Construire notre autonomie. Le mouvement des femmes indiennes au Mexique

Abstract

The struggles of indigenous women in Mexico constitute a long and difficult rupture with the conditions of racist and sexist oppression experienced by their mothers and grandmothers. Similar ruptures are necessary within their communities, with their male peers within indigenous organizations who frequently oppose female self-organization and voice. Furthermore, indigenous women have tried to build alliances with mestizas (women of indigenous and European decent), but this has sometimes resulted in conflict as many women's organizations and women in these movements still hold racist views. Finally, lesbianism is a difficult and polemic subject within indigenous women's organizations and communities. Thus, the plight of indigenous women, and particularly those within the Coordinación Nacional de Mujeres indígenas, calls for a fight on several fronts and at the same time demands political action characterized by the search for alliances beyond divisions of race and class.