Comunalidad, Guendaliza'a and anti-mine mobilizations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
Abstract
How do grassroots strategies for the defense of territory inter-relate with the "politics of time" in the early phases of socio-environmental struggles? This article addresses this question via ethnographic research and in-depth interviews in Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Opponents of mines and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in this region invoke comunalidad and Guendaliza'a— indigenous ways of life associated with mutual aid and territorial sovereignty. These values are enacted by networks of activists seeking to protect the land and livelihoods of future generations against global capitalism's drive for cheap raw materials. By rejecting dualist distinctions between Society and Nature, indigenous cosmovisions can help defensive movements forge alternatives to socio-environmental violence. Engaging with this case brings separate theoretical frameworks of defensive resistance, cheap nature, ecological-distribution conflicts, and indigenous cosmovisions into dialogue with one another.
Key words: social movements, indigenous peoples, global capitalism, ethnography, anti-mining
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Acosta, R.A.M. 2014. Wejën Kajën: la Comunalidad, una vision contemporanea de resistencia a partir de los modos de vida de los Pueblos Indigenas. Masters Thesis. National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Arce, M. 2014. Resource extraction and protest in Peru. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Arce, M. 2016. The political consequences of mobilizations against resource extraction. Mobilization: an International Quarterly 21(4): 469-483.
Altamirano-Jiménez, I. 2013. Indigenous encounters with neoliberalism: place, women, and the environment in Canada and Mexico. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Aquino Centeno, S. 2013. Interrogando la costumbre y la legislación IndÃgena: contribuciones y horizontes de la antropologÃa jurÃdica en Oaxaca. Nueva AntropologÃa 26(78): 87-117.
Atkinson, R., and J. Flint. Accessing hidden and hard-to-reach populations: snowball research strategies. Social Research 33(1): 1-4.
Ãvila-Calero, S. 2017. Contesting energy transitions: wind power and conflicts in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Journal of Political Ecology 24(1): 992-1012.
Ãvila-Calero, S. 2016. Victor M. Toledo: 'political ecology is here to stay.' EcologÃa PolÃtica. [accessed June 26 2019].
https://voicesmotherearth.blogspot.com/p/ecologia-politica-sofia-avila-calero.html
Bárcenas, F.L. 2017. La vida o el mineral: los cuatro ciclos del despojo minero en México. Madrid: Akal.
Bárcenas, F.L., and M.M.E. Galicia. 2011. El mineral o la vida: la legislación minera en México. Centro de Orientación y AsesorÃa a Pueblos IndÃgenas.
Barkin, D. 2013. La minerÃa como factor de desarrollo en la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca: Una valoración ética. Problemas del desarrollo 44(172): 123-144.
Bebbington, A., D.H. Bebbington, J. Bury, J. Lingan, J. Pablo Muñoz, and M. Scurrah. 2008. Mining and social movements: struggles over livelihood and rural territorial development in the Andes. World Development 36(12): 2888-2905.
Benford, R.D. 1997. An insider's critique of the social movement framing perspective. Sociological Inquiry 67(4): 409-430.
Binford, L. 1985. Political conflict and land tenure in the Mexican isthmus of Tehuantepec. Journal of Latin American Studies 17(1): 179-200.
Blaser, M. 2013. Notes towards a political ontology of 'environmental' conflicts. In Green, L. (ed). Contested
ecologies: dialogues in the South on nature and knowledge. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Pp. 13-27.
Bunker, S.G., and P.S. Ciccantell. 2005. Globalization and the race for resources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Campbell, H. 1994. Zapotec renaissance: ethnic politics and cultural revivalism in southern Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Campbell, H., L. Binford, M. Bartolomé and A. Barabes. 1993. Zapotec struggles: histories, politics and representations from Juchitán, Oaxaca. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Charmaz, K. 2004. Premises, principles, and practices in qualitative research: revisiting the foundations. Qualitative Health Research 14(7): 976-993.
Chaca, R. 2015. Dicen no a proyecto minero en San Miguel Chimalapa. [accessed July 1 2018]. http://old.nvinoticias.com/istmo/general/agropecuarias/299280-dicen-no-proyecto-minero-san miguel chimalapa
Comité Ixtepecano. 2016. Un breve recorrido por la lucha en Ixtepec Oaxaca contra proyecto de muertellamado mineriÌa. CONACULTA. [accessed July 1 2018]. http://www.movimientom4.org/wpcontent/docs/recorridopor-la-lucha-en-ixtepec-contra-el-proyecto-de-muerte-llamando-mineria-1.pdf
Delgado, J.O. 2002. El Plan Puebla-Panamá y la globalización neoliberal. Aportes: Revista de la Facultad de EconomÃa-Buap. VII(21): 137-155.
DÃaz, F., S.R. Hernández and R.C. Jiménez. 2007. Floriberto DÃaz: escrito: comunalidad, energÃa viva del pensamiento mixe. Mexico City: UNAM.
Dore, E. 2000. Environment and society: long-term trends in Latin American mining. Environment and History 6(1): 1-29.
Downey, L., E. Bonds and K. Clark. 2010. Natural resource extraction, armed violence, and environmental degradation. Organization and Environment 23: 417-445.
Dunlap, A. 2018a. 'A bureaucratic trap:' Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and wind energy development in Juchitán, Mexico. Capitalism Nature Socialism 29(4): 88-108.
Dunlap, A. 2018b. Counterinsurgency for wind energy: the BÃi Hioxo wind park in Juchitán, Mexico. The Journal of Peasant Studies 45(3): 630-652.
Dunlap, A. 2018c. The 'solution' is now the 'problem:' wind energy, colonisation and the 'genocide-ecocide nexus' in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. The International Journal of Human Rights 22(4): 550-573.
Dunlap, A. 2018d. Insurrection for land, sea and dignity: resistance and autonomy against wind energy in Ãlvaro Obregón, Mexico. Journal of Political Ecology 25(1): 120-143.
Dunlap, A. 2019. Revisiting the wind energy conflict in Gui'Xhi'Ro/Ãlvaro Obregón: interview with an indigenous anarchist. Journal of Political Ecology 26(1): 150-166.
Escalón, P.E. and G.E González. 2017. La escuela como actor social en las luchas contra el extractivismo: Prácticas polÃtico-pedagógicas desde la educación comunitaria en Oaxaca, México. Diálogos sobre Educación: Temas Actuales en Investigación Educativa 8(15).
Escobar, A. 2006. Difference and conflict in the struggle over natural resources: a political ecology framework. Development 49(3): 6-13.
Escobar, A. 2008. Territories of difference: place, movements, life, redes. Durham: Duke University Press.
Fabricant, N. 2013. Good living for whom? Bolivia's climate justice movement and the limitations of indigenous cosmovisions. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 8(2): 159-178.
Fenelon, J.V. and T.D. Hall. 2008. Revitalization and indigenous resistance to globalization and neoliberalism. American Behavioral Scientist 51(12): 1867-1901.
Fresh Plaza (anonymous). 2016. Mexico: Oaxaca exports 32,000 tons of mango to the US and Canada. [Accessed March 2 2019]. https://www.freshplaza.com/article/2164810/mexico-oaxaca-exports-32-000-tons-of-mango-to-the-us-and-canada/
Carrasco, M.E.F. 2018. La comunalidad como base para la construcción de resiliencia social ante la crisis civilizatoria. Polis Revista Latinoamericana 11(33): 195-218.
Global Witness. 2014. Deadly environment: the dramatic increase in killings of environmental and land defenders. London: Global Witness.
Gómez, F. D. 2001. Comunidad y comunalidad. La Jornada Semanal 314(12).
González, S.G. 2019. Lanzan pronunciamiento en rechazo al Corredor TransÃstmico. La Jornada. [Accessed May 21 2019] https://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2019/04/25/lanzan-pronunciamiento-en-rechazo-al-corredor-transistmico-5447.html
González Licón, E. 1990. Los zapotecas y mixtecas: tres mil años de civilización precolombina. MeÌxico: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes; Milan: Jaca Book.
Gudynas, E. 2009. Diez tesis urgentes sobre el nuevo extractivismo. Extractivismo, PolÃtica y Sociedad. Quito: CAAP and CLAES. Pp. 187-225.
Guenther, K.M. 2009. The politics of names: rethinking the methodological and ethical significance of naming people, organizations, and places. Qualitative Research 9(4): 411-421.
Harrup, A. 2016. Mexico to create economic zones to develop poor southern states. The Wall Street Journal. [Accessed December 12, 2016]. https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexican-president-signs-law-for-special-economic-zones-1464730260
Harvey, D. 2001. Spaces of capital: towards a critical geography. London: Routledge.
Heidrich, P. 2016. Determinants, boundaries, and patterns of Canadian mining investments in Latin America (1995–2015). Latin American Policy 7(2): 195–214.
Hortensia, U.H.R. 2014. Vivir la mina: el conflicto minero en San José del Progreso y sus efectos cotidianos en la vida individual y la existencia colectiva; rupturas, contrastes, reconstrucciones y resistencias. M.A. Thesis. Oaxaca, Mexico: CIESAS.
Hristov, J., J. Sprague-Silgado and A. Tauss. (forthcoming). The political violence of capital: paramilitary formations in global perspective. London: Routledge.
Jimenez Lopez, G. 2015. Historia de Juchitán. Oaxaca: Diamante.
Kirsch, S. 2014. Mining capitalism: the relationship between corporations and their critics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kojola, E. 2019. Indigeneity, gender and class in decision-making about risks from resource extraction. Environmental Sociology 5(2): 130-148.
Leach, D. 2013. Prefigurative politics. In Snow, D.A., D. Della Porta, P.G. Klandermans and D. McAdam (eds,). The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of social and political movements. London: Wiley Blackwell.
Levien, M. 2012. The land question: special economic zones and the political economy of dispossession in India. The Journal of Peasant Studies 39(3-4): 933-969.
Lucio, C. 2016. Conflictos socioambientales, derechos humanos y movimiento indÃgena en el Istmo de Tehuantepec. Zacatecas: Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas Press.
Lucio, C. 2018. Winds of resistance in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In D. Tetreault, C. McCulligh and C. Lucio (eds.). Social environmental conflicts in Mexico. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 81-107.
Luna, J.M. 2010. Eso que llaman comunalidad. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.
Maldonado, B. 2010. Comunidad, comunalidad y colonialismo en Oaxaca, México: la nueva educación comunitaria y su contexto. PhD dissertation. Leiden: Leiden University.
Maldonado, B. 2003. La comunalidad indÃgena. Segunda edición cibernética. [Accessed March 15 2009].
http://www.antorcha.net/biblioteca_virtual/politica/comunalidad/comunalidad.html.
Manzo, C. 2008. Asimilación y resistencia: raÃces coloniales de la autonomÃa indÃgena en el sur del istmo de Tehuantepec. Estudios Sociales Nueva Época 3: 107-124.
Manzo, C. 2011. Comunalidad, resistencia indÃgena y neocolonialismo en el Istmo de Tehuantepec, siglos XVI-XXI. Mexico: Ce-Acatl.
Manzo, D. 2016. En Zanatepec se unen y protestan contra la mineria. Istmo Press [Accessed March 15 2019]. http://www.istmopress.com.mx/istmo/en-zanatepec-se-unen-y-protestan-contra-la mineria/
Manzo, D. 2018. Declaran "libre de mineria" a Zanatepec, Oaxaca. La Jornada 29 December. [Accessed March 1 2019] https://www.jornada.com.mx/2018/12/29/estados/021n4est?fbclid=IwAR2OihRfLwt4T0
MartÃnez, Ã.Ã. and M.A. Ochoa. 2017. Mexico's Special Economic Zones: regional development or more neoliberal reform? Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations. [accessed September 15 2018] https://cuslar.org/2017/01/11/mexicos-special-economic-zones-regional-development-or-more-neoliberal-reform/
Martinez-Alier, J, H. Healy, L. Temper, M. Walter, B. Rodriguez-Labajos, J.F. Gerber and M. Conde. 2011. Between science and activism: learning and teaching ecological economics with environmental justice organisations. Local Environment 16 (1): 17-36.
Martinez-Alier, J., G. Kallis, S. Veuthey, M. Walter and L. Temper. 2010. Social metabolism, ecological distribution conflicts, and valuation languages. Ecological Economics 70(2): 153-158.
MartÃnez Alier, J. and M. Walter. 2016. Social metabolism and conflicts over extractivism. In de Castro, F., B. Hogenboom and M. Baud (eds.). Environmental governance in Latin America. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 58-85.
Matias, P. 2016. "Toman" minera en San José del Progreso, Oaxaca; exigen salida de empresa canadiense. Proceso [Accessed March 1 2019]. https://www.proceso.com.mx/439883/toman-instalaciones-minera-en-san-jose-del-progreso-oaxaca
Meyer, D.S. 1990. A winter of discontent: The nuclear freeze and American politics. Santa Barbara: ABC CLIO.
Moore, J. 2000. Sugar and the expansion of the early modern world economy: commodity frontiers, ecological transformation, and industrialization. Review (Fernand Braudel Center) 23(3): 409-433.
Moore, J.W. 2010. Cheap food and bad money: food, frontiers, and financialization in the rise and demise of neoliberalism. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 33(2-3): 225-261.
Moore, J.W. 2011. Ecology, capital, and the nature of our times: accumulation & crisis in the capitalist world ecology. Journal of World-Systems Research 17(1): 107-146.
Moore, J.W. 2015. Capitalism in the web of life: ecology and the accumulation of capital. New York: Verso.
Morosin, A. 2019. Confronting dispossession: environmental justice, indigenous mobilization, and gender relations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. PhD Dissertation. Riverside: University of California Riverside.
Morosin, A. 2020. (forthcoming) Paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico: enforcing accumulation in a geo-strategic region. In Hristov, J., J. Sprague-Silgado and A. Tauss (eds.). The political violence of capital: paramilitary formations in global perspective. London: Routledge.
Morris, A. 1992. Political consciousness and collective action. In Morris, A.D., C.A. Morris and N. Braine (eds.). Oppositional consciousness: the subjective roots of social protest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nahmad, S., A. Nahón and R. Langlé. 2011. El impacto social del recurso eolico. Informe final para el Consejo Oaxaqueño de Ciencia y TecnologÃa. CIESAS-Unidad Pacifico Sur.
Narchi, N.E. 2015. Environmental violence in Mexico: a conceptual introduction. Latin American Perspectives 42(5): 5-18.
Paley, D. 2014. Drug war capitalism. Oakland: AK Press.
Partridge, T. 2017. Resisting ruination: resource sovereignties and socioecological struggles in Cotopaxi, Ecuador. Journal of Political Ecology 24(1): 763-776.
Payán, T. and G. Correa-Cabrera. 2014. Land ownership and use under Mexico's energy reform. Issue Brief. Houston: Baker Institute, Rice University.
Pellow, D.N. 2017. What is critical environmental justice? Hoboken: Wiley.
Porto, M.F. and T. Pacheco. 2009. Conflitos e injustiça ambiental em saúde no Brasil. Tempus Actas de Saúde
Coletiva 4(3): 26-37.
Ramos, G.C. 2012. Extractivismo minero, conflicto y resistencia social. Realidad Económica 265(1): 60-84.
Red Mexicana de Afectados Por La Mineria (REMA), 2019. Comunicado. Las consultas "buenas" no existen: basta de engañar a los pueblos. [Accessed April 1 2019 http://www.remamx.org/2019/04/comunicado-las-consultas-buenas-no-existen-basta-de enganar-a-los-pueblos/
Rendón Monzón, J.J. 2003. La comunalidad: modo de vida en los pueblos indios. Mexico: Educal.
Rocheleau, D.E. 2015. Networked, rooted and territorial: green grabbing and resistance in Chiapas. Journal of Peasant Studies 42(3-4): 695-723.
Rodriguez, A. 2017. Mexico creates first special economic zones. BN America. [accessed April 28 2018]. https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/infrastructure/mexico-creates-their-first-specialeconomic-zones1
Rubin, J.W. 1994. COCEI in Juchitán : grassroots radicalism and regional history. Journal of Latin American
Studies 26(1): 109-136.
Rubin, J.W. 1997. Decentering the regime: ethnicity, radicalism, and democracy in Juchitán, Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press.
Sigler, T.J. 2014. Panama's special economic zones: balancing growth and development. Bulletin of Latin American Research 33(1): 1-15.
Snow, D. A., and D. M. Moss. 2014. Protest on the fly: toward a theory of spontaneity in the dynamics of protest and social movements. American Sociological Review 79(6): 1122-1143.
SIPAZ. 2016. Oaxaca: pobladores en Ixtepec rechazan proyecto minero. 11 July [Accessed March 20 2019]. https://sipaz.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/oaxaca-pobladores-en-ixtepec-rechazan proyecto-minero/
Stavenhagen, R. 1981. Between underdevelopment and revolution: a Latin American perspective. New Delhi:
Abhinav Publications.
Stephen, L. 1998. Between NAFTA and Zapata: responses to restructuring the commons in Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico. In Goldman, M. (ed.). Privatizing nature: political struggles for the global commons. London: Pluto Press.
Stoltenborg, D. and R. Boelens. 2016. Disputes over land and water rights in gold mining: the case of Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico. Water International 41(3): 447-467.
Temper, L., Del Bene, D., & J. Martinez-Alier. 2015. Mapping the frontiers and front lines of global environmental justice: the EJAtlas. Journal of Political Ecology 22(1): 255-278.
Tetreault, D. 2016. Free-market mining in Mexico. Critical Sociology 42(4-5): 643-659.
Tetreault, D. 2015. Social environmental mining conflicts in Mexico. Latin American Perspectives 42(5): 48-
Tetreault, D. 2019. Resistance to Canadian mining projects in Mexico: lessons from the lifecycle of the San Xavier Mine in San Luis PotosÃ. Journal of Political Ecology 26(1): 84-104.
Tetreault, D., C. McCulligh and C. Lucio. 2018. An introduction to social environmental conflicts and alternatives in Mexico. In Tetreault, D., C. McCulligh and C. Lucio (eds.). Social environmental conflicts in Mexico. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 3-41.
Toledo, V.M. 2015. Ecocidio en México: la batalla final es por la vida. Barcelona: Grijalbo.
Toledo, V.M., D. Garrido and N. Barrera-Bassols. 2015. The struggle for life: socio environmental conflicts in Mexico. Latin American Perspectives 42(5): 133-147.
Urkidi, L. and Walter, M., 2011. Dimensions of environmental justice in anti-gold mining movements in Latin America. Geoforum 42(6): 683-695.
Vásquez, X.N.V. 2008. Wejën-Kajën. Las dimensiones del pensamiento y generación del pensamiento comunal. Mixe, Oaxaca: H. Ayuntamiento de Tlahuitoltepec.
Wilson, J. 2014. The violence of abstract space: contested regional developments in southern Mexico. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38(2): 516-538.
Wolfe, P. 2006. Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native. Journal of Genocide Research 8(4): 387-409.
Veltmeyer, H. and P. Bowles. 2014. Extractivist resistance: the case of the Enbridge oil pipeline project in northern British Columbia. The Extractive Industries and Society 1(1): 59-68.
Veltmeyer, H., J.F. Petras, V. Albuja and L. Chapple. 2014. The new extractivism: a post neoliberal development model or imperialism of the twenty-first century? London: Zed.
Yates, L. 2015. Rethinking prefiguration: alternatives, micropolitics and goals in social movements. Social Movement Studies 14(1): 1-21.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/v27i1.23237
Copyright (c) 2020 Alessandro Morosin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.