Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, Ph.D.
Mixtec
Department of Sociology
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

Important Issues

I think that the most important issues, both in Mexico as well as the United States, can be classified into two or three categories. One would be the battle of indigenous peoples in Mexico to change the relationship that exists between themselves and the Mexican state. The battle in Mexico, actually, is for the recognition of the autonomy and self-determination of the indigenous communities.

We already can see practical examples of what autonomy and self-determination of indigenous peoples means. In the state of Oaxaca, the use of a system of "customs and traditions" for local elections is now recognized in the state constitution. This is to say, the state constitution of Oaxaca now recognizes what has been practiced for many years within the indigenous communities.

The communities organize themselves into community assemblies and via a system of appointments to positions of responsibility. Political parties are not part of the election process. This is very important because the political system functions in the indigenous communities by way of consensus, by way of infinite discussions, by way of assemblies that draw themselves out for a long time, during which the majority of the community residents have the opportunity to speak their mind.

In these indigenous communities that elect their authorities by way of "customs and traditions," there are few post-electoral conflicts. However, it is in those communities where elections at the municipal level take place via political parties that there are the most post-electoral conflicts. Of course, the community assemblies do not incorporate women, but in some assemblies this is changing. At the same time as women become more politically savvy, they demand greater participation in community assemblies.

Another one of the most important demands that indigenous peoples have made has been the recognition of the indigenous peoples--that Mexico understands itself as a multiethnic country. For a long time national politics has been geared toward incorporating and forging a single culture in Mexico, a "mestizo" culture. However, indigenous people want the state to recognize multiple ethnicities, and to do so in ways not limited merely to constitutional revision. There have already been certain advances. The Mexican Constitution now recognizes that Mexico is "a multiethnic country." In reality, however, nothing happens. The recognition of Mexico as a multiethnic country by the state should imply a profound change in educational policies and economic-development policies of the country.

A Third Issue

The third issue of importance is the self-reflection of the indigenous peoples. This implies the recognition and valorization of our language, culture, and ways of thinking--not the valorization from outside, but rather from inside the communities.

The integrationist policies that Mexico has promoted have implied the wiping out of the very heart of indigenous communities, which is their ethnic identity. There is an example from my family. My great-grandmother and my grandmother spoke Mixtec perfectly, but my father, who was born in 1945, was one of the first to receive (what they called) a "bilingual education." What this meant was when he went to school and spoke Mixtec, the teachers would hit him. They would chastise him. What "bilingual education" meant was the incorporation or transition of indigenous monolinguals into being speakers of Spanish. My father went through the entire primary and secondary education system believing that to speak Mixtec or to identify himself as Mixteco was something negative.

We could imagine my father's experience, which took place at the individual level, occurring at the national level in many of the indigenous communities all over Mexico. The process of state formation, such as that of modern Mexico, has often meant casting off "traditions," especially if they were seen as impediments to Mexican progress. These traditions have included all things indigenous.

How to Define "Community"?

In the past fifteen years, one of the processes that has most affected the indigenous communities of Mexico--especially the indigenous communities of Oaxaca with high migration indices--has been the mobilization of thousands of indigenous peoples (Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Triquis) that have migrated out from their communities of origin.

This migration is nothing new. After the Second World War and at the end of the 1950s, many of these indigenous peoples migrated towards the sugarcane fields in Veracruz and Morelos. Afterwards, in the 1970s, many of these indigenous peoples migrated to Mexico City. The indigenous migration towards the interior of Mexico is nothing new either. The interesting thing is that in the last fifteen years, this indigenous migration has transcended the borders of Mexico, the indigenous migrants, like Mixtecs and Zapotecs, have joined the international migration to the United States.

This mass migration of indigenous peoples out of their communities of origin poses many interesting questions for the indigenous movement. For example, how do we define community? The traditional view of indigenous communities is that these communities are closed communities. It seems to me that the mass migration of indigenous peoples pokes holes in this type of thought. Now we are able to conceive of an indigenous community that extends from the original setting of Oaxaca to the border of Mexico and into the U.S. The community is dispersed across various parts of Mexico [and the U.S.] For example, in Sinaloa and North Baja California, as well as here in California in the U.S., there are large enclaves of indigenous migrants.

Language and Change

Nowadays I see a process of reevaluation and revaluation of what it means to be indigenous. Within these communities we see a rejuvenation in the activity of indigenous intellectuals, not to return to a mythical past but rather to understand the processes of change that are being carried out within the indigenous communities. For example, nowadays we have bilingual Mixtec professors who participate in this campaign for the incorporation of the indigenous peoples, being very self-consciously vocal of their role in this process. Now many of them have begun cultural and linguistic recovery projects. Many of these bilingual professors have formed the Academy of Mixtec Language, wherein they have reevaluated the importance of the language for locating the world, for locating oneself within the world, and for expressing what one is towards the whole. This Academy of Mixtec Language has incorporated intellectuals from the three Mixtecas--the Mixteca of Oaxaca, the Mixteca of Puebla, and the Mixteca of Guerrero--and has assembled periodically to try to come to an agreement upon a common alphabet, because the principal goal is that this language, the Mixtec language (which is an oral language), is written and is able to be passed down from generation to generation.

Women

With the strong migration of community members, especially of men, indigenous women [who are left behind] begin to take on highly important roles in the maintenance of customs and local government, although it is often not recognized. However, in the absence of so many men from the communities, women now work in the fields like men, plowing, which has been forbidden for women to do in many communities. Women also participate directly in the local seats of government. This is happening in practice on account of the absence of many men. Women must occupy a more prominent role within the community.

On the other hand, many women are also migrating, not merely because they are following their husbands, nor merely as a strategy for reunifying the family, but for their own sake. This has also helped to transform power relations between men and women outside of the communities of origin because women are joining the workforce and becoming wage earners. As this occurs women demand greater political participation, not only in how the family is organized but also in how they are going to interact with their communities of origin. When many of these women return to their home communities, for example, they no longer assume the traditional role of being relegated to the kitchen. Instead, they return to their communities and want to participate in the community assemblies. In many of these indigenous community assemblies, traditionally women have had a limited role. Today, however, women are demanding more participation, stating: "Now that we are at the threshold of change, we need to transform our own communities, our own traditional ways, so that all of the members that live within the community, especially the women, are incorporated." It is not an easy process.

In sum, we have to visualize indigenous communities as communities in flux, in a constant process--not of linear evolution, but profound transformation. In many of these communities, the women have spearheaded interesting projects in economic development, which have helped to create local jobs through the formation, for example, of communal chicken farms. There are communities where the women have started communal nursery projects, in which they grow plants native to the region and use them to reforest the land and rebuild the soil.