The Organizing and Mobilizing of the Oaxaca Population

Nancy,  

Thanks for this article thoughtfully considering social movements in Oaxaca in light of social theory contrasting self-organization to organization led by vanguards.  You show here that that this simple opposition is not sufficiently explanatory when considering the complex dynamics of the multiple social movements in Oaxaca today.  The events in San Jose to close the Fortuna mines strike me as interestingly similar to events in the late 70's in some areas of the Sierra Sur, when towns organized to assert their autonomy and throw out logging and resin gathering companies who overstayed the permits granted to them by the State (often without consent of the pueblos). 

I just want to raise an issue with the reproduction of the "seven regions" divisions when you wrote "it was clear that Triquis had been augmented by other indigenous people who came from all seven regions of the state."  

Some time ago it became popular to talk about Oaxaca as "siete regiones."  Was there any basis for these divisions other than capping them at the "magic" of the number "seven," perhaps stemming from the importance of "seven"  in the conquering Christian ideology?  The unfortunate consequence of saying "all the Indigenous regions of Oaxaca total seven" is the ideological erasure of the regions that do not fit, including those of the Sierra Sur (where I've worked as a linguistic anthropologist for 12 years), including numerous Zapotec and Chatino communities.  The region called "Sierra" in the Siete Regiones divisions means particularly the "Sierra Norte" portrayed iconically in images of the traditional dress of the Guelatau Zapotec region.  "Siete Regiones" is ideological in the effects it has on the consciousness of Oaxacans.  For example, I've talked to Oaxacans who have argued that the region south of the Oaxaca valleys must be "Costa" because the "Sierra" region is to the north.  Another example is from 2004, when I attended the inauguration of a Zapotec Gas Station in the Sierra Sur.  The speech of the presidente municipal called the Sierra Sur "Oaxaca's forgotten region" and talked of the struggle to put it on the map.

The idea of "seven regions" is entrenched it is true, reproduced through the Guelaguetza, the public education system,  and tourist brochures.  I just wanted to raise the flag that we should be careful to not reproduce it, and the erasure it carries, when writing critical social theory.

Thanks again for all your work covering Oaxaca.

Mark Sicoli