Indigenous Organizations in Chiapas, Mexico[1] by Gabriela Vargas-Cetina

Postcolonial Sites and Markets: Indigenous Organizations in Chiapas, Mexico[1] by Gabriela Vargas-Cetina

Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán

ABSTRACT Soon, a minor constellation of indigenous cooperatives had sprung across the Chiapas jungle. This article discusses different forms of This woman does not charge for her services as misrecognition regarding indigenous people in the organizations’ consultant; her only income Chiapas. It is based on the author’s extensive comes from the sales of crafts she makes, which fieldwork with Chiapas organizations between she markets along with the crafts produced by 1995 and 1999, and questions the idea that the indigenous people in the cooperatives, mak- postcolonials’ participation in the geography (the ing them pass for indigenous products. writing of the world) could transform current power structures. Indigenous organizations have Why do people from many countries want to adjust their everyday operations to those per- to work for free for indigenous people in Chiapas? ceptions from which indigenous people are ‘oth- Why do the indigenous communities accept this ers’ who live in a realm different from non-indig- type of help? And, why is it so difficult for a non- enous everyday life. The paper calls attention to indigenous person to sell crafts, while it is so the ways in which misrecognition affects the much easier for those people seen as indig- markets and the long-term viability of indigenous enous? Is the crafts market the only specialty organizations in Chiapas. market indigenous people have an advantage in? Could an indigenous organization sell, say, elec- INTRODUCTION trical appliances, directing them to the “indigenous” niche markets? These questions seem In 1997 a woman from San Cristobal de las not to make much sense, because we already Casas began a project to promote the creation “know” the answers. However, the very fact that of cooperatives and collectives in the municipali- we have “natural” answers for them should make ties of Las Margaritas and Altamirano, in the state us stop and think hard about our preconceived of Chiapas. These two municipalities are part of notions of “indigenous peoples” and their place the region where the Ejército Zapatista de in the contemporary world. This paper, based on Liberación (EZLN) has its widest base among the six years of research in Chiapas, between 1995 indigenous population. To get her project going, and 1999, reflects on issues concerning indig- this woman sought funds from the Chiapas gov- enousness, the publicly imagined Chiapas, and ernment and from international foundations. the market as they affect actual indigenous or-

68 Gabriela Vargas-Cetina ganizations in that state of Mexico. Here I argue Most Indians, however, did not speak the national that there are multiple misperceptions of who or language and did not know their rights before what indigenous people are, and these national Courts and Tribunals. Even so, they were misperceptions, in turn, increasingly affect the transformed into “farmers” and “peasants,” along everyday operations of indigenous organizations with non-Indian rural producers (Ferrer Muñoz, in Chiapas. 1999-2000).

Gayatri Spivak (1999: 30) says that the In 1915 a Decree emitted by the Govern- only way postcolonials are ever going to stand ment of President Venustiano Carranza restored on equal footing with those from colonial nations to indigenous communities the lands that had is through their participation in the geo-graphy, been expropriated from them (Zaragoza and the writing of the world. I want to speak to this Macías, 1980: 99). The notion of ejido, the way notion, and suggest that having the possibility of in which the Spanish friars had named the com- writing the world is not enough in itself. The con- munal lands of some Indian groups in central ditions of that —or any— writing continue to be Mexico, was often used to encompass the Indian colonial environments and colonized relation- communities’ landholdings in the entire country. ships. The case of indigenous organizations in It would not be until the 1920s that the govern- Chiapas is paradigmatic in this respect, as they ments, emerging from the Mexican Revolution of have both limitations and advantages when en- 1910 to 1925, would recognize Indian communi- tering the national and international markets, pre- ties’ rights over the ejido lands to which they had cisely because of their subordinate position in become entitled in the Constitution of 1917 contemporary Mexican society. (Zaragoza and Macías, 1980: 147-153). By then, however, Indian communities were considered As the mythical legend goes, Christopher rural communities, different from others only in Columbus arrived in the beaches of what we now that their inhabitants spoke languages other than call the Americas believing he had reached Asia. Spanish and were more exotic than other rural Because of this confusion, the people living there people. If the ejido was a way to give Indian com- came to be called Indians. Subsequent explora- munities control over their lands, it was also a tions and discoveries led to the realization, which way to erase them conceptually as Indians and Columbus apparently never quite accepted transform them into peasants. (O’Gorman, 1993[1958]), that these lands were previously unknown to European geographers When it comes to contemporary indig- and to the public at large. The logical conclusion enous people, we Mexicans engage in different should have been that the people the Spaniards forms of misrecognition. Relations between Mexi- had found were not Indians at all. However, cen- cans and Mexico’s native others seldom, if ever, turies of Colonial rule did not eliminate the noun manages to breach colonialism, as I explain be- Indian as a description of the original inhabitants low. Furthermore, the forms of colonial and those considered their descendants. misrecognition, take on similar implications beyond Mexican borders. This is partly so because Under Colonial laws Indians were wards Mexican Spanish-speakers generally see our- of the Church and the Spanish Crown. Between selves as part of “Western culture.” Non-indig- 1810 and 1820 the troops of the Royalist and the enous Mexicans, most of whom live in cities, Independentist army, both of which included Indi- speak a language that came from Spain and prac- ans in their rank and file, fought over what today tice religions from Ancient Rome (Roman Catholi- is the country of Mexico (Arrangoiz y Berzabal, cism), Germany (Protestantism), and the United 1974[1871]; Ferrer Muñoz, 1999-2000). After States (Church of the Latter-day Saints). They 1825, Republican laws, modeled after the French also attend schools and settle disputes through legal system, put the Indians on equal legal foot systems of education and law first implemented with the rest of Mexicans (Ferrer Muñoz, 1998). in France. As John Womack Jr. (1998) points

© : Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science Vol 1 (3) 2001 out, Americans fantasize about Mexico, thinking and the San Cristobal Diocese organized an in- that it is an exotic place, and most of its citizens digenous Congress. Current leaders of indig- are indigenous people. However, neither of these enous organizations say that this Congress two fantasies is tenable; 71% of Mexicans live in brought Chol, Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Tojolabla speak- cities, speak Spanish as their first language, and ers together for the first time, not in their usual the philosophical bases of non-indigenous Mexi- role of peasants but as representatives and car- can’s outlook on life are not so different from those riers of distinctive cultures and valuable lan- underlying the thinking of Europeans or of other guages. Many indigenous organizations sprung urban inhabitants of the Americas. The colonialist up after the Congress. These included a new relationships established between most of Mexico branch of the Central Independiente de Obreros and the country’s indigenous peoples is, in fact, Indígenas y Campesinos (CIOAC), Alianza part of the wider colonial relations between an Campesina 10 de Abril, Bloque Campesino de imagined “West” and the imagined “indigenous Chiapas, Unión de Uniones, Tierra y Libertad, peoples” of the Americas. Quiptik Ta Lecubetsel, Unión de Trabajadores Agrícolas y Campesinos, and the crafts market Here I write as a concerned Mexican an- which later developed into the Crafters’ Coopera- thropologist, who sometimes catches herself tive Sna Jolobil (Alvarez Icaza, 1998; Gutiérrez moving within the conceptual categories born out Sánchez, 1998; Kovic, 1995, Vargas-Cetina, in of the kinds of misrecognition I am trying to de- press, Womack Jr., 1998). A member of ARIC- scribe here. My own interest in the colonial vi- Unión de Uniones describes the organizational sions and modalities under which the geo-graphy impetus generated by this Congress in the fol- of the world affects indigenous peoples stems lowing way: from my work with indigenous weavers’ organizations in Chiapas. These organizations have to “We had an indigenous Congress in 1974 of a thousand market their products in the national and interna- representatives. We discussed four themes and agreed that the tional markets with specific specialty niches in most important one was land tenure. Then, we were all separate mind. These niche markets are open to them individuals, so we formed this organization since 1974.”[2] precisely because of the producers’ self-repre- (Vargas-Cetina, fieldnotes 1997) sentation as “indigenous persons.” Right now, this niche may seem relatively advantageous for This was the first indigenous Congress to take these producers; however, in the long run it only place in Chiapas. Since 1964, a group of techni- perpetuates the same colonial relations now cians known as promotores bilingües (bilingual questioned worldwide by indigenous movements, promoters) had been busy among native speak- including the Zapatista indigenous movement in ers of languages other than Spanish explaining Chiapas. that the noun “Indian” should be replaced with the adjective “indigenous.” Nouns name things and In the remainder of this paper I describe people. Adjectives name the qualities of things indigenous organizations in Chiapas and their and people. This change from one to the other current ways to deal with international markets. was driven by the ideas of a group of intellectu- After this I explore some common forms of als, most of them anthropologists, known as the misrecognition of indigenous people and discuss Indigenistas. They worked with the Mexican gov- the effect of these on indigenous organizations. ernment through the Institute for the Attention of indigenous People (Instituto Nacional Indigenista, INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN generally known as INI), and their intention was CHIAPAS to let Indians keep only those aspects of indigenous culture that would not prevent them from 1974 is generally considered the take-off becoming modern citizens. INI was created by year for indigenous organization in Chiapas. It Presidential Decree in 1948 and opened its first was then that the state government of Chiapas Coordination Center in the Highlands of Chiapas,

70 Gabriela Vargas-Cetina in San Cristobal de las Casas, in 1952. “Indians” position of the country, the production, exhibit, and had become somewhat of a bad word, but it was marketing of indigenous crafts was promoted obvious that there were people who were differ- nationwide(see Instituto Nacional Indigenista ent from mainstream Spanish speaking Mexicans. 2001). Indigenousness was not ignored any The Indigenistas thought that they should be driven more and it began to be seen as something that to progress, along with the rest of Mexico. Spe- characterized some people, but should not get in cial programs and extension projects were di- the way of the modernization of the countryside. rected to the rural communities where Spanish was not the first language at home. The Following this new cultural thrust, the or- Indigenistas first thought was that indigenous lan- ganizations formed after the 1974 indigenous Con- guages would have to be suppressed in favor of gress took on names reflecting more a peasant Spanish. Craft production was one of the “good than an Indian composition sometimes using in- elements” of Indian cultures that should be pre- digenous languages. Since the ejido system of served, because of the beauty and the function- collective land ownership regulated the conditions ality that characterized indigenous clothing under which most agriculturists accessed land, and household items. The official policy of indig- many organizations came to have the words enous language suppression lasted until 1958 asociación ejidal (ejido association) as part of their when, after years of protest by indigenous com- names. Indigenous craft producers organized munities and by urban intellectuals, the Institute themselves into a tianguis de artesanos (crafters’ included language among the “good elements” bazaar), which would later develop into other or- of indigenous culture. ganizations including the weavers’ cooperative Sna Jolobil. As the noun began to be dropped in favor of the adjective, indigenousness was expected Chiapas has been the laboratory of im- to become a quality that one could adopt or drop portant cultural projects aimed at transforming at will. Given that Indians were to be turned into indigenous people’s lives. Since the 1950s, when real Mexicans, according to the Indigenista intel- INI opened its first Centro Coordinador (Coordi- ligentsia, they could leave their indigenousness nation Center) in the Highlands of Chiapas, na- behind to take on qualities that would put them in tional and international agencies have funded other social groups if they so wanted. In the many types of projects. In the 1970s UNESCO, 1970s indigenous languages and cultures be- OMS, UNICEF, and FAO funded the Socioeco- came more important in the minds of the anthro- nomic Development Program for the Chiapas pologists and extension agents at INI, since the Highlands (COPRODESCH) that targeted indig- President in turn, Luis Echeverría Alvarez, and enous populations in order to help them raise their his wife, María Esther Zuno, loved indigenous art. living standards, make better use of their own Language labs with individual tape recorders and natural resources, and put them on par with all headphones were set up in most INI facilities Mexicans on their way to national development throughout the country, so that INI extension work- (Villafuerte Solís and García Aguilar, 1994: 93). ers could learn local indigenous languages. Also, Indigenous organizations spurred by the 1974 indigenous teachers were encouraged to regis- indigenous Congress in San Cristóbal put these ter local customs of indigenous people including funds to good use in a series of local programs, medicine, agricultural practices, languages, mu- one of which I consider exemplary because it sic, dances and local knowledge of animals and brought schools to remote locations and strength- plants. The government also promoted the crea- ened regional indigenous identity. This was the tion of regional dance academies, to take to other Programa de Educación Integral para parts of Mexico and the world stylized versions Campesinos de la Selva Lacandona of local dress and dances, which so far were (PEICASEL), run by the organization known as found mainly in indigenous communities. As part ARIC-Unión de Uniones in the Selva region of of the new recognition of the multicultural com- Chiapas, between 1989 and 1998.

Through PEICASEL, created in 1989 with Representantes Indigenas de los Altos de funds from UNESCO and the Mexican Ministry of Chiapas (CRIACH) is an organization that was Education (SEP), local young men and women started out in order to negotiate the return of the from indigenous communities were prepared as expelled protestants to their original communi- community teachers. 60 indigenous communities. Today the indigenous protestants and other ties, members of AIRC-Unión de Uniones, par- Indians living in urban settings have realized that ticipated in PEICASEL. The objectives of the pro- their lives are now more urban than rural (Aramoni gram were to prepare local young men and and Morquecho, 1998). CRIACH is no longer in- women to teach at schools in their own commu- tent on regaining spaces in the countryside, but nities. SEP was in charge of the continuous edu- rather in securing them in the city. Local grocery cation of the teachers, with seminars taught in markets and transport are two areas where ur- communities of the Selva region and in Tuxtla, ban indigenous people compete against non-In- the Capital of Chiapas. All students were expected dians, with help from CRIACH and other new ur- to finish elementary school and then teach other ban indigenous organizations. Many ladinos, the kids in turn. They were expected to offer ideas non-indigenous inhabitants of Chiapas, are still and proposals for the creation of high schools in trying to come to terms with the fact that Indians, the region. The program also involved elders from whom they consider filthy and uncouth, are tak- the different communities who taught children ing over their town (Gutiérrez y Gutiérrez, 1996; local beliefs and knowledge about plants and ani- Zulca, 1996). mals, agriculture, and their own worldview in indigenous languages (mainly Tzeltal and Tojolabal). The 1994 Zapatista rebellion put Chiapas, Between 1994 and 1997, 150 local teachers were and especially the indigenous people of the state, part of the program covering 62 communities. in the international news and information serv- (Vargas-Cetina, fieldnotes 1997, see also Vargas- ices including the world wide web. After the up- Cetina, 1998) rising Chiapas indigenous people have started to disappear behind different forms of misrepresen- The Ministry of Popular Cultures tation obscuring the fact that they are human be- (FONART) opened a craft collection post and ings. These misrepresentations prevent them store in San Cristóbal de las Casas in 1974 (Mor- from entering a dialogue with the rest of society ris, 1996), which in turn resulted in a new wave where they can be recognized as valid commu- of indigenous organizations as crafters’ coopera- nicative subjects. Although indigenous organi- tives formed to sell their products to the store. zations are engaged in the re-definition of indig- INI set up an indigenous radio station in the 1980s. enousness and its place in the world, the public Political activists from other regions of Mexico and discourse around them is shaped by existing from abroad came to Chiapas to support first the political forces and positions. Because of this, indigenous Congress and later the new rural or- indigenous people become hidden behind visions ganizations (Gutiérrez Sánchez, 1998). The of otherness and difference denying them boom of indigenous organizations that took place agency. in Chiapas after 1974 touches all aspects of economic and political life (see Carrasco and THE AVATARS OF MISRECOGNITION: Nahmad, eds., 1999 and Sociedad de los INDIGENOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN Trabajadores Agrícolas de los Altos de Chiapas THE MARKET A.C., 1998). Anthropological research has repeatedly pointed While the wave of organization swept the at the ways in which indigenous people are mis- Chiapas countryside, problems of different kinds treated by ladinos in San Cristobal and other began to beset the indigenous communities in- Ladino settlements in Chiapas. Recent literature cluding the eviction of protestants in the munici- on the Chiapas conflict has only made ladinos pality of Chamula. The Consejo de more odious to the eyes of the national and inter-

72 Gabriela Vargas-Cetina national public. This constant representation of starvation and total desperation.” ladinos as fundamentally mean, ill-spirited people who seem to make a sport out of beating in- These are two examples, both taken from digenous people has become a constant in me- one of the many authors who write about Chiapas, dia representations of Chiapas. For instance, of the misunderstanding implied in an intrinsic op- Sergio Zermeño (1998, pgs.12-13), an intellec- position in the relations between indigenous peo- tual from the center of Mexico, tells of how after ple and ladinos. By this representation, indig- the Zapatista uprising in January of 1994 groups enous people in Chiapas are always good and of Coletos, as the inhabitants of San Cristóbal Ladino are always bad Conversely, the attitude call themselves, marched together on the streets. adopted by Coletos por la Paz would contradict Zermeño writes (pgs. 12-13): the image of the inherently bad ladinos. It is true that many of the new rebel municipalities, in “This has put on one and the same side the Mexican Army, the Ocosingo and Las Margaritas, have appropriated federal and state governments, Televisa, the landed caciques, the small ranch lands owned by ladinos, and the ex- CNC, the CTM, Coleto society and the ladinaje [a pejorative pelled ranchers are more than happy to see the form to refer to the non-Indians] . . . on the other side we have the police acting against these self-declared autono- Zapatista Army, the great indigenous masses, the battered mous land units. However, there are Coletos and independent indigenous and peasant organizations, the Catholic other ladinos who do not agree with the violent hierarchy, the local parishes, the NGOs, the independent human dismantling of the autonomous municipalities. On rights organizations, etcetera.” the other hand, those of us who work or have worked in Chiapas are aware that the militias, What most people have not heard about is that known as paramilitary groups, are made up of during this time another group, who called them- indigenous youths who yield weapons and use selves Coletos por la Paz, formed to help in the them in some cases to terrorize the local popu- efforts to understand the conflict. This group was lation and murder their neighbors; they also mur- spearheaded by local hotel entrepreneurs and by der ladinos, depending on the circumstances. the Organización de Barrios de San Cristobal The Acteal massacre of 1998 was carried out by (BACOSAN), an organization comprised of indigenous people, apparently from one of these ladinos living in the different barrios (quarters) of para-military groups (Garza Caligaris and the city. They met with researchers from several Hernández Castillo, 1998). See also Frente of the local research centers. They wanted to Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, 2001). The first help ease the unrest we were all experiencing and probably most damaging forms of then, and find peaceful solutions to the armed misrecognition of indigenous people is to attribute conflict. to them qualities of goodness and good will that seem to transcend human limits. Zermeño also wrote: Through this rhetorical transformation, “. . . , Mexicans and foreign observers have been shocked by the which takes away their humanness to transform massacres and the dismantling of the so-called Autonomous them into quintessential representatives of the Zapatista Municipalities (Acteal, Chenalhó, Tierra y Libertad, good, they are always assumed to be the patient Taniperla, etc.). Amazingly, the full force of the National and pawns and victims of others and agency is dis- State governments seem to be engaged in a crusade where the cursively removed from them. It is because of army, the federal and state police corps and the paramilitary this very misrecognition of indigenous people as armies massacre a population made out mainly of indigenous, agents and participants in their own lives that extremely poor people who made the mistake to call themselves when the Zapatistas rose against the government autonomous. These people sympathize with the Zapatistas and in 1994, most analysts began looking for the non- try, in this way, to recover control over their own subsistence means indigenous instigators of the movement thinking and their cultural and political authorities. They are trying to that indigenous people could not organize and build some form of collective identity in a social situation close to express themselves. The sudden popularity of

Subcomandante Marcos, who was the most vis- through non-indigenous NGOs working in indig- ible non-indigenous member of the Zapatistas, enous communities. Through my involvement in only pushed further into public invisibility the in- an organization of indigenous teachers from dif- digenous members of the Zapatista army. Other ferent regions of Chiapas, I learned that unless forms of misrecognition follow from this one, the research center I worked for, or unless some which stands as the backdrop curtain to the rest. other “respectable” institution was willing to run education programs aimed at indigenous com- Another common form of misrecognition munities, no funding would be provided to the or- of indigenous people in Chiapas is the idea that ganization itself. Furthermore, the fact that there they have to be constantly protected by the non- were open internal conflicts within this organiza- indigenous from other parts of Mexico and the tion made them less reliable in the eyes of possi- world, because they do not really know how to ble funding agencies. This all happened while defend themselves or how to market their prod- several non-indigenous organizations in Chiapas ucts. Unfortunately, the unequal power structure were receiving funding while they experienced in the Highlands of Chiapas dates from several violent internal strife, which in one case even re- centuries now and the ladino have always be- sulted in arson and the kidnapping of the organi- lieved that they are superior in intellect and prac- zation’s accountant by members of the same tical thinking to indigenous people. Many indig- organization. In-fighting among indigenous teach- enous people, in turn, have internalized this view ers and among different factions in crafts coop- of their own subordination. In recent years indig- eratives was taken as a sign of something hav- enous people of Chiapas have been protected ing gone wrong, while in non-indigenous organi- by the Catholic Church, the national government zations factionalism was often seen as a normal and INI, to name some of their most prominent thing resulting from only-too-human competition. institutional protectors. It is also frequent that in- So, indigenous people are seen as easily deceived digenous children enter a relationship known in by non-indigenous persons, and this is why they San Cristóbal as “Crianzas,” whereby they are have to be treated like children in need of protec- raised by Coleto families as semi-adoptees. This tion and guidance from non-indigenous persons. makes many indigenous people accept the “help” of non-indigenous persons, help they will never Another common form of misrecognition be able to reciprocate (see Gómez Jiménez, of indigenous people is the idea that they all have 2001).[3] a privileged relationship with nature, beyond what any non-indigenous person could have. In the Many cooperatives, including those I men- nineteenth century people thought that we could tioned at the beginning of this paper, are man- all be put on a racial scale, from inferior to supe- aged by non-indigenous advisors who work as rior. The inferior races, it was thought, were volunteers for years without pre-established sala- closer to nature than the superior ones. As June ries or compensation. Besides, many indigenous Nash and Ronald Nigh posed, at the 1999 meet- organizations in Chiapas are now directing their ings of the American Anthropological Association, products to the “solidarity markets”, where they many indigenous people of Chiapas have a very sell not because of the quality of the items but sophisticated knowledge of their natural environs. because of the general sympathy toward indig- These statements stem from these researchers’ enous people. I believe that the solidarity market many years of work in the Chiapas countryside. is very dangerous for the long-term viability of However, popular literature, including magazines those indigenous organizations producing mainly aimed at tourists and international volunteers, for the national and international markets. suggest that this detailed knowledge comes from the indigenous people’s intrinsic qualities rather Also, national and international agencies than from their everyday life and agricultural prac- are reluctant to give monies directly to indigenous tices. organizations, and prefer to channel the funds

74 Gabriela Vargas-Cetina

In my experience as a fieldworker I have digenous organizations are not expected to un- come to understand that most agrarian societies dertake tasks that remove them from their “privi- have a highly sophisticated knowledge of the en- leged” contact with nature, lest they lose their right vironment everywhere. In fact, as Netting (1993) to portray themselves as “true” representatives has shown in his renowned work on smallhold- of their indigenous cultures. ers these tend to have a more accurate knowledge of nature than, say, plantation workers or One last form of misrecognition that I farmers who practice small-scale industrial agri- would like to examine here is the idea that indig- culture. In Chiapas, organizations producing or- enous societies live in harmony with themselves ganic coffee and some craft cooperatives such and others. This idea is often championed by as Sna Jolobil, Jolom Mayaetik and Jpas Mexican intellectuals. For example, Gustavo Joloviletik are taking advantage of this collective Esteva, a highly public intellectual figure in Mexico, representation built around indigenous peoples has posed, in various fora attended by this au- as natural ecologists. The crafts cooperatives thor, that if the indigenous people of Chiapas were promote among their members the use of natu- left alone to solve their own problems and run ral dyes, instead of synthetic colors, for coloring their own businesses without the interference of textiles. Among indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexican laws and authorities, they would stop however, the colors of choice continue to be syn- having internal problems altogether. This is a thetic ones, which are vivid and resist washing rather extreme formulation of a common idea, longer. It is interesting that tourists like the more which is untenable. “natural” products while the locals like the bright, acrylic colors. Tourists trying to buy “authentic” I conducted field research among indig- items are buying, in terms of Baudrillard enous communities of the northern Selva region (1994[1981]), a simulacrum of the authentic, con- for a year, in 1999. After this fieldwork and the sciously produced by the locals as they cater to transcription of over 200 hours of interviews, I their own images as perceived outside. Besides, found (corroborating previous findings by Gemma the eco-tourism market of Chiapas (which is very Van der Haar and Shannan Mattiace among different to other eco-tourism markets, such as Tojolabal speakers, personal communication) that the Italian one where visitors work in exchange communities of Chol and Tzeltal speakers in that for food and shelter) is developing precisely on area are virtually autonomous from Mexican the basis of this representation of indigenous Courts and Tribunals. Local Justices, elders people as natural ecologists. known as Principales and General Assemblies, administer justice in hundreds of indigenous com- While there are some commercial advan- munities without recourse to the national legal tages to this public image of indigenous people system. National Courts would rather have in- having a “natural” relationship with the environ- digenous communities settle their own problems, ment, this vision also precludes the perception and thus rarely accept to take on cases regard- of these people as coeval (Fabian, 1983) with the ing conflicts in those communities. This, how- rest of people in the world. During my involve- ever, does not mean that these communities live ment of several years in an indigenous photo ar- in total harmony, since conflicts are permanent chive in Chiapas, I often heard people say in and often deadly. amazement: “Look at these pictures! These indigenous women are working at computers! They Entire families are evicted as a result of went straight from the stone age to the computer internal conflicts. Conflicts do not necessarily age, without having to pass through the interme- end when someone has been punished, but con- diate stages!” I grant that these were not schol- tinue between the families and individuals origi- ars, but the pressure these public misrecognition nally implicated and violence can spark at any puts on academia and on indigenous people moment. A quick look at the Chiapas regional themselves should not be underestimated. In- newspaper Cuarto Poder or at the national paper

La Jornada reveals how mistaken the idea of in- their marketing platform will have a hard time digenous harmony as a natural state is. In the when their municipalities become autonomous if meantime, no one expects non-indigenous peo- their internal divisions become apparent. In non- ple to live in complete harmony among ourselves. indigenous communities no one is expected to agree automatically with what “the community” Indigenous people in Chiapas are no bet- dictates, but the extreme alterization of indigenous ter or worse than others elsewhere in the rural people has resulted in the unwarranted expecta- societies of Mexico, Europe or Asia. They are tion that individual motives of indigenous persons not interested in behaving in ways that please non- are suppressed in favor of the will of the majority. indigenous Mexicans or Europeans, but in ways Indigenous people, as others, are part and par- that serve their own interests. Although they see cel of existing power structures and their rhetori- themselves as part of larger collectives, they try cal separation from other segments of Mexican to improve their lives in ways they know, even if society can only obscure this fact. this implies some form of violence. In my experience, equality among all in indigenous commu- A question I asked at the beginning of this nities is not always the central preoccupation, and article could give us an idea as to the limits of this is particularly true regarding the situation of imagined indigenousness: What would happen if women. Indigenous women –and most of the indigenous organizations from Chiapas decided members of crafters’ organizations are women- to manufacture and sell home electric appli- are frequently dispossessed of their lands and ances? If that were the case, What markets their property. As it is the case in many non-in- would they direct them to? Would they direct digenous societies, they are physically assaulted them to people who thought of indigenous peo- by their husbands and relatives for very petty rea- ple as oppressed, or to those who think they are sons, and are expected to suffer in silence. natural ecologists, or to consumers who believe that indigenous people are always good and live It is true that intra-family violence exists in harmony among themselves and their everywhere, but what is not true is that in indig- neighbors? Home appliances are, in the collec- enous societies of Chiapas it happens less often tive imagination, symbols of modernity, capital- than elsewhere. And yet, the rhetoric about the ism and the opposite from nature and tradition. autonomous municipalities leaves aside the im- In recent years they have become a symbol of plications of caciquismo [political bossism], des- the damage humanity is inflicting on our planet. potism and intra-family violence that could hap- Indigenous people, being perceived as fundamen- pen in this type of municipalities. Anthropologists tally good and passive, probably would not re- have extensively documented factionalism ceived needed credits and financial help from around the world, especially in agrarian socie- donor agencies unless they were clearly organ- ties. Why should indigenous people be non-hu- ized by a non-indigenous think tank to produce man in this respect? I for one am not against the environmentally-friendly items. Otherwise, since formation of autonomous municipalities, per se. indigenous people are perceived as in close com- But, being familiar with autonomous regions in munion with nature, their objectives would be other parts of the world, such as Sardinia in Italy highly questioned on the basis of the damage their and the Prairie Indian Reserves in Canada, I have products would inflict on nature. Also, given that found that the legalization of regional autonomy they are not expected to quarrel among them- does not automatically transform regional rela- selves, indigenous people would seem unsuited tions into relations of equality or equity. Further- for the “modern” forms of organization involving more, political autonomy does not challenge in personal performance, efficiency, and interper- itself existing colonial relations. Those organiza- sonal competition. tions relying on the perceived injustice of the lack of indigenous autonomy and the victimization of What would it take for us to understand indigenous communities by the government as that indigenous people are no better and no worse

76 Gabriela Vargas-Cetina than other people? Why do we expect that of the Dead. Problems stemming from envy and Chiapas indigenous organizations will only en- conflicts of all kinds are constantly faced by the gage in those activities that do not contradict the members of the cooperative. These are dis- certainty of indigenous people’s alterity? What is cussed in their General Assembly and in smaller needed to take indigenous organizations out of groups, but they are not always solved to every- the realm of myth and into the context of other, one’s satisfaction. Maybe it is these types of prob- regular, organizations? I do not have ready an- lems that will eventually result in the cooperative swers for these pressing questions. However, it breaking apart. Still, the cooperative has survived is clear to me that part of the problems Indians since 1982 to date, providing its members with communities and in particular Indian organiza- an income that helps them support their families. tions face have to do with forms of misrecognition I believe that this type of self-driven organization such as the ones I have outlined above. Per- is a good example of what indigenous organiza- sons who have been labeled as “indigenous” dis- tions can be in Chiapas. appear behind all these representations that very often obscure who they really are, how they re- The women in this organization do not try ally live and what are their actual thoughts and to portray themselves as intrinsically good, as dreams. Indian organizations in Chiapas are needing others to help them run their organiza- activelly engaged in the geo-graphy, the writing if tion, as natural ecologists or as people who live the world. The contents of their writing, however, in harmony among themselves and with all oth- continue to be influenced and censured by dis- ers. They go about their business without help torted perceptions of “the Indian” and indigenous from outside agencies. These women do not societies. Indigenous people are the ones who speak Spanish, and show no particular desire to will have to find adequate responses to these is- learn it. In order to enter a dialogue with them, sues, maybe with help from others but not nec- one has to find adequate tools, in the form of learn- essarily so. However, before closing this article, ing how to speak Tzeltal or hiring a translator. I want to turn to an indigenous organization that They have no intention of conforming to others’ questions public discourse around indigenous ideas about what they or their organization ought people and indigenousness, or at least goes to be, thus challenging common misperceptions against the grain of the misperceptions outlined about the place of indigenous people and indig- above. enous organizations in the contemporary world. This organization has been portrayed as ‘hostile’ Mujeres en Lucha is a small weavers’ co- in the academic literature (Mosquera, 1995) pre- operative with its headquarters in the municipal cisely because it makes no attempt to cater to center of Tenejapa. The members of this organi- images of “the good indigenous people.” Organi- zation are eighteen women from the municipali- zations such as this one are paving the way for a ties of Tenejapa and Chamula. They all take turns new perception of what indigenous people and looking after their store, where they sell the work indigenous organizations are, and where they are of all the cooperative’s members. As their clien- going. tele is mainly indigenous, they sell acrylic-colored items along with textiles made using natural dies. REFERENCES They have learned organization techniques at workshops sponsored by the government and by Alvarez Icaza, J. (1998). “Don Samuel Ruiz weavers’ organizations, taking what they find use- García: Un acercamiento.” Revista ful from these forms of instruction. Académica para el Estudio de las Religiones, 2, 117-128. They do not have in-house advisors, so Aramoni, D., Morquecho, G. (1998). “El recurso they close the store during the local holidays and de las armas en manos de los expulsados on days when everyone is busy preparing for an Chamulas.” Revista Académica para el important occasion such as Carnival and the Days Estudio de las Religiones, 2, 235-291.

Arrangoíz y Berzabal, F. de P. (1974). México Thesis, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios desde 1808 hasta 1867. Mexico City: Editorial Superiores en Antropología Social, Mexico Porrúa. (Original work published 1871) City. Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation. Gutiérrez y Gutiérrez, J. A. (1996). Infundios Translated by S.F. Glaser. Ann Arbor: The contra San Cristóbal de las Casas. Mexico University of Michigan Press. (Original work City: Miguel Angel Porrúa. Tuxtla Gutiérrez: published 1981) Fundación Chiapaneca Colosio A.C. Bourdieu, P. (1987). Outline of a Theory of Gutiérrez Sánchez, J. (1998). “Los movimientos Practice. New York: The University of indígenas y el EZLN en el marco del conflicto Cambridge Press. (Original work published en Chiapas.” Revista Académica para el 1972) Estudio de las Religiones, 2, 217-231. Carrasco, T., & Nahmad, S. (Eds.). (1999). Perfil Instituto Nacional Indigenista (2001). Section Indígena de México. Retrieved December 12, Antecedentes under “El Instituto” menu. 2000 from the World Wide Web: http:// Retrieved October 14, 2001 from the World www.sedesol.gob.mx/perfiles/estatal/ Wide Web: http://www.ini.gob.mx/ chiapas/10_organizacion.html. Kovic, C. M. (1995). “ ‘Con un solo corazón’: Fabian, J. (1983). Time and the Other. How The Catholic Church, indigenous Identity and Anthropology makes its Object. New York: Human Rights in Chiapas.” In Nash, J. (Ed.). Columbia University Press. The Explosion of Communities in Chiapas. Ferrer Muñoz, M. (1998). “El Estado mexicano y Copenhagen: IWGIA Document 77, pp. 101- los pueblos indios en el siglo XIX.” Anuario 110. Mexicano de Historia del Derecho, 10. Maren, M. (1997). The Road to Hell. The Retrieved January 14, 2001 from the World Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and Wide Web: http://info.juridicas.uanm.mx/ International Charity. New York and London: publica/rev/hisder/. The Free Press. Ferrer Muñoz, M. (1999-2000). “Nacionalidad e Morris, W. Jr. (1996). Dinero hecho a mano. indianidad. El papel del indio en la Artesanos de América Latina en el mercado. configuración del México independiente.” Washington D.C.: Organización de los Anuario Mexicano de Historia del Derecho, Estados Americanos. 11-12. Retrieved January 14, 2001 from the Mosquera, A. (1995). “Las artesanías y las World Wide Web: http:// empresas colectivas de desarrollo.” Anuario info.juridicas.uanm.mx/publica/rev/hisder/. 1994 del Centro de Estudios Superiores de Frente Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (2001). México y Centroamérica de la Universidad de “La Masacre de Acteal” including document Ciencias y Artes del Estado de Chiapas, 383- links. Retrieved October 12, 2001 from the 424. World Wide Web: http://www.fzln.org.mx/ O’Gorman, E. (1993). La invención de América. archivo/matanza.de.acteal/ México City: Fondo de Cultura Económica. ligas%20acteal.html. (Work originally published in 1958) Garza Caligaris, A. M., & Hernández Castillo R. Netting, R. (1993). Smallholders, Householders. A. (1998). “Encuentros y enfrentamientos de Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive, los tzotziles pedranos con el gobierno: Una Sustainable Agriculture. Stanford: Stanford perspectiva histórico-antropológica para University Press. entender la violencia en Chenalho.” In Sociedad de Trabajadores Agrícolas de los Altos Hernández Castillo R. A. (Ed.) La otra de Chiapas A.C. 1998. Registro de palabra: mujeres y violencia en Chiapas, antes poblaciones y poblados chiapanecos que han y después de Acteal. Mexico City: Centro de celebrado acuerdos agrarios. Retrieved Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en October 14, 2001 from the World Wide Web: Antropología Social, pp.39-62. http://sic.chiapas.com/staach/informe/ Gómez Jiménez, A. (2001). Movilidad Interétnica organizaciones.html en San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. El Spivak, G. C. (1999). A Critique of Postcolonial Caso de las Crianzas. Unpublished M.A. Reason. Toward a History of the Vanishing

78 Gabriela Vargas-Cetina

Present. Cambridge: Harvard University ous challenge and support. Although I have not cited his Press. work here, Charles Taylor’s ideas on the notions of the Taylor, C. (1999). “Two Theories of Modernity.” person, society and the good (Taylor 1999) were an Public Culture, 11(1), 153-174. important point of departure for this paper. Vargas-Cetina, G. (1998). “Uniting in Difference: [2] “Nosotros tuvimos un congreso indígena en 1974 de The Movement for a New indigenous mil comisariados. Fueron cuatro temas que nosotros Education in the State of Chiapas, Mexico.” hablamos donde acordamos primero lo que es la tenencia Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural de la tierra. En esa época estamos individualmente. Systems and World Economic Development Entonces formamos esta organización desde 1974.” 27(2), 135-164. Vargas-Cetina, G. (in press). “Artesanías y [3] According to the rules of exchange, in all societies globalización: Organizaciones artesanales en those gifts that are too large to be corresponded put the Chiapas” in Vargas-Cetina G. (Coord.) De lo receiver in a situation of inferiority vis a vis the giver. privado a lo público. Organizaciones en Bourdieu (1987) poses that gifts are a very effective way Chiapas. Mexico City: Centro de to mark inequality. Furthermore, gifts that are too large and beyond the cultural context of the receivers may Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en create situations of dependency and even social disinte- Antropología Social, pp.163-286. gration. The case of Ethiopian refugees in Somalia during Villafuerte Solís D. & García Aguilar M.del C. the 1980s and 1990s is a good example of this (Maren (1994). “Los Altos de Chiapas en el contexto 1997). It would be important to asses whether the flows del neoliberalismo: Causas y razones del of “help” that the international solidarity movements are conflicto indígena” in Soriano Hernández, S. either promoting or destroying the long-term viability of (Comp.). A propósito de la insurgencia en Chiapas indigenous organizations and their markets. Chiapas. San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas: Asociación para el desarrollo de la investigación científica y humanística en Chiapas, pp.83-119. Womack, J. Jr. (1998). Chiapas, el Obispo de San Cristóbal y la revuelta zapatista. Mexico City: Cal y Arena. Zaragoza, J. L. & Macías R. (1980). El desarrollo agrario de México y su marco jurídico. Mexico City: Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias. Zermeño, S. (1998). “Los retos de la participación ciudadana.” Memoria, 118, December 1998. Retrieved December 10, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.memoria.com.mx/ 118/118mem01.htm Zulca Baez, E. (1996). Nosotros los Coletos. Identidad y cambio en San Cristóbal de las Casas. Separata del Anuario 1996. Tuxtla Gutierrez: Gobierno del Estado de Chiapas / Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas.

NOTES [1] This article draws on subsequent versions of a conference paper first presented at the 1999 Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, in Chicago, and then at the Convegno di Americanistica of the University of Perugia, in Perugia, in 2000. I thank my colleagues at those conferences for their feedback. Special thanks to Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz, for his continu-