One Vote Is Worth More Than a Thousand Words: Ethnic Identity and Political Change in Huehuetla, Puebla

In time, I learned that it is a mistake to smile kindly at those who have cheated me.

Marcel Proust

The municipal elections on November 8, 1998, in Huehuetla (in the northern mountains of the state of Puebla, Mexico) were especially intense. The results, in which the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) triumphed by a margin of 485 votes, indicated that participation had been much greater than on previous occasions. ¹ Just a simple glance around at the last strokes in the campaigns of the two large competing parties made one thing evident: the people wanted to vote. They really wanted to vote. And many of them, as later could be determined, surely bet on a change, for a switch in the local political power. In effect, for the last nine years, the Independent Totonac Organization (OIT), an indigenously based civil organization, and the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) shared the municipal government of Huehuetla. Their alliance overthrew the power of the PRI in two consecutive elections, although in the second the winning margin began to narrow.

In the days preceding the election, I functioned as an anthropological observer of the electoral process, taking field notes and absorbing the local values, actions, and reactions directly and also as they were reflected in filmed interviews. From these notes, thoughts, and other materials compiled in or about Huehuetla emerged the idea of writing this article. ² With it there was an effort to go a little beyond mere ethnographic description and contribute as much as possible to the broader program that is being carried out by Albert Wahrhaftig and Pacho Lane who graciously invited my participation, confident that I might be able to add my two cents worth. ³ Therefore, along with the reflections and interpretations derived from fieldwork, I shall try to refer toand add a little more to some of the thoughts of the authors of "Totonac Cultural Revitalization: An Alternative to the Zapatistas," specifically those that compare and contrast the OIT of Huehuetla with the Zapatista National Liberation Army in Chiapas. ⁴

Obviously the pages that follow have all the limitations of a short stay (one week) in the field and don't dare to do much more than formulate some superficial reflections, especially when dealing with a subject as complex and deeply rooted in this area as politics and the local power structure. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that later research by the Totonacapan project can proceed further toward deeper waters.

Days before the elections in Huehuetla one could breathe a highly polarized, even radicalized social and political climate with followers of the PRI on one side and of the OIT/PRD alliance on the other, both factions convinced of their victory, trading disqualifications and reciprocal criticisms about the ineffectiveness of the opposition and its lack of credibility at all levels. ⁵ In short, a superheated atmosphere—though not to the point of public disorder—ready for the decision of the ballot boxes. To end adding fuel to the fire, on Wednesday, November 4, two election consultants affiliated with the PRI were dismissed. Immediately, a representative of this party, opposing the decision, warned that this dismissal could generate an "uncontrollable conflict" in Huehuetla. ⁶ Luckily for all, this prediction never came true.

We weren't able to attend the closing ceremony of the PRI campaign, but we were present at that of the OIT/PRI the day after our arrival. This coalition's campaign was characterized by a clearly leftist and very radical ⁷ rhetoric interlaced with themes dealing with aid for poor farmers and workers and with the battle for social transformation. ⁸ Apart from its hopes for justice and dignity for the poorest, the central proposition was their claim of representing those of Indian ethnicity. Their "people's...