Whispers
During
colonial times, the evangelizing friars studied the languages of
those who were ‘natural’ to this land. When Mexico won independence in 1810, the political rights of indigenous people were annulled. The revolution of 1910 sought to assimilate indigenous people into the dominant culture: the mestizo or mixed-race culture that only speaks Spanish. The 2000 census records eighty-five indigenous languages in Mexico. By 2004 the official figure was fifty-six, or maybe sixty-two. The truth is that no one knows. None of these languages are official. Between 1998 and 2008, the National School of Anthropology and History trained fifteen linguists. Only seven of them study an indigenous language. In Mexico indigenous people recognize themselves as belonging to an ethnic group, not by racial or linguistic criteria. To be or not be indigenous is an individual choice. Around one million people — 6% of Mexico City’s population — see themselves as indigenous. Contrary to what most people seem to believe, only 7% are street vendors. The reality is that the men are physically building the city, while the women sustain it emotionally. One in three indigenous men is a ≥
construction worker; six out of ten indigenous women work in other people’s homes, cleaning their houses, cooking their food, and looking after their children.
The names given to Mexico City in various indigenous languages. Los nombres de la Ciudad de México en diversas lenguas indígenas. Namen von Mexiko-Stadt in verschiedenen indigenen Sprachen.
The indigenous migrants to the city tend not to break the ties with their native communities, and commonly return to help out with their village’s religious celebrations. They are urban indigenous people, without that being a contradiction. As they settle down in the city, the new generations consolidate the collective forms of organization that allow them to support their fellows, while allowing them to reproduce and reconstruct their communities within the new urban setting. The indigenous settlements in Mexico City are defined not by ethnicity but rather by gender. Women settle in residential areas while the men set up in industrial areas. As a result, the forms of collective organization that emerge are to a large extent multiethnic. In 1994, the uprising of indigenous people in Chiapas moved the entire world. That year, and in 2001, two constitutional reforms were undertaken that were crippled, one-armed, blind, and deaf. They have been legally contested for failing to respect both the Chiapas agreements and the international treaties, that Mexico has signed. Nonetheless, looking beyond the government response, the indigenous
Counterpoint
Sol Aréchiga, Yásnaya Aguilar. Babel región 4, 2008. (Installation / Instalación).
people’s movement led to a radical transformation in the day-to-day relationship between mestizos and indigenous people, and allowed the latter to begin to assert their identity in the public sphere.
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