Indigenous Mobilization in Oaxaca, Mexico: Towards Indianismo?

Abstract

This article argues that indigenous mobilization in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico has been based on a pragmatic, fluid and flexible identity that is strategically adapted to the particular circumstances. The principle concerns of the indigenous movements discussed here are resource access and control in the context of Mexican capitalist modernization. Further, it is argued that Indian organizing in this part of Mexico must be understood within a socio-economic structure in which a ruling class of merchants aided by their politico-bureaucratic collaborators dominates the state of Oaxaca. Comparisons with other regions, notably Chiapas, in light of different methods of capital accumulation and their concomitant class structures and relations, rather than research based solely on identity politics in the postmodern sense, would, we suggest, make a valuable contribution to expanding our knowledge of Mexican Indian movements in the context of capitalism and indigenismo.

Keywords:

• Oaxaca
• indigenous peoples
• political mobilization
• socio-economic structures
• identity
• class
• Mexico

Notes

 1. We wish to express our deep gratitude to Ms Julie Tonkin and two anonymous JILAR copy-editors for their efficient proof reading of this article. For debates on post-modernism and class in Chiapas, see, for example, Neil Harvey, The New Agrarian Movement in Mexico 1979–1990, University of London, Institute of Latin American Studies, Research Papers, No. 23, 1990, pp. 38–41; Marc Edelman, ‘The Persistence of the Peasantry’, NACLA: Report on the Americas, 33:5, March/April 2000, pp. 14–19 and p. 47; George A. Collier, ‘Zapatism Resurgent: Land and Autonomy in Chiapas’, NACLA: Report on the Americas, 33:5, March/April 2000, pp. 20–25 and pp. 47–48 and Jeffrey W. Rubin, ‘Meanings and Mobilizations: A Cultural Politics Approach to Social Movements and States’, Latin American Research Review, 39:3, 2004, pp. 106–42. The many additional sources on indigenous mobilization in Oaxaca and elsewhere in Mexico and Latin America include: Alejandro Anaya Muñoz, ‘Explaining the Politics of Recognition of Ethnic Diversity and Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Oaxaca, Mexico’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 23:4, 2004, pp. 414–33; Lourdes de León Pasquel & S. Sarmiento Silva, ‘Introducción’, in Lourdes de León Pasquel (ed.), Costumbres, leyes y movimiento indio en Oaxaca y Chiapas, México, CIESAS; Miguel A. Porrúa, 2001, pp. 7–16; Shannan Mattiace, ‘“Zapata Vive!”: The EZLN, Indigenous Politics, and the Autonomy Movement in Mexico’, Journal of Latin American Anthropology, 3:1, Spring 1997, pp. 32–71; Rodolfo Stavenhagen, ‘Towards the Right to Autonomy in Mexico’, in Aracely Buerguete Cal y Mayor (ed.), Indigenous Autonomy in Mexico, Copenhagen, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 2000, pp. 10–21; Norberto Valdez, Ethnicity, Class, and the Indigenous Struggle for Land in Guerrero, Mexico, New York & London, Garland Publishing, 1998; Donna L. Van Cott, ‘Explaining Ethnic Autonomy Regimes in Latin America’, Studies in Comparative International Development, 35:4, Winter 2001, pp. 30–58; María C. Velásquez Cepeda, ‘Frontiers of Municipal Governability in Oaxaca, Mexico: The Legal Recognition of Usos y Costumbres in the Election of Indigenous Authorities’, in Willem Assies et al. (eds), The Challenge of Diversity: Indigenous Peoples and Reform of the State in Latin America, Amsterdam, Thela Thesis, 1996 and Deborah J. Yashar, Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2005.

 2. For discussion on the role of class in Chiapas, see Lynn Stephens, Zapata Lives! Histories and Culture: Politics in Southern Mexico, Berkeley & Los Angeles, California UP, 2002; Rosalva A. Hernandez Castillo, Histories and Stories from Chiapas: Border Identities in Southern Mexico, Austin, Texas UP, 2001; and Shannan L. Mattiace, To See with Two Eyes: Peasant Activism and Indian Autonomy in Chiapas, Albuquerque, New Mexico UP, 2003.

 3. María L. O. Muñoz, ‘We Speak for Ourselves’: The First National Congress of Indigenous Peoples and the Politics of Indigenismo in Mexico, 1968–1982, Ph.D Diss., University of Arizona, 2009.

 4. This question is addressed in Paula J. Pettavino and Geralyn Pye in The Politics of Identity or Identity Politics?: Indigenous Political Mobilization in Mexico and Peru, unpublished manuscript in process.

 5. In 2006–2007 an extensive protest movement begun by an annual teachers' strike emerged in Oaxaca resulting in the eventual formation of the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca and later de México (APPO & APPM). The movement was supported by a wide range of groups, including a number of indigenous ones, notably MULT-I. The protests in Oaxaca City resulted in the deployment of the Federal Police and a number of deaths. It has not been possible to give coverage here to this recent development, which occurred while Geralyn Pye was in Mexico City in Jan.–Feb. 2007. These events were covered extensively in the Oaxacan, Mexican (especially La Jornada [Mexico City]) and global media as well as in Oaxaca News at http://www.topix.net.mx/oaxaca, accessed in 2007 and 2010. See also Fred Rosen, ‘Mexico: Year Zero’, NACLA: Report on the America, 40:2, 2007, pp. 11–15; and Maureen Kelleher, ‘People's Revolt’, The Christian Century, 124:7, 3 April 2007, pp. 8–9. On the role of the Catholic Church see Kristin Norget, ‘The Politics of Liberation: The Popular Church, Indigenous Theology, and Grassroots Mobilizations in Oaxaca, Mexico’, Latin American Perspectives, 24:5, 1997, pp. 96–127.

 6. David Jolley and Geralyn Pye, Political Economy and Indigenous Mobilization in Contemporary Oaxaca, unpublished manuscript.

 7. For a detailed study of the popular movement in Oaxaca between 1968 and 1986 as well as of Oaxacan elites consult Víctor R. Martínez Vásquez, Movimiento popular y política en Oaxaca (1968–1986), México, Consejo Nacional para La Cultura y Las Artes, 1990, p. 152n.

 8. See Kelleher, ‘People's Revolt’. pp. 8–9.

 9. Michael W. Foley, ‘Agenda for Mobilization: The Agrarian Question and Popular Mobilization in Contemporary Mexico’, Latin American Research Review, 26:2, 1991, p. 60; Lynn Stephen, ‘Pro-Zapatista and Pro-PRI: Resolving the Contradictions of Zapatismo in Rural Oaxaca’, Latin American Research Review, 32:2, 1997, pp. 41–70; and Matthew R. Cleary, Indigenous Autonomy in Southern Mexico, Draft Paper from the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, 28 April 2005. For an alternative view of the limitations of Mexican popular mobilization, see Claudio A. Holzner, ‘The Poverty of Democracy: Neoliberal Reforms and Political Participation of the Poor in Mexico’, Latin American Politics and Society, 49:2, 2007, pp. 87–125.

10. Julio C. Tresierra, ‘Mexico: Indigenous Peoples and the Nation State’, in Donna Le Van Cott (ed.), Indigenous Peoples and Democracy in Latin America, New York, The Inter-American Dialogue, 1995, pp. 187–212.

11. Space constraints force the omission of other broader factors which have influenced indigenous mobilizations since the 1970s: the international political economy, government policies, wider popular mobilizations in Mexico since the late 1960s, the history of ongoing indigenous resistance, the interaction between national (the Mexican State in the context of global political economy) and state government political economic policies in Oaxaca itself.

12. Foley, ‘Agenda for Mobilization’, p. 60.

13. Colin Clarke, Class, Ethnicity, and Community in Southern Mexico: Oaxaca's Peasantries, Oxford, Oxford UP, 2000, p. 183.

14. Muñoz, We Speak for Ourselves, pp. 90 and p. 139.

15. Congreso Nacional Indígena, Marco Histórico; El Movimiento Nacional Indígena, at http://www.laneta.apc.org/cni/mh-mni.htm, accessed 7 August 2001.

16. Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara, Anthropological Perspectives on Rural Mexico, London, Boston, Melbourne and Henley, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984, pp. 54–55.

17. Jorge Hernández Díaz and Jesús J Lizama Quijano, Cultura e identidad étnica en la región Huave, Oaxaca, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociológicas, UABJO, 1996, p. 12 and p. 126; Miguel A. Bartolomé and Alicia M. Barabas, ‘La pluralidad desigual en Oaxaca’, in Alicia M. Barabas and Miguel A. Bartolomé (eds.), Etnicidad and pluralismo cultural: La dinámica étnica en Oaxaca, México, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1990, pp. 31ff.

18. Harvey, The New Agrarian Movement, pp. 38–41 and Claude Battaillon, ‘Notas sobre el indigenismo mexicano’, in Inter-American Indian Institute, Indianidad, étnocidio, indigenismo en América Latina, trans. by Ana Freyre de Zavala, Special Edn, México, INI, 1988, p. 129 and p. 131.

19. All translations from Spanish by the authors. Bartolomé and Barabas, ‘La pluralidad’, p. 31.

20. Bartolomé and Barabas, ‘La pluralidad’, pp. 31 and 33.

21. Bartolomé and Barabas, ‘La pluralidad’, p. 31.

22. Frans J. Schryer, ‘Ethnic Identity and Land Tenure Disputes in Modern Mexico’, in John E. Kicza (ed.), The Indian in Latin American History: Resistance, Resilience and Acculturation, Wilmington, Delaware, Scholarly Resources Inc., 1993, p. 208. See Muñoz, We Speak for Ourselves on some of the benefits achieved by indigenous mobilizations under Echeverría.

23. Martínez, Movimiento popular, p. 152n.

24. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 227.

25. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 228 and Howard Campbell, ‘Tradition and the New Social Movements: The Politics of Isthmus Zapotec Culture’, Latin American Perspectives, 78, July 1993, 20:3, p. 86.

26. Jeffrey W. Rubin, ‘COCEI in Juchitán’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 26, 1994, p. 111; Jeffrey W. Rubin, ‘COCEI Against the State: A Political History of Juchitán’, in Howard Campbell et al. (eds), Zapotec Struggles: Histories, Politics, and Representations from Juchitán, Oaxaca, Washington & London, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993, p. 163.

27. MULT was also a member of CNPA (1982–84), Harvey, The New Agrarian Movement, p. 16 and p. 20, plus Appendix II, p. 49. On CNPA and the rise of other independent peasant movements see also Foley, ‘Agenda for Mobilization’, pp. 53ff.

28. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 176.

29. Martínez, Movimiento popular, p. 170n.

30. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 176.

31. Martínez, Movimiento popular, p. 224.

32. David Harvey, The New Imperialism, Oxford, Oxford UP, 2003, especially Chapter 4.

33. Martínez, Movimiento popular, pp. 224–26.

34. Victor de la Cruz, ‘Reflexiones acerca de los movimientos etnopolíticos contemporáneos en Oaxaca’, in Barabas and Bartolomé (eds), Etnicidad y pluralismo, p. 441.

35. FIOB, Our Organization, p. 1 at http://www.laneta.apc.org/fiob/ours.html, accessed 10 Aug. 2000 and Leah K. Van Wey, Catherine M. Tucker & Eileen Díaz McConnell, ‘Community Organizations, Migration, and Remittances in Oaxaca’, Latin American Research Review, 40:1, 2005, pp. 83–107.

36. These developments occurred in the second half of January 2007 and were covered in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada (Mexico City).

37. Martínez, Movimiento popular, pp. 216ff.

38. Juan J. Rendón Monzón (with M. Ballesteros Rojo), La comunalidad: Modo de vida en los pueblos indios, Tomo I, México, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 2003, pp. 16ff.

39. On the tensions between the EZLN call for indigenous rights and local concerns, refer to Rosalva A. Hernández Castillo and Victoria J. Furio, ‘The Indigenous Movement in Mexico: Between Electoral Politics and Local Resistance’, Latin American Perspectives, 33:2, 2006, pp. 115–31.

40. De la Cruz, ‘Movimientos etnopolíticos’, p. 438; INI (México), Resumen, p. 8 at http://207.248.180.194/bibdf/ini/perfiles/chinantecos/00_resumen.html, accessed 15 Aug. 2001; and Martínez, Movimiento popular, p. 219.

41. Martínez, Movimiento popular, p. 220.

42. De la Cruz, ‘Movimientos etnopolíticos’, p. 438.

43. Martínez, Movimiento popular, p. 220 and Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 181.

44. Martínez, Movimiento popular, p. 220n for this claim made by members of AZACHIS.

45. Díaz is a Mixe from Tlahuitoltepec. Martínez is a Zapotec from Guelatao. Both are anthropologists as well as activists. Rendón, La comunalidad, p. 17 and Jaime Martínez Luna, Comunialidad y desarrollo, Oaxaca, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 2003.

46. De la Cruz, ‘Movimiento etnopolíticos’, pp. 438–43.

47. De la Cruz, ‘Movimientos etnopolíticos’, p. 440 and Brian R. Hamnett, ‘Benito Juárez, Early Liberalism, and the Regional Politics of Oaxaca 1828–1853’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 10:1, 1991, pp. 3–21.

48. Martínez, Comunialidad y desarrollo.

49. Francisco López Bárcenas, Entre lo propio y lo ajeno: El sistema electoral consuetudianario en el Estado de Oaxaca, México, CE-Acatl, 1998 and Victor R. Martínez Vásquez and Fausto. Díaz Montes (eds), Elecciones municipales en Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Instituto Estatal Electoral de Oaxaca; UABJO, 2001.

50. De la Cruz, ‘Movimientos etnopolíticos’, pp. 438–41.

51. Ronald Waterbury, ‘Non-Revolutionary Peasants: Oaxaca Compared to Morelos in the Mexican Revolution’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17, 1975, pp. 410–42; and on Ixtepeji Michael Kearney, Los vientos de Ixtepeji: concepción del mundo y estructura social de un pueblo zapoteco, México, Ediciones Especiales: 59, Departamento de Antropología, INI, 1971.

52. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 237. On the Convenios de Concertación, see Harvey, The New Agrarian Movement, p. 30.

53. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 181.

54. Geralyn Pye attended an all day gathering of Sierra Zapoteca community delegates, and government and World Bank officials in November 2001.

55. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, pp. 181–82.

56. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries; and Martínez, Movimientos populares give examples of such movements.

57. Clarke, Oaxaca's Peasantries, p. 183.

58. David Recondo, La Política del gatopardo: multiculturalismo y democracia en Oaxaca, Mexico City, CIESAS & CEMCA, 2007 and Matthew R. Cleary, Indigenous Autonomy in Southern Mexico, Paper Presented to the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, April 2005, draft.

59. There were numerous popular movements in many countries across the globe in the 1960s and 1970s such as civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements in the US and other Western nations as well as movements such as the famed one in France in 1968 along with reform experiments in Hungary and during the brutally Soviet-truncated Prague Spring.

60. Muñoz, We Speak for Ourselves, especially pp. 12 and 108.

61. Discussed in more detail in Jolley and Pye, Political Economy and Indigenous Mobilization in Contemporary Oaxaca, unpublished manuscript.

62. Pettavino and Pye make regional comparisons in both Mexico and Peru in their manuscript in progress: Identity Politics or the Politics of Identity?

63. Muñoz, We Speak for Ourselves, p. 10.

64. Muñoz, We Speak for Ourselves, especially p. 108.

65. Lesley B. Byrd, Many Mexicos, Berkeley, California UP, 1966.