Jonathan Fox
Latin American and Latino Studies Dept.
UCSC
Indigenous Mexican Migrants:
Recognizing Ethnic Difference
Today is a national holiday in Mexico,
the birthday of Benito Juárez
(March 21, 1806 – July 18, 1872)
• He served five terms as president of Mexico (1858–1872).
Originally a lawyer and a judge, then governor of Oaxaca, he
was the first president of indigenous origin in the Americas
(Zapotec).
• In Mexican history, his legacy represents the rule of law, the
separation of church and state, resistance to dictatorship and
the French occupation of Mexico (that’s what the Cinco de
Mayo recalls…)
Benito Juárez’s most famous saying sums up the
principle of national self-determination:
Among individuals, as among nations, respect for
the rights of others means peace
Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones,
elrespeto al derecho ajeno es la paz
And Juárez was also a migrant…
While in exile during a corrupt military dictatorship,
Juárez spent two years working in the US, in a cigar
factory in New Orleans – where he is remembered with a
statue on the corner of Basin and Conti streets:
Mexican society is multi-ethnic:
El pueblo mexicano o muchos pueblos mexicanos?
• When the terms “multi-ethnic,” “multi-cultural” and “multiracial” are used to refer to Mexican migrants in the US, they
usually refer exclusively to relationships between Mexicans
and other national origin or racial groups.
• Yet Mexican society is itself multi-ethnic and multi-racial.
• From an indigenous rights perspective, the Mexican nation
includes many distinct peoples.
• More than one in ten Mexicans comes from a family in which
an indigenous language is spoken
• Mexico has the largest number of indigenous people in the
Americas, at least 10 million (depending on the criteria used)
The Mexican government defines ethnic
difference narrowly, in terms of language use
Distribution of Mexican indigenous language speakers
Languages with more than Share of
100,000 speakers reported total
1. Náhuatl
23.7%
State of origin in Mexico
2. Maya
3. Mixteco
13%
7.8%
Yucatan peninsula
Oaxaca, Guerrero, Puebla
4. Zapoteco
5. Tseltal
6. Tsotsil
7. Otomí (also known as
Hñañhu)
8. Totonaco
9. Mazateco
10. Ch’ol
11. Huasteco
12. Chinanteco
13. Mixe
14. Mazahua
15. Purépecha (also known
as Tarasco)
7.1%
6.4%
5.7%
4.2%
Oaxaca
Chiapas
Chiapas
Hidalgo, Querétaro, central Mexico
4.0%
3.6%
3.2%
2.6%
2.2%
2.0%
1.9%
1.8%
Puebla, Veracruz
Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz
Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco
San Luis Potosí, Veracruz
Oaxaca, Veracruz
Oaxaca
State of Mexico, Michoacán
Michoacán
Throughout central Mexico
Mexico's most acute poverty is concentrated
in indigenous regions:
Mexicans have migrated to the US in large
numbers since the early 20th century, but in
recent decades emigration became a fully
nationwide process
• In the 1980s, the Mexican government stopped
investing in the peasant economy, and since then outmigration to the US shifted from the “historic sending
regions” of the center-west of the country to become a
fully nation-wide process.
• Increasing numbers of migrants came from the cities
and the middle class, but migrants continue to be at
least half rural in origin.
Source: Jeffrey Passel, and Roberto Suro, “Rise, Peak, and Decline: Trends in U.S.
Immigration 1992-20014”, Pew Hispanic Center Report, September 27, 2005.
Exit vs. voice?
* In response to their lack of economic and political
alternatives, while some indigenous people chose exit,
others chose voice…
* In the early 1990s, Mexico's indigenous rights
movement took off, with the 500 year anniversary of
the European conquest.
* The history was contested: some called 1492 an
“encounter,” while others called it an “invasion…
Starting in 1994, the Zapatistas raised hopes
for indigenous peoples across Mexico…
• Few followed their path of a largely symbolic armed
struggle, but many took up the slogan “Never again a
Mexico without us”
• The Zapatistas combined a classic revolutionary look
with a very different discourse. For example: "The
grave conditions of our compatriots have a common
cause: the lack of liberty and democracy” (Jan 6,
1994)
• They showed the world that Mexico's indigenous
peoples were treated as second-class citizens, put the
recognition of indigenous rights on the national
agenda, and quickly won an official truce.
But national indigenous rights reforms stalled in 2001,
and "low-intensity conflict" persisted on the ground
Indigenous migration has also shifted from
regionally concentrated to nation-wide
• Indigenous Mexican migration originally came mainly from
Oaxaca (Zapotecos and Mixtecos) and Michoacan (Purepechas,
formerly known as Tarascans) – going back to the Bracero
program (1942-1964)
• In the 1980s and 1990s, migration then increased from Guerrero
(Mixtecos, Nahuas), Hidalgo (Hnahnus, also known as Otomis)
and the Yucatan (Mayans)
• More recently, migration has increased substantially from
Chiapas, which is now the number one state of origin, with 14%
of the total as of the most recent surveys of border-crossers (2008)
• More and more indigenous youth see migration in their future –
though still mainly temporary, coming to save enough to get
married and build a house, or open a small business back home
• Even Zapatista youth are starting to migrate…
• Other indigenous migrants: Guatemalans indigenous communities
are established in Florida, Houston and Los Angeles…
Using census data, people who identify both
as Latino and as indigenous can be
considered Latin American indigenous
migrants
Indigenous migrants also leave for political reasons,
as pro-democracy activists flee boss rule
Indigenous “collective identities” change in the
migration process
• Until perhaps three decades ago, many indigenous people
identified primarily with their community of origin
• As they move to work in northern Mexico or the US,
indigenous migrants tend to broaden their selfidentification to regional, ethnic, and pan-ethnic identities
– “scaling up” their sense of membership
• Indigenous migrant farmworker identities change both in
response to racism (including the racialization of their
work) and through political action by migrants themselves.
The Racialization of Farm Labor
Figure 3: Conceptual Diagram of
Hierarchies on the farm
THE PLACE OF THE ANTHROPOLOGIST
Source: Seth Holmes, “‘Oaxacans Like to Work Bent Over’ The Naturalization of
Social Suffering among Berry Farm Workers,” International Migration, 54(3)
2007.
What do the changes in the name of an indigenous
migrant organization tell us?
• One example: 1992 – Frente Mixteco-Zapoteco Binacional
(founded in Los Angeles - predecessor groups include Comité
Cívico Popular de San Miguel Tlacotepec and Organización
del Pueblo Explotado y Oprimido, Asociación Cívica “Benito
Juárez,” Organización Regional de Oaxaca)
• 1994 – Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional (FIOB)
with branches in California, Baja and the Mixteca region of
Oaxaca
• 2001 – Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales
(still FIOB, includes Purepechas and Mixtecos from
Guerrero)
• Plus, they have a US nonprofit sister organization: Binational
Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous
Communities (HQ in Fresno)
• What do they do? See www.fiob.org and
www.centrobinacional.org
FIOB’s asamblea binacional (2008) –
Key new slogan: El derecho de no migrar
(the right to stay home)
Glossary of keywords for indigenous migrants:
• Dialecto: Though literally this means “dialect,” a term that refers to a
variant of a language, in common everyday usage “dialecto” is often used
to refer to actual indigenous languages. The implication is that those who
use this term consider the language to have second-class status – it is less
than a “full language.”
• "Monolingue" in Mexico, refers to someone who speaks an indigenous
language but not Spanish.
• Monolingual," in contrast, in the US usually refers to someone who speaks
only English
• Paisano: Someone from the same home town (or region)
• Tequio: Community service work (unpaid, often carried out collectively)
• Pueblo: This word has a dual meaning, referring both to a village or town,
and to a people (as in an ethnic or national group).
• Usos y costumbres: Customary law. Since 1995, the state of Oaxaca has
recognized village self-governance through customary law, rather than
through conventional political party competition. This involves choosing
leaders and community decision-making through extensive deliberations in
regular public assemblies. Two or three decades ago, very few villages
allowed women full participation in these forms of local democracy, but
this has been changing.
La Guelaguetza: Traditional Oaxacan
festival of music and dance from different
regions, transplanted throughout California
Even Santa Cruz has a Guelaguetza…
For more information… (see full Spanish edition
online @ http://fiob.org/category/oaxacalifornia)