I hope you had a chance to read Sabina’s and Talia’s entries about the aerial marvels of an ecotourism site we recently visited. This entry will most certainly prove a lot more boring than their account of the Sierra zipline, but I wanted to provide a bit of background on this remarkable place just outside of Ixtlan de Juarez, Oaxaca.
As the name implies, Ixtlan is the birthplace of the much revered 19th century indigenous Mexican president, Benito Juarez. The ecotourism center we visited sits in the cloudforest foothills of a vast wilderness on communal Zapotec land (the Zapotecs are the most populous of Oaxaca’s 16 distinct indigenous peoples). Since long before Benito Juarez’ time, this land has been held communally.
As the billboard in the picture suggests, private property is neither part of the Zapotec cosmovision nor looked upon kindly. Translated, the billboard says:
"In this community, private property does not exist.
Prohibited -the purchase and sale of communal lands".
I had to extract my foot from my mouth as I asked a gazillion questions about how they manage this community resource. Clearly it seemed as if I was probing because I was seeking to purchase land. I wouldn't be the first gringo with a wallet full of cash inquiring.....
But vacationing gringos are likely the least of the Zapotecs problems. Just before NAFTA was passed in 1994, then president Carlos Salinas de Gotari, pushed through a constitutional amendment entitled Article 27 to permit the parcelization and sale of collective land. The idea here was to grease the wheels of free trade by unleashing this pent up real estate market, falsely held back by social engineering. One of the great gains of the Mexican revolution had been land reform in the form of ejidos, or collectively owned plots in which small farmers could pool their resources and be able to compete with large landowners. Since the repeal of Article 27, a great deal of Mexican land has changed hands, much of it reconcentrated in the hands of agribusiness. The Zapotecs of the Ixtlan wanted to make it crystal clear that their land was not for sale.
But vacationing gringos are likely the least of the Zapotecs problems. Just before NAFTA was passed in 1994, then president Carlos Salinas de Gotari, pushed through a constitutional amendment entitled Article 27 to permit the parcelization and sale of collective land. The idea here was to grease the wheels of free trade by unleashing this pent up real estate market, falsely held back by social engineering. One of the great gains of the Mexican revolution had been land reform in the form of ejidos, or collectively owned plots in which small farmers could pool their resources and be able to compete with large landowners. Since the repeal of Article 27, a great deal of Mexican land has changed hands, much of it reconcentrated in the hands of agribusiness. The Zapotecs of the Ixtlan wanted to make it crystal clear that their land was not for sale.
The ecotourism enterprise is managed by Ixtlan's popular assembly (called "usos y costumbres" or "uses and customs" law) which exists in parallel (and in some places in competition with) the municipal government, dominated by political parties and generally disrespectful of indigenous customs. The entire Ixtlan community co-owns the tourism enterprise. Collective work days, called tequios, are obligatory. Our guide into the forest was a young boy not terribly daunted that for the rest of his life he would be asked at times to fill unpaid community posts - no matter if he had another job or was living in the United States. This system of obligations and rights is a powerful glue that keeps a place like Ixtlan thriving as it strives to retain its unique culture in a globalized world that tends to steamroll over differences.
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