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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Confronting Dispossession: Indigenous Mobilization for Environmental Justice, Ethnic Politics, and Gender Relations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Alessandro M. Morosin June 2019 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Ellen Reese, Chair Dr. Christopher Chase-Dunn Dr. Alfredo Mirandé Dr. Randol Contreras Copyright by Alessandro M. Morosin 2019 The Dissertation of Alessandro M. Morosin is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This long project could not have been completed without the generosity and insight of countless people who helped me along the way. First and foremost, I would like to thank my family for believing in me. My mentors and committee members have stood by me throughout graduate school. I thank William Robinson for first getting me interested in how global capitalism is re-shaping Latin America. Thank you for also showing us how to defend academic freedom in dangerous times. Ellen Reese has been the best dissertation chair one could ask for. At every single step along the way, Dr. Reese has pushed me to clarify my thinking and situate this topic within multiple scholarly debates. Once this dissertation gets refined into future presentations, articles and a book, it will be largely thanks to the dedication Ellen has shown by editing and responding to multiple rough drafts of my writing. Ellen’s warm and generous style of mentoring reflects the social change that her life and career have been all about. Working with Christopher Chase-Dunn as soon as I arrived at UC Riverside has also been an honor and a pleasure. Always thinking outside of the box, Dr. Chase-Dunn has shown how one can use multiple research methods to study the long-term evolution of the world-system we’re enmeshed in, at the same time as we fight to overturn oppressive and outmoded social structures (to help bring about what he calls the “revolution of 20xx”). Chris, we will continue that conversation as we march together again! Thank you for prodding me to think about what this case might contribute to the iv study of global feminism(s), global indigenism, and the history of core-periphery relations in the Istmo. I have also been quite lucky to have Alfredo Mirandé as a committee member. His achievements are truly astounding, as is his refreshing humility and decency. Thanks to taking his seminar and reading the fascinating book he produced on gender in Juchitán, Oaxaca, I was in a much better position to undertake this research. After I move on from UCR, I will miss seeing Dr. Mirandé and hope to continue working with him in some capacity. Randol Contreras joined my dissertation committee in spring of 2019, and he has been a wonderful addition. I’m quite fortunate to have crossed paths with someone whose urban ethnography scholarship is so fascinating. As he was taking a break during one of his own field research days, we sat down for Mexican food in East Los Angeles to begin discussing this dissertation. Randol provided meaningful, supportive feedback from the beginning. I thank the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC Mexus) for funding my pre-dissertation research with a UC Mexus Predoctoral Grant (award # ST 15/03-03). I greatly appreciate Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) Pacifico Sur for hosting me as a tesista huesped (guest student researcher) in the winter of 2017. Dr. David Brady and everyone at the Blum Initiative on Global and Regional Poverty Studies made my earthquake fieldwork possible with a Collaborative Research Grant during 2017-2018. George v Ciccariello-Maher was also gracious in helping with the Spanish translation of this dissertation’s abstract. I was so fortunate to recruit some very talented undergraduate students to assist with transcription (and some translation) of interviews. In no particular order, these were Evelyn Gámez, Carlos Magin, Kimberly Soto Banuelos, Emila Filippini, Andrew Jones, Deanna Zamora, and Ana Zavala. Gracias to all of you! I also wish to acknowledge the great feedback on one chapter of this dissertation offered by Cynthia Carr, Julisa McCoy, Quinn Bloom, Evelyn Pruneda, and James Hein. In Mexico, I am in awe of how many wonderful people I met along the way at various stages of this project. For hosting me throughout months of research, including during my very first field visit, I must first thank Doña Lupita and Miguel Angel. Dr. Paola María Sesia has been an incredible guide to the complex geography and social layout of Oaxaca. She helped me puzzle through some of the most difficult issues early on in the fieldwork, including by influencing the selection of sites and research questions. Guillermo and Paola of Ojo de Agua were also amazing hosts. I thank everyone I interviewed and met with for opening my eyes and for fighting for our futures. Many of your testimonies are so articulate and gripping, I feel as though they could be converted into books and articles in and of themselves. Thank you for sharing your life histories with me. I will do my utmost best to make sure they reach a wide audience, and this dissertation is just the beginning of that process. Kiado and Gildardo at SURCO helped introduce me to people I would later recruit as participants in the project. The same goes for Servicios al Pueblo Mixe, plus Jose Pablo and his father vi Severiano. Jose, I am coming for more mezcal! Jorge Tripp: I couldn’t have found my way around Juchitán without you! It was amazing to stay with you in your apartment discussing our theses while discussing music and politics—first in Juchitán and later with your family in Mexico City. “El Pescador” and Daniel Cirilo always referred to me as hermano and compañero. Their generosity and continuous communication with me must be recognized. I thank the compas at Radio Totopo (particularly Pedro and his family) for letting me stay with them in Juchitán’s 7th Ward, even after they were dealing with the devastation of the earthquake. The same goes for Felipe, who agreed to let me stay at CECACI in Zanatepec. I very much enjoyed staying with the Lopez Arenas family, and driving to San Miguel with Amelia—these are friends I am so fortunate to have. I thank anonymous comrades in the Mixteca for meeting with me and letting me be a part of internationalist meetings to denounce the Trump-Pence regime’s election, and later, to celebrate international women’s day. I thank Ruben for meeting with me multiple times and educating me about the history and current realities of Ixtepec. Thank you to Carlos Lucio and Carlos Manzo. Thank you to Araceli for our talks in (and about) Juchitán. Manuel, Kiro, Edith and everyone at Preparatoria Jose Marti—gracias for letting me be a part of your school for a brief of time—for introducing me to comunalidad throughout numerous fiestas and velas. The Istmo needs you: take care of yourselves and be safe, siempre! To the folks at Avispa Midia, thank you for the meetings/seminars and keep up the great work. vii My heart goes out to Obdulio, Angeles, Jesus, and Coli for playing music with me, and inviting me to perform with you, at cultural programs and noches de bohemia in Ixtepec, Ixhuatán, and Zanatepec. Josefa, please give my best to your family in San Miguel Chimalapa and thank you for letting me stay in the room which was formerly occupied by the Chilean student who left his belongings behind after he overstayed his visa. It is incredible how so many perfect strangers in Oaxaca can provide such hospitality, nourishment, intellectual engagement, and fun while taking in foreign researchers. I will also state it here that I will work to help bring any of the colleagues, friends and contacts I made in Oaxaca to the U.S. whenever they ask. A mi linda compañera Paulina: you have made my life so much more magical. Continue on your journey and I’ll see you at the next fiestas before we head to la sierra and la costa. I am eternally grateful to you and your family for taking me into your lives in Ixhuatán. viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Confronting Dispossession: Indigenous Mobilization for Environmental Justice, Ethnic Politics, and Gender Relations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec by Alessandro M. Morosin Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Sociology University of California, Riverside, June 2019 Dr. Ellen Reese, Chair This dissertation provides a case study of how rural and indigenous social movements in the Mexican state of Oaxaca launch contentious claims to defend their territories from mining and other resource extraction projects associated with global capitalism. Utilizing participant observation, ethnographic field work, and in-depth interviews with 53 community members across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region (El Istmo), I examine how indigenous cultures and local political traditions are expressed in the regional mobilization against the Isthmus Special Economic Zone. The first empirical chapter centers on understanding what motivates collective action in defense of territory, despite risks of repression. It finds that activists’ strategies and discourses build upon pre-existing oppositional cultures. I discuss how comunalidad and Guendaliza’a—ways of life based on mutual aid and territorial sovereignty—have influenced a broad-based movement to prevent communal lands from being leased to open-pit mines. In this way, contra Swidler (1986), “unsettled social periods” can lead to cultural continuity and cultural revindication for suppressed cultures within a society, depending on the role of social movements embedded in these communities.

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