NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: latino politics

The Power of Transnational Organizing: Indigenous Migrant Politics in Oaxacalifornia

By Marisol Raquel Gutiérrez n j u l y , m e x i c a n s w e n t t o t h e p o l l s t o e l e c t Fresno, Santa Maria, and Los Angeles, as well new governors. One of the most closely as in Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, according to Odilia Iwatched contests took place in the southern Romero, the FIOB’s Binational Women’s Issues state of Oaxaca, where the incumbent govern- Coordinator. The group’s website (fiob.org) lists ment of the Institutional Revolutionary Party among its objectives the defense of human rights (PRI) was ousted from power after an uninter- of both indigenous and non-indigenous people, rupted 80-year reign. Gabino Cué, of the Peace the encouragement of organizational work at and Progress Coalition (CUPP), defeated the both local and binational levels, the promotion PRI’s Eviel Pérez Magaña. Cué’s defeat of the of transparency in government and social prac- incumbent PRI government, after a 56% voter tice, and the fight for justice and gender equity. turnout—unprecedented for gubernatorial elec- Its indigenous grassroots membership, predomi- tions in Oaxaca—was all the more significant nantly women, is estimated to number between since the previous governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, 5,000 and 6,000, and includes Mixtecs, Zapo- had overseen “a violent repression against left- tecs, Triquis, and Chatinos, both migrants and ist resistance groups in the city of Oaxaca in non-migrants. The FIOB thus represents a broad 2006 and is linked to a paramilitary organiza- network of relationships, organizational struc- tion believed responsible for recent incidents of tures, and cultural traditions, alongside other in- violence in rural areas,” as the Los Angeles Times digenous transnational migrant organizations—­ reported.1 Although the PRI won elections in including the Oaxacan Federation of Indigenous other states and still maintains a significant Communities and Organizations (FOCOICA), presence within the state, Cué’s victory can be the Regional Organization of Oaxaca­ (ORO), seen as the a first step in Oaxaca’s long struggle and the Binational Center for Indigenous Oaxa- against state violence and impunity, and in favor can Development (CBDIO). ­ of institutionalizing transparency and stimulat- In addition to their binational work, indig- ing economic development. enous migrants in Los Angeles have participated Organized indigenous migrants in Cali- in the movement for immigration reform, the fornia made a powerful contribution to Cué’s student struggles associated with the DREAM electoral victory. In particular, the Indigenous Act, in protests against Arizona’s anti-immigrant Marisol Raquel Front of Binational Organizations (FIOB), a Los law SB 1070, the indigenous count in the 2010 Gutiérrez is a doctoral student Angeles–based­ human rights group, exerted a U.S. Census, and most recently Oaxaca State’s in the Department strong transnational influence through its ef- 2010 gubernatorial election. of Political Science forts to promote and support Cué’s candidacy. In April, Cué visited Los Angeles to meet at the University Founded in 1991, the FIOB is one of the most with various organizations, calling California of California, Los prominent, political, and active indigenous mi- “Oaxaca’s­ 571st District,” given the large num- Angeles. grant organizations in California, with offices in ber of Oaxaqueños who reside there. Mexican 32 november/december 2010 report: latino politics

Gabino Cué (center), elected governor of the Mexican state of Oaxaca in July, campaigns with his supporters among the immigrant Oaxacan community in Los Angeles on June 6.

indigenous migration from the state of Oaxaca to the ifornia, and Oaxaca. The FIOB provided not only the United States has steadily increased since the early 1980s, people but also the space and phones needed to relay as people have been displaced by poverty and marginal- the political message across borders to family members, ization, as well as by structural factors like globalization friends, and organizations. Many women members and and NAFTA, which have decreased the international price youth in Oaxaca participated in observing the polling of coffee, a main Oaxacan crop, while also contributing booths on Election Day. Romero says the women and to the erosion of agricultural lands through deforestation the youth were important in promoting the vote in Dis- and an increase in subsistence agriculture. Neoliberal trict 21, one of Oaxaca’s poorest regions in the Mixteca, policies have also created unemployment and decreased plagued by paramilitary violence. Although the PRI won salaries. By 2005, Oaxaca is the predominant indigenous in District 21, the mobilization efforts in this area dem- migrant-sending state in Mexico; in 2000 there were about onstrate that women and youth are influential and im- 200,000 indigenous Oaxaqueños in “Oaxacalifornia”—a portant political actors. transnational term that encompasses California, Baja Cal- Together with other groups, the FIOB also became ac- ifornia, and Oaxaca.2 Los Angeles—which has a long and tively involved in setting up an interactive radio program rich history of engaging in transnational political projects called Migrantes con Gabino Cué on Los Angeles’s W Ra- and efforts—is now home to some of the largest concen- dio 690 AM (the radio shows can be accessed at www trations of indigenous migrant populations from Oaxaca, .oaxacalifornia.com), in which indigenous leaders, migra- particularly Zapotecs. tion scholars, indigenous women, and youth discussed Although not all FIOB members agreed with Cué’s various issues related to the political climate in Oaxaca, coalition with such parties as the National Action Party including the meaning of autonomy and democracy, the (PAN), the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), Con- role of women, domestic violence, HIV, the significance of vergencia, and the Workers Party (PT), the organization Mexico’s 2010 elections and voting, and the importance was unanimous is its desire to see the corrupt PRI ousted­ of binational support for bringing about political change from power in Oaxaca. And so the FIOB provided its and transparency in Oaxaca. The use of radio to transmit

LEOPOLDO PEÑA LEOPOLDO infrastructure to get out the vote in California, Baja Cal- binational messages of political support reveals the extent 33 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: latino politics

In April, a Oaxacan indigenous woman prayed outside La Placita Church in downtown Los Angeles during a mass in celebration of the arrival of the Virgen de Juquila, patroness of immigrants. of mobility and outreach that indigenous migrant politics hometowns. FIOB’s women leaders and members, like has achieved. Romero notes that the shows “were very Odilia Romero, Cristina López, and Maylei Blackwell, effective in reaching broad audiences.” have played important roles in fortifying women in- Migrant women took a very active role in support- digenous leadership. As a whole, indigenous migrant ing Cué’s campaign as canvassers in Oaxaca and event women are important political actors whose presence is organizers in Los Angeles. As Centolia Maldonado and vividly heard, felt, and recognized. Patricia Artia Rodríguez have noted, “Migration has per- mitted women to participate in new spaces.”3 Indeed, l t h o u g h c u é w o n t h e e l e c t i o n , t h e f.i.o.b. the significant role that women play in transnational mi- remains­ committed to change, since the PRI still grant organizations is reflected in the FIOB’s predomi- A governs the Senate and Congress. As Romero put nantly female membership. The FIOB includes a group it: “We need to question the importance of the vote, es- called Indigenous Women in Leadership (MIEL) that fo- pecially for many women in rural Oaxaca who remain cuses on providing monthly empowerment workshops disenfranchised and subordinated to male authority and for indigenous women in Los Angeles. The workshops, leadership in small villages.” Moreover, Cué will not be led by FIOB women participants and members, cover able to enact immediate change in a state that has been issues of gender, identity, power, leadership, educa- dominated by the PRI for the last eight decades. But his tion, and health. By inviting indigenous women from victory and governorship represent a democratic open- neighboring communities in central Los Angeles, MIEL ing full of possibilities, and his administration’s perfor- is helping to create an extensive network of indigenous mance will undoubtedly be closely monitored by the civ- women who are not only becoming politicized and il society actors that helped put him in power, the FIOB educated about prominent social and political issues, among them. Indeed, Cué’s relationship with the FIOB but are also being empowered to play an active role in makes him more directly accountable to the binational

their households, their migrant communities, and their indigenous migrant population. PEÑA LEOPOLDO 34 november/december 2010 report: latino politics

The FIOB has three primary demands, which moti- obliges us to rethink the category of “Latino politics” in vated the group to support Cué: first, better and more ef- the 21st century, broadening it to include a more diverse ficient services to migrants from the Instituto Oaxaqueño population of socio-political actors who have emerged. In de Atención al Migrante (IOAM), including corpse trans- the case of indigenous political organizations with a pres- portation and the issuing of birth certificates. “Many rural ence in both California and Oaxaca, for example, we need indigenous people lack a birth certificate,” Romero says. to ask: How or where do indigenous migrant issues and “Not only are they undocumented in their own state, but politics fit into the broader discourse of Latino politics, remain so after migration—they are undocumented in and what does this say about how politics, membership, both places.” Second, improved economic opportunities and participation are both understood and challenged? in the form of jobs and access to education; specifically, To rethink a more inclusive and representative “Latino” there is a demand for el derecho a no migrar— term would mean acknowledging and engag- the right not to migrate, which is possible only Through the ing the heterogeneity not only of the groups if there is sufficient economic development to experience of that the term represents but also their diverse keep people from migrating out of necessity. interests, needs, and politics. We should be Finally, the FIOB demands an end to violence migration, a com- careful, however, since referring to or label- in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, a Triqui town that plex new migrant ing indigenous people and practices “Latino” has been under attack from pro-government erases their specific history as indigenous paramilitaries since it declared itself autono- identity has peoples. Moreover, indigenous migrants’ mous in 2007.4 The FIOB furthermore de- emerged, one forms of political work includes not only ef- mands that the state respect indigenous auton- that can inhabit forts within the electoral arena but also out- omy and usos y costumbres (political traditions) side it—mobilizations, protests, transnational as a form of indigenous government.5 These multiple political efforts, and socio-­cultural practices demands demonstrate the FIOB’s commitment spaces and that feed political efforts and processes. Such to creating a participatory and democratic im- practices demand a reconceptualization of migrant politics that respects human rights. socio-political the “the political” that goes beyond the study With the FIOB’s contribution to Cué’s elec- realities. of Latino politics, which has traditionally fo- toral victory, we have begun to see the effects cused on issues of voter mobilization, incor- of immigrant transnational political participa- poration, and citizenship. tion. Although the extent or degree of these groups’ influ- Through the socio-spatial experience of U.S.–Latin ence has yet to be measured, their capacity to influence America migration, there has emerged a complex new the politics of their home state will increase as their orga- migrant identity that can simultaneously inhabit mul- nizational strength grows. On a broader level, the case of tiple spaces and socio-political realities, but nonetheless FIOB and Oaxaca’s elections demonstrates the influential remains anchored in its local or hometown origins. These political power that resides in the immigrant civil society. migrants, most of whom are from Mexico and Central It is in these new transnational spaces that we have seen America—Mayas, Nahuas, Mixtecs, Purepechas, Zapo- the powerful and influential emergence of a transnational tecs, Triquis, and others—have transformed, adapted, and immigrant politics that knows no boundaries. Indeed, reinvented what it means to be indigenous. Their partici- these indigenous transnational political actors have fought pation in such organizations as the Oaxacan Indigenous for autonomy and human rights across borders—borders Front of Binational Organizations (FIOB) often politicizes that have not been able to contain personal, cultural, and identities in the United States, leading to what sociologist political sentiments. Romero notes, however, that going Gaspar Rivera-Salgado calls “ethno-political identities,” forward the indigenous immigrant organizations need in reference to the important role that ethnicity plays in to create alliances with immigrants from other countries building indigenous collective identities.6 and with other communities of color. As she puts it, “The Such identities have gained importance and influence FIOB will participate in the broader politics.” in the transnational political sphere. Indigenous organi- zations like the FIOB that act as binational political actors i t u a t i n g i n d i g e n o u s m i g r a n t p o l i t i c s w i t h i n t h e represent dynamic and influential spaces through which broader Latino immigrant political framework does migrants are making their voices heard and their actions S not come as an easy task, since indigenous migrants felt in multiple arenas, from Mexican elections to U.S. do not tend to conceive of themselves as “Latino.” Indig- immigration policy. As Romero puts it, “To call yourself enous migrant politics and identity in the United States indigenous is to take a political stand.” 35 november/december 2010 notes

Migrante Mobilization in El Nuevo South Dzidzienyo and Suzanne Oboler, eds., Neither Enemies Nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, and Afro-Latinos (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). 1. The author would like to thank Perla De Anda, Phillip Ayoub, Igor Logvinenko, 2. Hubert Blalock, Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations (New York: and the NACLA editors for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this ­Wiley, 1967). article. 3. Karen Kaufmann and James G. Gimpel, “Impossible Dream or Distant Reality? 2. Victor Zúñiga and Rubén Hernández-León, eds., New Destinations: Mexican Republican Efforts to Attract Latino Voters,” Center for Immigration Studies Immigration in the United States (Russell Sage Foundation, 2005). Backgrounder (Washington: Center for Immigration Studies, August 2001): 3. Nicholas De Genova, “The Legal Production of Mexican/Migrant ‘Illegality,’ ” 1–9. Latino Studies 2, no. 2 (July 2004): 160–85. 4. St. Claire Drake & Horace Roscoe Cayton, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro 4. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Life in a Northern City (University of Chicago Press, 1993 [1945]). Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 1991). 5. Manuel A. Vásquez, “Latino Immigration in the South: Emerging Trends and 5. James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts Critical Issues,” paper presented at the Jesuit Social Research Institute con- (Yale University Press, 1990), 118. ference “People on the Move,” February 2010. 6. Marie Prince and Courtney Whitworth, “Soccer and Latino Cultural Space: 6. Algernon Austin, “Unemployment in Black and White,” testimony on chronic Metropolitan Washington Fútbol Leagues,” in Daniel Arreola, ed., Hispanic unemployment before the Congressional Black Caucus, March 17, 2010, post- Spaces, Latino Places (University of Texas Press, 2004), 168. ed at the Economic Prosperity Institute’s website, epi.org. 7. Mark Brown, “Minutemen Recruit Blacks Against Illegal Immigrants,” Chicago Monseñor Romero’s Resurrection Sun-Times, May 3, 2006. 8. Mary Mitchell, “Immigrant Activist Holed Up in Church Is No Rosa Parks,” 1. Alfonso Gonzales, “The FMLN Victory and Transnational Salvadoran Activism: Chicago Sun-Times, August 22, 2006 Lessons for the Future,” NACLA Report on the Americas 42, no. 4 (September/ 9. Timothy Thomas Jr., “You Are No Rosa Parks,” letter to the editor, Chicago October 2009): 4–5. Sun-Times, August 21, 2006. 2. Adrienne Pine, “Honduras: ‘Reconciliation’ vs. Reality,” NACLA Report on the 10. Oscar Avila, “Black-Clergy Group Backs Immigrant Fighting Deportation,” Chi- Americas 43, no. 4 (September/October 2010): 4–5. cago Tribune, August 25, 2006. 3. Héctor Perla Jr., Marco Mojica, and Jared Bibler, “From Guerrillas to Govern- 11. Southern Poverty Law Center, “ ‘Nativist Extremist’ Groups 2009,” Intelligence ments,” in Jeffery R. Webber and Barry Carr, eds., The Resurgence of Latin Report no. 137 (spring 2010), available at splcenter.org. American Radicalism: Between Cracks in the Empire and an Izquierda Per- 12. Sawyer, “Racial Politics in Multiethnic America,” 265. mitida (Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming). 4. See “Presidente Funes se reúne con Barack Obama,” editorial, Diario Co- The Structuring of Latino Politics ­Latino (San Salvador), March 8, 2010, and René Serrano/Agencias, “Lobo rec- haza el Alba y se normalizará lazo con país,” El Diario de Hoy (San Salvador), 1. For discussions that focus on this linkage as being the goal of neoliberal- February 1, 2010. ism, see Catherine Kingfisher and Jeff Maskovsky, “Introduction: The Limits of Neoliberalism,” Critique of Anthropology 28, no. 2 (June 2008): 115–26; and A Signal-Flare Strategy of Transnational Activism Jane Lou Collins, Micaela Di Leonardo, and Brett Williams, New Landscapes of Inequality: Neoliberalism and the Erosion of Democracy in America, 1st ed. 1. Cecilia Menjívar, Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America­ (Santa Fe, N.M.: School for Advanced Research Press, 2008). (University of California Press, 2000). 2. For a review of the characteristics and critiques of neoliberalism, Kean Birch and Vlad Mykhnenko, The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism: The Collapse of an The Power of Transnational Organizing Economic Order (Zed Books, 2010). 3. David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press, 1. Daniel Hernandez, “In Mexico Elections, PRI Makes Gains but Appears to Lose 2005). 3 Key States,” Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2010. 4. Kevin Phillips, Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American 2. Laura Velasco Ortiz, Mixtec Transnational Identity (University of Arizona Press, Rich, 1st ed. (New York: Broadway Books, 2002). 2005), 39. 5. Paul R. Krugman, The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 3. Maldonado Centolia and Patricia Artia Rodriguez, “Now We Are Awake: (W.W. Norton and Company, 2009); Joseph E. Stiglitz, Freefall: America, Free Women’s Political Participation in the Oaxacan Indigenous Binational Front,” Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy (W.W. Norton and Company, in Jonathan Fox and Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, eds., Indigenous Mexican Mi- 2010). grants in the United States (UC San Diego, 2004), 506. 6. Pew Hispanic Center, “Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age 4. María Dolores París Pombo, “Las raíces,” Proceso (Mexico City), no. 1748 in America” (Washington, December 11, 2009). (May 2, 2010). 7. Catherine Singley, “Fractures in the Foundation: The Latino Worker’s Experi- 5. See Maldonado Centolia and Patricia Artia Rodriguez, “Now We Are Awake: ence in an Era of Declining Job Quality” (Washington: National Council of La Women’s Political Participation in the Oaxacan Indigenous Binational Front,” Raza, 2009). in Fox and Rivera-Salgado, Indigenous Mexican Migrants in the United States, 8. AFL-CIO, “China Trade: Deficits, Jobs, Investment and Exploitation,” 2006, 506. available online at afl-cio.org. 6. Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, “Cross-border Grassroots Organizations and the Indig- 9. National Urban League, 2010 State of Black America Report (New York). enous Migrant Experience,” in David Brooks and Jonathan Fox, eds., Cross- 10. T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and Social Class, and Other Essays (Cambridge border Dialogues: U.S.-Mexican Social Movement Networking (Center for University Press, 1950). U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego; 2002), 265. 11. For a review and discussion of the various arguments on incorporation, see Thomas Faist, “Diversity—A New Mode of Incorporation?” Ethnic and Racial Citizenship and the Barriers to Black and Latino Coalitions in Chicago Studies 32, no. 1 (January 2009): 171–90.

1. Karen Kaufmann, “Cracks in the Rainbow: Group Commonality as a Basis for Latino and African-American Political Coalitions,” Political Research Quarterly 56, no. 2 (June 2003): 199–210. See also Mark Q. Sawyer, “Racial Politics in Multi-Ethnic America: Black and Latino Identities and Coalitions,” in Anani 45