Una aproximación a la obra de Javier Castellanos Martínez en el marco de la literatura zapoteca contemporánea: Reflexiones, inquietudes y pláticas

Analysis of Zapotec literature during the last 20 years—focusing specifically on the cultural context that sparked the publication of the first Zapotec novel, Songs of Be ze lhao, in 1994—and based on a series of conversations with Zapotec writer and researcher Javier Castellanos Martínez between 2005 and 2015. Forming part of that dialogue are critical questions concerning the reconfiguration of narrative genres and traditional epistemologies, the revisioning of history, and the state of modern Zapotec literature’s distribution and readership. Core elements in the work of Javier Castellanos are discussed, most notably that of the “journey” conceived as a center of dislocation and reshaping of identity in four distinct historical periods: the difficult road to a post-Independence modernity, the forced relocation of indigenous communities during the Mexican Revolution, the mass movements to the city for economic or educational reasons, followed by a displaced return to the village, and more recent migrations to the U.S., with their complex set of cross-border community relations.