Contemporary indigenous resistance and mobilizations in Mexico

Abstract

In today’s Mexico, the resistance and mobilization of Indigenous people are diverse and no longer seem to constitute a single collective identity, as they did in recent decades, but rather a multiple and fragmented whole. As this article tries to show, there are four main causes behind this situation. The first is the diversity of conditions in which, for historical reasons, Indigenous people live. The second is the accumulation of grievances and challenges, both new and variegated, that the aggressive recurrence of extractive capitalist ventures is creating in their territories. The third cause is the government’s indifference and neglect toward their social, economic, educational and political demands. And the fourth is the variety of initiatives that Indigenous peoples themselves introduce in their struggles to break and transcend, with much creativity, the status quo that oppresses and marginalizes all of them.