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![Ca dxiibi [Fear]](https://awasqa.org/app/uploads/2025/05/Captura-de-Pantalla-2025-05-09-a-las-18.41.42.png)
Ca dxiibi [Fear]
When I was seven years old, an aunt came by my house to tell us about a murder that had taken place in the community. It happened during a rodeo, a community event where men ride large bulls and compete against each other. This activity takes place during the town’s patron saint festivities. In short,…
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A Zapotec Reflection on Freedom: Mom, How Do You Allow Yourself to Do What You Desire?
FROM THE EDITORS: Freedom is a concept used in multiple ways to limit, cancel, or break community processes, especially those related to indigenous peoples. That is what the editors of Tzam: Las Trece Semillas Zapatistas try to answer this month by presenting a series of essays that explore freedom from an indigenous viewpoint. According to…
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Tosenyot: Democracy Is Unity and a Deep Commitment for Community
FROM THE EDITORS: What is democracy when you go beyond what we were taught in school, as a “system of government” or an ideology? That is what the editors of Tzam: Las Trece Semillas Zapatistas try to answer this month by presenting a series of essays that explore democracy from an indigenous viewpoint: “For a long time, the…
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To Migrate Is To Resist Colonialism
Source: Originally Published by Revista Amazonas Translated by Awasqa Interview with Amarela Varela Huerta and Soledad Álvarez Velasco This text stems from an interview with Soledad Alvarez Velasco (Ecuadorian) and Amarela Varela Huerta (Mexican) Their words show a common sisterly fabric, an intellectual, feminist, transnational friendship and, above all, their activism for a dignified and…
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The Subtle Etymology of the Mayan Language
The first rain of the season has just fallen in the community. Five days had passed since they had finished doing the meeyjul Yuum iik‘[1] known as Ch’a’acháak.[2] The farmers could not help but smile as they looked at each other. The women looked as though they were watching someone in their kitchen revealing a…
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Court in Mexico Blocks Federal Mandate that Declared Infrastructure Projects of “Public Interest” and “National Security”
FROM THE EDITORS: In Mexico, as in many neoliberal and authoritarian governments, the discourse of national security has been used again and again as a pretext for developmentalist extractivist projects. The National Indigenous Congress has launched a national campaign to promote legal resources for the protection of indigenous communities, which is finally beginning to show…
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Oaxaca Indigenous Public Schools: Lessons Learned on Community Education
FROM THE EDITORS: This relevant article is part of the Tzam Trece Semillas Zapatistas project, a plural, multicultural space that proposes a dialogue (tzam means dialogue in Ayapaneco) between communities, ideas, projects, dreams of the original Mexican peoples. The project’s goal is to publish the work of 130 collaborators in thirteen months, from May 2021 to May…
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Learning to Feel Babies Inside Us: Wisdom from Majosik, Chiapas
FROM THE EDITORS: This beautiful article is part of the Tzam Trece Semillas Zapatistas project, a plural, multicultural space that proposes a dialogue (tzam means dialogue in Ayapaneco) between communities, ideas, projects, dreams of the original Mexican peoples. The project’s goal is to publish the work of 130 collaborators in thirteen months, from May 2021…
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Indigenous Midwives and Healers Denounce Appropriation of Traditional Medicine via Mexico’s Health Law Reform
FROM THE EDITORS: Last April, the House of Representatives approved reforms to Mexico’s Health Law to regulate traditional and complementary medicine. Several indigenous and civil society groups have rejected the reforms, calling the law unconstitutional for violating the right of indigenous people to free, prior, and informed consent. Traditional indigenous medicine and practices, including midwifery,…