AWASQA

  • Feeling the Wind on Their Faces

    Feeling the Wind on Their Faces

    Photos: Cintia Morales Braungart Can you imagine living a lifestyle that allows you to stop, observe, say hello, and contemplate the landscape every day? In Telchaquillo, that’s how people live, without rushing nor mishaps, because the roads are traveled on foot, by bicycle, and by tricycle, creating a peaceful, humane, and joyful way of life.…

  • 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…

  • #FuturosIndígenas: New Initiative Seeks to Transform Narratives for Climate Justice

    A new communications collective that seeks to challenge and transform narratives for climate justice began its work the first week in June with a great enthusiasm and a warm welcome from local groups. Based in what is known today as Mexico and Guatemala, they are a solutions-based collective that uplifts the work and lives of…

  • Complementary Duality and the Popol vuj: Patriarchy, capitalism, and dispossession

    SOURCE: Originally published and with authorization of La Revista de la Universidad de México, and the authors. English translation by Awasqa. Interview by Yásnaya Aguilar to Aura Cumes YÁSNAYA: From the point of view of community feminism, when the colonial order was established, there was a confluence between ancestral and Western patriarchy; other positions maintain that it…

  • The Neocolonial Mayan Train

    Marxist theory is built upon a critique of the accumulation of capital in the hands of the bourgeoisie, through the exploitation of workers, for which Karl Marx visualizes a solution of redistribution of capital, now in the hands of the socialist state, with the support of the proletariat. However, within the “worker exploitation” concept and…

  • Photo: Tlacolulokos Facebook

    Tlacoculokos in Oaxacalifornia: Decolonizing Art

    Tlacoculokos is a collective of two self-taught artists from Tlacolula, Oaxaca, Mexico, Dario Canul and Cosijoesa Cernas, who define themselves as anti-capitalist, punk, and anti-fascist. They were part of the Contemporary Art Specialization Clinics (CEACO) of La Curtiduría in Oaxaca. Heirs to the teachings of the great Mexican muralists, with multimedia and multidisciplinary graphics, they…

  • Language Is Not Culture

    For many indigenous peoples, land is a specific physical entity, but the notion of territory includes life associated with that land and the cultural manifestations linked to that physical entity, the sense of belonging and the way in which we relate to it. Territory, it has been said emphatically many times, is not just land.…

  • Oglala Sioux Tribe. Picture: Anna Halverson

    The Right to Voluntary Self-Isolation

    Voluntary self-isolation has been practiced for millennia by uncontacted peoples, so as not to be victims of the devastating consequences of Western ​​civilization and progress. Several intergovernmental organizations have recognized this legal right and survival strategy of peoples to protect their land and territory, as a way of protecting themselves against genocide, colonization, and the…

  • Irma Pineda: To Reconcile with Mother Earth, We Must Reconcile with Ourselves

    We spoke with Irma Pineda Santiago, a Zapotec from Juchitán, Mexico, who speaks Diidxazá and is the Latin American representative for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She talks about the effects of the pandemic on Indigenous populations, the recovery of ancestral knowledge—and its practice, in the midst of the pandemic—and the resilience of…