by Andrew Kurowski
In this piece Andrew offers us his thoughts on the strength and resilience of Mexian indigenous communities engaged in the fight to defend their culture and existence against increasingly powerful neo-liberal forces.
It has been more than five hundred years that the native people of America have resisted an external force called colonialism which has sought to eliminate their way of life. To this day, their resistance continues. The fact that, as a people, they have managed to survive the violent repression of governmental policies speaks a lot of their integrity and of their dignity. As members of the western world, perhaps we can stop and ask ourselves: how have they held on to their traditions and what has driven them to do so? It seems that there is much that we can learn from their struggle, especially in a time when the so-called neoliberal system of world order has taken so much of the humanity out of us.
The indigenous people of America never asked for the system that has been imposed on them. They didn’t willingly adopt the idea that a person can own land. Nor did they ask to trade their water for Coca-Cola. Nevertheless, the foreign powers that have arrived have skillfully introduced these realities into their lives. Still they continue to struggle against them.
It is quite useful to consider this struggle in a time when projects, such as the Plan-Puebla-Panama (PPP) are encroaching on the land and culture of the indigenous people. Projects such as this one often disguise themselves as beneficial to the people they affect, but how is one to benefit from a proposal in which she never has an opportunity to offer her opinion? In today’s global system, the lavish lives of first world citizens is only possible through the exploitation of others, and in many instances the system necessary to assure their exploitation is disguised as aid, claiming to offer ‘progress’. But what if that which is progress to one is destruction to another? The point is that the indigenous people who are exploited are told they are benefiting from projects such as the PPP but they are never even asked if they want the so-called benefit or not.
Still they continue to struggle and organize to maintain their ways of life. They have raised arms such as in the case of the Zapatistas. However, in this case, as well as in many others, groups of indigenous communities have also organized nonviolently to confront a system that wants to rob them of who they are, a system that wants to destroy what they have cared for thousands of years, namely the earth and their culture.
Of utmost importance to the indigenous culture is the earth. The indigenous man, woman, and child see the earth as the mother of all. It is sacred and it has a consciousness. Before planting crops many indigenous make offerings to her and ask for her blessing or to forgive them for harming her. To these people, it is unconceivable that the land may belong to a person. The land is for all, and all are part of it. It is to be shared and cared for, not divided into parcels and exploited.
The value of the community is also of extreme importance to the indigenous peoples as the community of part of one’s identity. When decisions are made within one community or amongst many, the opinion of all is considered. Individual plans don’t count, they have no worth.
In the indigenous communities of Mexico and other parts of Central and South America a vast number of people continue to speak their native languages. Given the fact that some have learned the Spanish language, this shows an intentional resistance to a foreign system. They have learned the language of the conqueror, not in submission, but in empowerment, enabling them to dialogue outside of their communities while still maintaining what defines them. In many communities throughout the American continent, various pre-Hispanic languages are being spoken. This demonstrates a strong character of resistance against a foreign, imposing power.
Still, the previously mentioned cultural phenomena are being threatened as foreign concepts and values skillfully weave themselves into the lives of indigenous communities. They enter under the disguise of aid, or as a product that makes life more enjoyable. Yet the so-called aid or the much coveted consumer goods do nothing but undermine and slowly exterminate a rich culture that has existed for thousands of years and has struggled to survive a powerful opposition over the last 500 years These days, children of a community are more often taught Spanish instead of their indigenous language. These young people see the glitter of an introduced consumer culture, the beautiful pop singers and movie stars or the tempting yet harmful soft drinks, and they want to live this life. Many want to migrate to the United States in order to earn the money necessary to live a more consumer oriented lifestyle. The existence of many indigenous cultures is now under greater threat than ever.
But their struggle continues. They have not surrendered but continue to organize in conscious resistance to an imposing giant. It is for this reason that I believe there is much to learn from their struggle. They are confronting a giant that seems immense, but they manage to hold it back in many ways. As they learn more about how the giant operates their resistance is strengthened. This is what is happening. By shear will, many indigenous communities are empowering themselves in opposition to the ever-more-complicated system.
The result is that many communities are fighting for autonomy. They are working for the right to self-governance and control of their own destiny. They are working for dignity, for life. And despite the difficulties, they are achieving results. There are communities in Chiapas, in Oaxaca, and in other areas of the continent in which the people no longer need to depend on the government for health care or for education. They are providing it for themselves, based on traditional knowledge, hard work and organization, and on dignified collaboration with others. In this way, they can incorporate natural medicines offered by their very land into their clinics. Likewise, the education of their children now relates to their own heritage, language, values, and beliefs.
In general, they are learning how the giant operates. For example how the consumption of soft drinks relates to economic dependence as well as destruction of the body and of the mother earth. They are learning of what the true motivations are behind the PPP and that the chemical fertilizers which the government has promoted since the green revolution are harmful to future generations. They are working together to build a new way of doing things which is mindful of all the people it affects. Based on a tradition of valuing community, they are working together in a way that ensures all have a say. In self-governing Zapatista communities the code is “to govern obeying,” obeying the needs of the community.
From the struggle of the indigenous communities of America, what can we learn? I believe that if we consider some of their values - the care for the earth and the view of humans as part of her and not her controllers; the worth of the community as integral to that of the individual; their spirit of resistance - we can learn a lot. Perhaps if we begin to contrast them with the dominant tendencies of western culture - the view of humans as separate from nature, the value of the individual over the community, a government ruled by the dollar rather than the people, a complacency easily fed by trickery - tendencies which are responsible for the very destruction of our indigenous brothers and sisters, we may begin to work towards a world in which, as the Zapatistas say “many worlds fit”.
