Lessons from the Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI)’s Transnational Community Solidarity

The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussions on ethnicity, transnationalism and social change by mapping the forms of organization and struggle for autonomy and dignity of indigenous people across the Mexican-U.S. border. In October 2016, the Congreso Nacional Indígena (CNI) together with the Zapatistas launched a proposal of naming a Concejo Indígena de Gobierno (CIG) and an indigenous woman presidential candidate (spokesperson) for the 2018 Mexican elections. The objective has not been to achieve power, rather to organize civil society from below for dignity, liberty, democracy, autonomy, and justice. This project is not being directed exclusively to the Mexican society, and might also help to deconstruct the ethnic and economic hierarchies on the rise since the electoral triumph of Donald Trump. By considering that large part of Mexican migrants in the U.S. have a rural or indigenous background, I demonstrate the possibilities, in the context of neoliberal governance and the global design of development and modernity, to organize, adapt and fight across frontiers against the regulation of life, spaces, and minds. In March 2017, the Zapatistas already disclosed an active international solidarity network as they launched the ‘Fuck Trump’ coffee project to help immigrants. However, their organization and proposal of social transformation can be taken further by the CIG through the support of their transnational communities.

The data discussed here is being collected through my participation as research-activist and contextualized by a research project held with the indigenous community of Mezcala since 2008. In this way, I propose to map the networks and structures of power and solidarity and provide a balance of the contradictions, problems, and achievements of CIG's project, to engage in a dialogue for the reconstruction of our realities, especially with the rise of racism and xenophobia around the globe.