Durham E-Theses Resistance, religion and identity in Ojitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico Jeery, Susan Elizabeth How to cite: Jeery, Susan Elizabeth (2001) Resistance, religion and identity in Ojitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3960/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 1 Susan E. Jeffery Resistance, Religion and Identity in Oiitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico Abstract This dissertation analyses resistance to a regional development programme, which centred on the construction of a dam at Cerro de Oro, Ojitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico and the resettlement of the affected Chinantec population into an area ofUxpanapa, Veracruz. The resistance of the people of Oj itlan took various forms over a seven year period (1972-9), including political action, a syncretic millenarian movement, a reassertion of traditional forms of community fiestas and passive resistance to resettlement. Ojitlan has been affected by national economic and political changes since before the Spanish Conquest. Large plantations established in the tropical lowland areas in the 19th century ceded place to small "ejido" communities, set up under land reform in the 1930s. Control of land and the economic relationships of production are seen as factors affecting the patterns of resistance in Ojitlan. The dissertation reviews the anthropological literature on resistance and on ethnicity. The series of forms of resistance studied can be seen as multiple cultural articulations - attempts to "bridge the gap" between the established Ojitec life and the "modern" systems of work and life introduced by the development project of the Papaloapan River Commission. The Ojitec struggle with modernity involved dealing not just with the question of resettlement in the collective ejidos ofUxpanapa, but also with the reforms promoted in the Oaxacan Catholic Church. The traditional ritual of indigenous Catholicism offered a sphere of legitimate agency and autonomy for the Ojitec in the face of new models of agency and power. The dissertation suggests the usefulness of the concept of resistance, tempered with an analysis of accompanying processes of accommodation to change. Evidence from the 1990s indicates that ethnic identity continues to be important in political resistance to the state in Uxpanapa, a sign of the resilience of forms ofOjitec culture. 2 Resistance, Religion and Identity in Oiitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico by Susan Elizabeth Jeffery Ph.D. in Anthropology University of Durham Department of Anthropology Submitted 2001 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any. form, including Electronic and the Internet, without the author's prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. 3 Table of Contents Introduction 5 1. History of Oj itlan - Land and Peoples 15 2. Resistance 27 3. The Ojitec 55 4. Indigenous Catholicism and Ojitec Autonomy 75 5. Ethnicity 123 6. Cerro de Oro: Political and Millenarian Responses in 1972-5 154 7. Resistance to Catholic Reforms 182 8. Development Ideology and Practice 204 9. Conclusion 235 Appendix 1: The Messages ofthe Millenarian Movement in Ojitlan 1972-3 242 Bibliography 250 Glossary of Spanish and Ojitec Terms 266 4 List of Maps and Figures Maps 1. Mexico: Location ofthe Cerro de Oro and Miguel Aleman 26 Dams and Reservoirs- no. R78. 2. The Location of Ojitlan in the Papaloapan River Basin, Mexico. 56 3. Resettlement Projects ofthe Papaloapan Commission 210 Figures 1. Table to Show Examples of Changes in Numbers of 216 Registered Ejidatarios from 1930s (Ojitlan) to 1976 (Uxpanapa) *** The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without their prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 5 Introduction Ojitlan first struck me as a gold-rush frontier town of the classic Wild West -loud, "good time" music blaring out in the streets, a bar at every corner, drunks and frequent fights - I hated it! On my first Sunday in town, men started drinking early in the afternoon. Some drank until they fell over. They lay where they fell until the rain woke them or until someone carted them home. I wrote that the drinking seemed joyless, the men just became increasingly morose and truculent until they ended up fighting and were taken to jail to sleep it off. Later that night a man was stabbed to death in one of those drunken fights just across the road from where I was staying. On my second Sunday in Ojitlan, the priests were violently attacked and ejected from the church. My decision to do research in Ojitlan had been made after I read an article by Barabas and Bartolome in Critique of Anthropology (1974). My interests were already focused on the anthropology of religion and on Mexico. I wanted to carry out an ethnography that would also allow me to examine cultural transformation in the face of change. I was stuck rather restlessly between wanting to study a distinctive culture and system of classification and wanting to acknowledge processes of economic and social change. I wanted to do both. As an undergraduate my interests had come to focus on Mexico, partly because I had taken a regional course on Latin America and partly because I had managed to spend three months summer vacation in Mexico doing fieldwork for my undergraduate dissertation. That was summer 1974, which I spent in a village in Tlaxcala, Mexico, linked to a programme of Latin American students doing field research for a Masters degree under the tutelage of Hugo Nutini. So when it came to the question of Ph.D. research, I had already got to grips with Spanish and wanted to return to Latin America, if not to Mexico. My initial contacts in Mexico in September 1976 were with a number of anthropologists (including those who had worked in the area) with whom I was able to discuss their current research and my interests. My practical contact with my future area of study was through Elizabeth Allen, a Geography postgraduate at Durham who was carrying out research on contrasting settlements in the Papaloapan River Basin. I wanted to work in Ojitlan, where the people were facing resettlement because of the proposed construction of a dam. Liz helped me with my introductions to the Papaloapan River Commission, including letters of recommendation signed by Jorge Tamayo, the ChiefExecutive himself. At that time, the resettlement zone was closed to all outsiders, so I needed an official pass. I visited the Commission's regional headquarters in Ciudad Aleman, 1 stayed in their official visitors' residence and was introduced to some of the key middle level officials running things in Ojitlan. I was also offered the use of their residence in Ojitlan, where I arrived on Monday 11th October 1976. As I had spent the summer in the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico, only two years before, I felt that some familiarity with the country would give me confidence in the new setting. I remember thinking that Ojitlan, because it was relatively more isolated, with higher use of indigenous languages, would be a very good place to study an indigenous and distinctive culture. Tlaxcala, much closer to Mexico City, was very integrated into the regional capitalist economy. Ojitlan, despite all the changes, would be a more "authentic" indigenous culture. My first impressions of Ojitlan were a terrible shock and I spent the first four months regularly contemplating and researching alternative sites for fieldwork. For my first week, I was based in the Commission's residence in the villa (main village centre) ofOjitlan, though I spent four of those days out on a visit to communities between Ojitlan and the neighbouring village ofUsila. The residence was in a commanding position with a balcony at the top of the main street. Near it and all along the main street were miscellaneous shops, three pharmacies, three restaurants, two billiard halls and many cantinas (bars). In my first letter home from Ojitlan, I compared it to the way the gold-rush frontier towns were portrayed in some of the old "Westerns". Now I might compare it to a version ofthe last days ofSodom and Gomorrah- or the frantic revelling while Rome began to burn. Although the violent events were both dramatic and interesting, they made it a difficult time to be a stranger arriving asking questions. 1 The town was named after Miguel Aleman, President of Mexico at the time of construction of the frrst dam (also named after him) in the area at Temascal. 7 My first movements in Ojitlan were with the PRC's support and using their facilities. Although I always made it clear to people that I was a student researching their language and way of life - not working with or for the Commission - inevitably I was associated with the latter. During my first month I made a number of visits on horseback to a wide range ofthe rural communities ofOjitlan and also to the neighbouring inland municipio (village, administrative district) ofUsila.