Zapata Lives!: Histories and Cultural Politics in Southern Mexico

8. The Historical Roots of Land Conflict and Organizing in Oaxaca

While both support for and opposition to the Zapatistas is well documented in the case of Chiapas, little attention has been paid to the reception to Zapatismo in other parts of rural Mexico. The next three chapters are written as a historical comparison to the stories of the ejidos of Guadalupe Tepeyac and La Realidad and to describe in detail the ways ejidos formed in other primarily indigenous parts of Mexico resulted in different local experiences with the government and agrarian officials. In these chapters, I discuss the particular cases of the Zapotec ejido of Santa María del Tule, formed in 1917, and the Zapotec and mestizo ejido of Unión Zapata, formed in 1936, both located in the central valleys of Oaxaca. I begin in this chapter with a historical description of Oaxaca, focused on the period marking Mexican independence and soon afterward, to provide background for the stories of the two ejidos. There are important historical differences between central Oaxaca and eastern lowland Chiapas with regard to land distribution and conflict over land, which significantly affected the experiences of local ejidatarios in their interactions with agrarian officials. While eastern Chiapas came to be dominated by large coffee and cattle ranches, along with logging operations, central Oaxaca consisted primarily of small-scale subsistence farming, with relatively few haciendas. The land conflicts that emerged in Oaxaca during the colonial period and later were most often between indigenous communities. chapter 8 The Historical Roots of Land Conflict and Organizing in Oaxaca 219 Differences in the political history of the two states with regard to the nature of relations between indigenous communities and government officials are also important on a general level. State-community interactions , through the granting of ejido land and, more recently, in the treatment of independent and autonomous peasant organizations by the government have differed somewhat in Oaxaca and Chiapas. It is important , too, that, notwithstanding general trends in Oaxaca and Chiapas , there were also important regional differences within each state. This book focuses on a specific part of Chiapas (the canyons of the Lacandon jungle in eastern Chiapas) and on a specific part of Oaxaca (the central valleys), and the government-community interactions depicted for these regions are not meant to represent those in either Oaxaca or Chiapas as a whole. In eastern Chiapas, even after people received land through the granting of the ejidos (often in the 1960s and later), when they organized independently to improve the conditions of production, they were severely repressed by state police and the army. In the central valleys of Oaxaca, because of friendly historical relations with the government, Zapotecs often joined state-run peasant organizations like the Confederación Nacional Campesina and did not suffer repression. The different experience of the Isthmus Zapotecs with the government is also described in this chapter, to underscore the point that even in the same state and among the same ethnic group, distinct political experiences and identities can coexist. In the Isthmus, where open rebellion had ignited several times during the past two centuries, independently organized Zapotecs did suffer repression, both when they tried to secede from the state of Oaxaca in the mid 1800s and when they organized an opposition government in the 1970s. The level of repression was less than in the state of Chiapas, but quite significant. The Mixtec region of Oaxaca, in contrast to the central valleys, was also the site of significant indigenous rebellions in the eighteenth century. Understanding these local historical differences in relations with the government through time is important for understanding contemporary reactions to government policies and even to political campaigns and voting. INDIGENOUS STRUGGLES TO CONTROL LAND IN COLONIAL OAXACA Historical studies of Oaxaca during the colonial period reveal that there, as opposed to other parts of Mexico, indigenous individuals and com220 New and Old Zapatismo in Oaxaca munities were able to resist Spanish encroachment on their lands. Spaniards led by Gonzalo de Umbría arrived in Oaxaca in 1519 by way of the Mixtec region. Another year passed before other expeditions reached further into the area and into the central valleys. Although the Spaniards were able to consolidate their presence in some parts of Oaxaca, such as Tehuantepec and the central valleys, where they made alliances with local rulers, they did not have a constant presence elsewhere in the region until...