Indigenous Intellectuals, Cultural Brokers, and the Struggle for Native Self-Determination in Late Twentieth-Century Oaxaca, Mexico Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Indigenous Intellectuals, Cultural Brokers, and the Struggles for Native Self-Determination in Late Twentieth-Century Oaxaca, Mexico analyzes how Indigenous Zapotec and Mixe communities from the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca formed cultural and economic institutions to engage global markets and Mexican development agencies from 1982-2000. During this period, Indigenous activists across the continent mobilized to demand Native people’s rights for self-determination and sovereignty. At the same time, the Mexican government targeted Indigenous regions by privatizing and deregulating agricultural markets, as well as promoting assimilationist programs that forced Native children to learn Spanish. My narrative centers the life stories of Indigenous men and women activists who, after receiving formal education, returned to their remote and largely monolingual communities to serve as intermediaries and cultural brokers between Native communities, governments, and NGOs. 

By documenting their distinct trajectories as bilingual activists and examining their diverse modes of activism which included forming worker cooperatives, linguistic research institutions, and schools that taught Indigenous cultures, the dissertation examines how Native activists made the most of political openings in the 1970s to develop worker cooperatives, linguistic research institutions, and schools that taught about Indigenous cultures. Ultimately, I argue that these activists transformed the longstanding relationship between Indigenous communities and the nation-state by pivoting away from clientelism and drawing from the resources of transnational institutions, especially after the Mexican debt crisis of 1982. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, activists leveraged their access to NGOs, progressive Catholics, and sympathetic activists to grow their political power at local and global scales. This dissertation also shows how this activism provided the foundation for Mexico’s multicultural reforms of the 1990s as Native people pressured the state to recognize the nation’s ethnic diversity and Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination. To reconstruct this activist history, I employ an interdisciplinary methodology that draws from ethnohistory, oral history, and biographical life stories.

Table of Contents

Introduction (1)

Chapter 1 –State Building and Indigenismo: From Revolutionary to Neoliberal Approaches to Indigenous Development Programs in Twentieth-Century Mexico (33)

Chapter 2 – Repurposing Development: Floriberto Díaz and the Struggle to Remake Indigenous and State Relations (74)

Chapter 3 – Alimenentando la Conciencia: Intellectuals, Grassroots Organizing, and Identity Building (136)

Chapter 4 – A New Dawn: Building Local Autonomy through Global Markets and Networks (187)

Conclusion – (238)

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Glossary – (245)

Bibliography – (246)

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	History
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	History, Latin American
Keyword	Cultural Brokers Neoliberalism Social Networks Multiculturalism Ethnohistory Indigenous Intellectuals Self-Determination Indigenous Activism Oaxaca Oral History
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Yanna Yannakakis, Emory University
Committee Members	Thomas D. Rogers, Emory University Javier Villa-Flores, Emory University

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