Heritage, Volume 13, Number 4, Fall 1995 Page: 21
30 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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links history to ethnography and firmly
situates the life of the community in a real
landscape, in real time, and in relation to
external events.
Nugent has immersed himself in
Namiquipa, its people, its daily life, its
formal and informal celebrations, and examines
the lives of those who, in their
words, became "spent cartridges of revolution"
following the heady events of the
Mexican rebellion that overthrew Porfirio
Diaz. Namiquipa, despite its other-worldly
and romantic distance from the U.S. consumer
culture, is really not an appealing
escape from the late 20th century. Unlike
Gauguin's Tahitian paradise or the exotic
Orient that led to wanderlust and
wanderjahrung in the late 19th century,
Namiquipa is dust-blown, wind-whipped,
sun-scorched, and a good day's drive from
the cooler pinelands of the Sierra Madre. It
has always been, however, in the heartland
of northern Mexico, where those who endured
the rigors of the frontier and the
physical hardships emerged from their history
with a sense of place, a tough character,
and a fierce independence that accounts
for their central role in most Mexican
political opposition.
Namiquipa is in that sense reminiscent
of our own frontier communities in the
Great Plains that have produced such a
sense of community and resilience that
Alfred North Whitehead, the English philosopher,
once predicted would be the
source of the next great cultural renaissance,
rivalling that of Florentine Italy in
the 14th and 15th centuries. Namiquipa is
a rough equivalent of that emergent culture
that spawned the foot and horse soldiers
of the Mexican Revolution and led to
the collapse of state power in central Mexico
following a bitter and hard-fought war.
Nugent captures not only the sense of
community and place but also the context
of historical events and broader political
economy that framed the events of the early
20th century in this out-of-the-way but central
place in the Mexican landscape.
Ambivalent Journey: U.S.
Migration and Economic
Mobility in North-Central
MexicoRichard C. Jones, University of Arizona Press.
From the same region, Richard Jonesdraws another perspective of those looking
northward as naturally as a farmer does
toward the east pasture or business suits do
toward Monday's business meeting in Chicago,
Tuesday's in Atlanta, and
Wednesday's in Phoenix.
To Jones, migrant laborers trek to the
United States not as a form of dependency
on U.S. jobs and consumer culture, but as
simply an economic choice posited in order
to maintain a rural lifeway in Zacatecas or
Coahuila. His insights are well taken in the
climate of NAFTA that drives policy toward
creating industrial low-wage jobs as a
source of cheap labor for industry and as job
creation for Mexico. Never mind that the
demography of work in the borderlands is
ripping apart the social fabric of the cities
of the region and depriving people of meaningful
work while creating low-wage jobs
for narrow slices of the community.
Jones documents how rural Mexican
families and communities are accommodating
to economic opportunities in novel
ways that may not be welcome to the
maquiladora mentality of current economic
planning for the region.
Zapotec Renaissance:
Ethnic Politics and Cultural
Revivalism in Southern
Mexico
Howard Campbell; University of New
Mexico Press.
Reviewed by Manuel Matus, Benito Judrez
University of Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico)
"Zapotec Renaissance" is a study of the
culture, politics, and history of the Zapotec
people of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in
Mexico. The Isthmus is located in the
southeastern corner of the country. It is a
region where indigenous culture has flourished
and an area with a complex history
marked by intense political conflicts.
In 1974 a leftist Zapotec Indian movement,
COCEI, formed in Juchitan in the
center of the Oaxacan Isthmus. Since then
COCEI has led a political and cultural
struggle against the corruption, centralization,
and authoritarianism of the Mexicangovernment. COCEI won municipal elections
in Juchitan in 1981, which was the
first time the PRI had been defeated by the
left since 1929. With this victory theIn 1974 a leftist Zapotec
Indian movement,
COCEI, formed in
Juchitdn... Since then
COCEI has led a political
and cultural struggle
against the corruption,
centralization, and
authoritarianism of the
Mexican government.
Zapotecs demonstrated their capacity
for political mobilization and the
strength of Indian ethnic identity. 1981
was also the year that the anthropologist
Howard Campbell arrived in the
Isthmus, where he would subsequently
engage in extensive ethnographic and
historical research.
Campbell spent years learning about
Zapotec traditions, customs, and the
native language. He also began to interview
the leaders, militants, and intellectuals
of the COCEI movement. Additionally,
Campbell studied a group of
Zapotec poets, painters, and musicians
associated with COCEI. Later, he researched
Isthmus history in the Oaxacan
state archives and the Juchitan Cultural
Center. Thus, "Zapotec Renaissance" is
the result of many years of painstaking
work.
This book is indeed an important
contribution to Mexican studies because
it provides a comprehensive and insightful
treatment of the history of
Southern Oaxaca. Campbell's book covers
Isthmus Zapotec society from the
pre-Hispanic era to the present period
of cultural revivalism. Along the way,
the reader learns about many key moments
in local chronology including
the arrival of the Zapotecs to the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec in the 14th century,
the Spanish Conquest, the
Tehuantepec Rebellion ofthe 17th century,
the Mexican Revolution, and the
recent ethnic resurgence sparked by the
COCEI. While generally sympathetic
to COCEI, Campbell also critiques aspects
of the movement's ideology andpractices. Overall, this is a fine book
that will be of considerable interest to
specialists and others interested in Mexican
history.HERITAGE * FALL 1995 21
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 13, Number 4, Fall 1995, periodical, Autumn 1995; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45411/m1/21/?rotate=270: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.