031 Volume 3, 2017, 16 pages Research Article Open Access www.arjonline.org Abstract: In Latin America, food insecurity remains prevalent in regions where extreme poverty and political instability are common. In Mexico, “Los Altos” (highlands) in Chiapas is one of the regions with the highest level of malnutrition. Following the theory of humanitarian action, the federal, state and municipal governments have implemented a total of nine food aid programs in the area. The efectiveness and efects of food aid programs have been questioned in other countries. This study compares the nutritional status of four communities, per the results of the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT) 2012, with two scales of social capital designed by the researchers (inter and intra community redistribution) to understand the efects that participation in food redistribution programs (monetary and in foodstufs) has on the level of food security of the communities. The results indicate that communities with a higher level of participation in intra-community redistribution are more food secure. Keywords: food security, redistribution, reciprocity, food aid programs, Tseltal people of Chiapas.