Tales from the Trenches

I’m an indigenous Zapotec from the village of Zoogocho, in the northern mountains of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. It was a town of 2,000 people that has dwindled to a population of 88, all of whom are in their 70s and 80s. It’s a ghost town. Most people have had to migrate to Oaxaca City, Mexico City, or Los Angeles…

My grandmother used to tell me, “Behind those mountains there are bad things — there are white people.” It wasn’t that she disliked white people specifically, but rather she was giving me a political message about opposing the colonization of our indigenous lands and customs…

(My organization, the Frente) wants people to know that we’re social and political actors. Indigenous people are thinkers, we’re intellectuals, and we participate in decisions that affect our lives. We aren’t just here to pick your strawberries…

(But men migrate with their) machismo — we don’t leave that behind at the border… That means that even in our social and political organizations, we women face discrimination. Women have often not been allowed a voice or participation in decisions that affect us in the community. Women are often obligated to pay hometown association dues without having a say in how the funds are used. In the U.S., this caused a revolution! It was called “Taxation without Representation”....

When I die, I want to be buried in Zoogocho where my belly button [umbilical cord] is buried. That’s very important to me that that tradition be honored. For me, all of the things I do to claim who I am and where I come from, like wearing traditional clothing and speaking Zapoteco, are acts of resistance, acts of love.