AWASQA

  • Ca dxiibi [Fear]

    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,…

  • Foto de Gabriela Linares

    What the Earth Gives and Feeds Us: A Gastronomic Tour of the Zapotec Mountains

    SOURCE: This article was translated to English with permission and in long-term collaboration with Tzam: 13 Semillas Zapatistas, a project that seeks to feature the work of 130 collaborators during thirteen months between May 2021 to May 2022, based on 13 Zapatista demands for justice (13 is a sacred number for the Mayans). The original…

  • What is Maya, What Is To Be Maya?

    The word Maya is like the seed of maize falling on fertile soil or some stony place, full of thorns, where some hungry birds lurk, desperately looking for a light breakfast in the morning. The seed that falls on fertile soil is what some call pre-Hispanic, Mayanists classify it as a so-called preclassic, classical, or…

  • Photo: Elda Mizraim Fernández Acosta

    Independence

    FROM THE EDITORS: The Mexican state celebrated the country’s bicentennial independence with a strange mix of a military parade and pre-Hispanic mischaracterizations of indigenous peoples. The day of independence in many countries has in fact become to represent forced assimilations and territorial theft in the creation of these “new republics,” in the name of nationalist…

  • Foto: Juquila A. Ramos Muñoz

    Traditional Zapotec Homes to Rise and Resist

    SOURCE: This essay has been translated in collaboration with the Tzam: Trece Semillas Zapatistas project, with permission from the author. Tzam is a long-term project that seeks to feature the work of 130 collaborators during 13 months between May 2021 to May 2022, based on 13 Zapatista demands for justice (13 is a sacred number…

  • Mexico: 500 Years of Dispossession

    FROM THE EDITORS: To understand the reality of Mexico we must first understand that the Mexican State was created as a colonialist, racist, patriarchal governmental body of control. The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) may be shaded leftist, but the developmentalist megaprojects, political persecutions, and murders continue. We see, for example, the struggle…

  • Study Visibilizes Indigenous Languages in Los Angeles

    In the United States, those who emigrate from the south of the border are all labeled as Latinos, coming from a “Latin” culture for speaking the Spanish colonial language. But in Abya Yala, our origin is richly diverse, particularly when it comes to language. Thus, Indigenous Communities in Leadership (CIELO) has achieved a crucial step…

  • Territorio. Photo: Norma Alicia Palma Aguirre

    Tzam: 13 Seeds in 13 Months to Celebrate 130 Indigenous Voices

    FROM THE EDITORS: With this article, we present a project in Mexico by Desinformémonos, Tzam:13 Zapatista Seeds, a space for dialogue (Tzam meaning dialogue in Ayapaneco) between indigenous artists, writers, poets, and community leaders. The project’s goal is to feature the work of 130 collaborators during thirteen months between May 2021 to May 2022, based…

  • Mural por Andrew Morrison en Seattle. Foto Joe Wolf.

    Truth Commissions, Lessons Learned from Initiatives in Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala

    Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced in June the Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative at the Department of the Interior to investigate human rights violations at these institutions. According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is also expected this summer to reintroduce legislation in Congress…