"They will come from the other side of the sea": Prophecy, Ethnogenesis, and Agency in Yaqui Narrative

For Mexico's Yaqui Indians, ethnic identity is both represented and renegotiated in narrative moments. In this article, I examine the process of narrative self-fashioning through the lens of the "Talking Tree," a story that portrays Yaqui ethnogenesis as a reaction to a prophecy of Spanish conquest. I contend that this narrative accords the Yaquis a level of agency that ordinary histories do not, refiguring them as informed actors in the determination of their own destiny.