2 Indigenous Peoples Say Enough!

1. Presentation

Not long after the first of January 1994, the same day the North American Free Trade Agreement (Mexico, Canada, and the United States) came into effect, an indigenous movement in the impoverished Mexican state of Chiapas rose up amidst the Lacandon Jungle with a resounding ¡Enough!

It was indeed the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and its First Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle, a document already historic for contemporary indigenous movements that established something that remains valid after half a century of neoliberalism around the globe: the systematic dispossession to which indigenous peoples have been subjected and against which the EZLN rose that year and against which many indigenous peoples continue to fight. Reflecting on the history of the EZLN, which remains relevant today, as well as its far-reaching impact on global indigenous struggles, is an excellent way to begin this section.

Theoretically, those participating in this seminar would benefit from familiarizing themselves with what David Harvey has explained under the concepts of “accumulation by dispossession,” which can be read in this article about a Chilean case, and “extractivism,” about which this other article offers a good updated view.

The next step is to analyze how these two processes work together with two others, colonialism and racism, to erase and exploit indigenous peoples in Latin America: Yásnaya Elena Gil explains this phenomenon very well in this video. Closely linked is the following article on how racism, as a political tool, is highly functional to the formation of the State. Likewise, to understand how this racism is put into operation among the inhabitants of a country against their indigenous compatriots, it is useful to understand the concept of ‘internal colonialism,’ which is analyzed in this article linking it to feminist and Marxist studies. Also interesting is this Verónica Gago’s text on the Bolivian thinker Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui’s stance against internal colonialism in Latin America.

The objective is that, having analyzed all of the above, those participating in this seminar understand the depth of those words read by Subcommander Marcos of the EZLN in 1994: “We are the product of 500 years of struggles […] poor men like us who have been denied the most elementary education so that they can use us as cannon fodder and plunder the riches of our homeland without caring that we are dying of hunger and curable diseases, without caring that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not a dignified roof, nor land, nor work, nor health, nor food, nor education, without having the right to choose our authorities freely and democratically, without independence from foreigners, without peace or justice for us and our children.”

(For a deeper exploration of the experience of the EZLN, several materials can be found at this link.)

2. Mexico

To think about the experience of indigenous resistance in Mexico through art, two texts can be analyzed at the beginning: “Let Our Voices Be Heard: A Comparative Analysis of Indigenous Political Representation in Latin America,” which provides a comparative analysis between Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico, as well as this brief text that offers a view on dispossession in Latin America in general.

To delve into the Mexican experience, it is worth reading these articles about some resistance strategies in the same area of Mexico where the EZLN is from: on one hand, an article on the relationship between agricultural conditions in the United States and labor in Southeastern Mexico, and on the other hand, an article on indigenous resistance movements against violence caused by the security strategy in Mexico, which has been vaguely known as the “war on drugs” (which will be discussed further in the section Everything Against Them, dedicated precisely to thinking about the criminalization of youth in Mexico.)

The film Roma (2018) by Alfonso Cuarón, nominated for Best Picture at the following year’s Oscars, tells the story of a Mixtec domestic worker in Mexico, in a middle-class household in the years 1970-71. Widely celebrated for its aesthetics, the work nevertheless shows the representation of an indigenous woman under the colonized gaze that understands indigenous people as silent, subdued beings, without the capacity to have agency in the face of the dominant classes of their countries, Mexico in this case. To analyze the above, this thesis by R.A.M. van Lierop can be read.

Close to this is the case of the disappearance of 43 students from the state of Guerrero, a chronology of which was made by Forensic Architecture. Multiple journalistic, artistic, and academic works have been written about this event, of which reading An Oral History of Infamy by John Gibler is recommended, due to its direct testimonial value.

As well as “From Iguala to Ayotzinapa” by Fernando Ecalante Gonzalbo and Julián Castro Ibarra (whose book version can also be bought), which problematizes the dispute between the actors involved in the representation of the tragic event, and reveals the political use of the event not only by the State – who has been blamed for the events – but also by those who claim to defend the cause of the missing students and their families.

In the literary field, the novels of Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World (2009) (whose central character, Makina, is analyzed here) and The Station of the Swamp (2022) (reviewed here) can be analyzed. In both works by the Mexican writer, the central role of characters of indigenous origin full of agency and political motivations is central.

3. Argentina

In the contemporary context in which a far-right president like Javier Milei has taken power in Argentina, it is worth making a historical journey that helps to understand the process of erasure of indigenous peoples in this country.

A foundational text, An Excursion to the Ranqueles Indians (1870) by Lucio V. Mansilla, helps to understand the ideology behind which the idea of Argentina as a country is founded. Participants can read this article, in where the strategy of genocide and inclusion of indigenous populations by the founding governments of this country is analyzed, and which is reflected in Mansilla’s book. To round out the discussion, it is worth watching the documentaries Awka Liwen (2010) and Martínez de Hoz (a continuation of Awka Liwen) (2017) both by Osvaldo Bayer, which show the continuity of the indigenous erasure project in the country today.

In the field of literature, it is worth considering Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s novel The Adventures of China Iron (available for purchase here). It is a work that dialogues with another foundational text of Argentina, Martín Fierro (1872) by José Hernández. This academic work analyzes the relationship between the former and the latter, and the proposal of Cabezón Cámara’s novel regarding indigenous peoples in Argentina.

4. Bolivia

The Water War is the popular name for a series of protests that took place in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, between January and April 2000. Its trigger was the privatization of municipal drinking water supply. It was a measure that mainly affected historically impoverished indigenous communities, as can be read in this research work.

Through two cultural products that have had broad global exposure, on the one hand the film Even the Rain (2010) and on the other the short film “Abuela Grillo” (2010), those participating in this seminar can access the way this struggle has been represented. The reading can be complemented with the works “Cinema and the Representation of Latin American History in the Film Even the Rain (Icíar Bollaín, 2010)” and “Aesthetic Challenges of Postdevelopment: Non-Extractive Imaginaries and Post-Fossil Futures in Andean Cultural Media.”

5. Chile

As mentioned in the section dedicated to the Green Tide, the Chilean case is particularly interesting because it was the scene of the implementation of Neoliberalism as a global experiment. Therefore, it is interesting to start this section, dedicated to indigenous peoples and their resistance strategies represented in cultural objects, by thinking from another perspective about the establishment of the neoliberal system in the country: this resource and this other one from the contemporary government itself are quite useful for participants to have a general overview on the subject.

Immediately afterward, it is worth reading this research work on the exploitation of copper in Chile (the main producer of this mineral essential for technology), as well as this catalog of the plastic exhibition “Strata” by Alejandra Prieto on the same theme.

In the literary field, the memoir Lanallwe (2023) (available for purchase here) by CUNY professor Ángeles Donoso Macaya can be consulted: personal memories next to the eponymous lake of the book, which originally belonged to indigenous peoples but was later appropriated by families like Donoso’s own. It is also worthwhile to think about contemporary Mapuche indigenous poetry through the websites Mapuche Poetry and Mapuche Radio. The reading is greatly enriched by the parallel reading of this work that analyzes the themes of contemporary Chilean indigenous poetry.

6. Guatemala

The case of Guatemala is emblematic because it represents the open massacre of indigenous people by a repressive government like that of President Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-1983), a position he achieved through a coup d’état. For this genocide, in 2013, he was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The documentary Granito, How to Nail a Dictator(2011) by Pamela Yates along with My Name is Rigoberta, and This is How My Conscience was Born(2007) (available for purchase here) by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú are excellent starting points for understanding this event: here a fragment can be read (Spanish).

Also recommendable is this text that analyzes the academic attitude towards Menchú’s book: the interest that is paid to the document as testimony and as representation is highlighted, and how problematic the crossing of both themes can be.

In the literary field, one way to approach the horror committed against indigenous peoples is Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s Human Matter (2009) (available for purchase here). This analysis by the writer Mónica Albízures discusses the role of the archive and memory in shaping that traumatic episode.

Open Resources

Aaron, Lackowski y Astrid Velasto Montante. (2016). “It’s Not What You Earn, It’s What You Send. Resisting Dispossession in Southern Mexico.” Voices of Mexico. No. 102. 98-103. https://ru.micisan.unam.mx/bitstream/handle/123456789/19570/VOM_2016_0102_0098.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

Acost, Ignacio, Louise Purbrick, Xavier Ribas. (2020) “Trafficking the Earth: Documents on Nitrate, Copper and Capitalism.” Transformations. Vol. 3. http://www.transformationsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Trans33_01_acosta_et_al.pdf. Accessed 3 Feb 2024.

Aguilar Gil, Yásnaya Elena. “Tequiologies: Indigenous Solutions Against Climate Catastrophe.” Youtube, uploaded by Berkeley Center for New Media, 7 Feb. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/live/ZGEKAWBu2do?si=c7Oo6NIvr0HQsVrt.

Albízures Gil, M. (2013) “El material humano de Rodrigo Rey Rosa. El arhivo como disputa.” Centroamericana. Vol 23. No. 2. 5-10. https://www.centroamericana.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ALBIZÚREZ-GIL-A-00000781-3.pdf

Bayer, Oswaldo. Awka Liwen. Youtube. Published by Pablo Pontorno. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKT5e5S9hQ

—. Martínez de Hoz. Youtube. Published by Mariano Aiello. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4AssvB37No&t=1858s

Burks, Latrice M. (2015) “Let Our Voices Be Heard: A Comparative Analysis of Indigenous Political Representation in Latin America. Black & Gold. Vol. 1. https://openworks.wooster.edu/blackandgold/vol1/iss1/1.

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—. “Trans-fundar la Argentina: nación, autoría y masculinidades en Las aventuras de la China Iron de Gabriela Cabezón Cámara.” Cuadernos Del CILHA, (34), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.48162/rev.34.014

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Gago, Verónica. “Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui: Against Internal Colonialism.” Viewpoing Magazine. 25 Oct 2016. https://viewpointmag.com/2016/10/25/silvia-rivera-cusicanqui-against-internal-colonialism/. Accessed 3 Feb 2024.

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