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From Mexicanarchist

If you have read what I’ve written or seen my tweets on Mexico, it can be rather depressing. Mexico is in a downward spiral due to many factors, we can largely blame the government and it’s neoliberal reforms that are sending an already impoverished society further into the familiar unknown. Mexicans know poverty, but they just don’t know how much further they can go. I’m sorry if everything you’ve read from me makes you think that all of Mexico is lost. I can help you find a jewel in that dark, scary landscape that you all have seen when you look there. First, you’ll have to learn a little bit about a language you may have never heard of, and a people you’ve never met. I’ll help you learn along the way.

P’urhepecha, a people based mostly within the Mexican state of Michoacán, an original people with a fascinating history. Most studies of pre-Columbian Mexican history revolve around the Aztecs. The P’urhepecha people are mostly known for being able to fight off the Aztecs throughout many wars, they were never able to be conquered. This is just a short history lesson which I’m giving to you because as it is commonly said, history repeats itself. Well, not exactly but you’ll see what I mean by that. If you’ve followed the news from Michoacán, you’d know that is a very violent state with the ongoing drug wars. Autodefensas (self defense groups) dominated most of the coverage as everyday citizens rose up in arms to protect themselves and their communities from the cartels. There was an element of self defense in Michoacán that didn’t receive as much attention. I’ll try and fix that, because we should find the few good things in Mexico to remind us that something else is possible. You’re going to find something new and learn a little about a language. A language you’re going to have to identify with resistance.

Juchari Uinápikua, Our Force, Our Strength. The P’urhepecha people in Cherán rose up to defend their forests and community from cartel control and the corrupt police that partnered with organized crime. It was spearheaded by women who were tired of their sons and husbands disappearing into the void that is cartel abduction and violence. They began by trying to protest against the cartel backed loggers on the streets, it ended with molotovs and the storming of police stations to gather assault rifles to defend themselves. There was no turning back at that point, they began to establish fogatas, something like a camp fire, in every block to keep watch and stay vigilant to any attack. This became a nightly routine, it was also in these community camp fires that they made decisions on what to do in their communities. You know it as direct democracy, they know it as decolonization. Through the process of decolonization, they also established their form of self defense, how their communities used to defend themselves in the past. Ronda comunitaria. Communal self defense. A literal translation wouldn’t work, so I gave you what it is in practice. I’ll explain what that practice is.

So a community kicks out cartel elements, and the police along with the politicians because they all knew these were all the many heads of the same hydra. Of course those they kicked out would attempt to return, angrily to be certain. Campfires on every block is good to stay vigilant, but how do you defend your community should these vile elements return? Ronda comunitaria was the traditional form of self defense, now in their modern form they used what used to be police vehicles and assault rifles that used to belong to the police. Instead of using those tools to repress, kidnap and help cartel forces like before, they used them to defend not just their community, but also their forest. Naná Echeri, our mother earth, land. The trucks that once belonged to corrupt police were used to patrol the forests to keep loggers out. They not only defended Naná Echeri, they also replenished her with reforestation efforts. Over 50 thousand trees were planted to help heal the damage the loggers had brought upon Naná Echeri. The people of Cherán not only defend, they also heal. Above that, they shine like a lighthouse guiding the lost ships in a violent cold sea to a vibrant Naná Echeri.

Where once Tatá Jurhiata, father sun, gave his light to a land that was nothing but burned tree stumps, now nourishes the growing trees of Naná Echeri. The people of Cherán are now in direct control of not only their politics, lives and selves, but also their environment. It is difficult to find an equivalent in so called modern societies, we claim democracy in Europe and the United States of America, but there is no self determination in either. In Cherán, an indigenous people became the Tatá Jurhiata for the rest of the world. I once thought it was just the light for Mexico, to show our people how to not only resist but flourish. It is the sun for the whole world to show you how to not just defend life, but how to nurture it so it can grow in many beautiful ways on Naná Echeri. I hope the language is never lost upon you.

Juchari Uinápikua

Out Strength. our Force.

Tags: cartels