Who are the Indians of Oaxaca and what do they want?

The last time I was at the Census Bureau in Oaxaca I inquired, “How many Indians are in Oaxaca and Mexico?” The answer, as always, “We don’t count Indians, we ask people if they speak an indigenous language and report the total of ‘speakers of indigenous languages’ in our information.”
So who are the Indians of Oaxaca? To begin with the term Indian was created by Colombus when he misnamed the continent he found (it wasn’t lost) while he was searching for India. In North America the indigenous people call themselves Native Americans or First Nations, in South America they are aboriginals or natives or indigenous or tribals. In Oaxaca they are Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Trikis, Chontales, Huaves, Amuzgos or several other tribes. Or in their own languages they are Diidzaj, Ñuu Savi, Driki, and so on. The names we commonly use for them are often the derogatory Aztec terms for the indigenous people, such as calling the Pame “Chichimeca” (dogs), or naming several distinct groups “Chontal” (strange languages).
Going back to who is an Indian, we have to ask ourselves what is the criterion for being an Indian, and why does it matter. In the US, to be a Native American means having political rights and economic benefits. The history of North America was a massive influx northern Europeans who displaced the native people but made treaties with the political heads of the tribes. This resulted in reservations and treaties, which the present day native people are using to their advantage. An Indian in the US is someone who can trace their lineage back to one ancestor among dozens of non-Indians, although they do not speak an Indian language or dress or live in the traditional way. As Indians recover economic benefits, there has been an increase in their population as people discover their roots and declare themselves as such.
In Mexico and parts of Latin America conquered by Spain, the invasion was primarily by soldiers, “conquistadores”, religious orders and not by a large civilian population. A very small force defeated the ruling civilization, be it the Aztec in Mexico or the Inca further south. They replaced the rulers and destroyed much of the royal hierarchy, but the vast bulk of the citizenry conserved their culture and languages, as proven by the millions of Latin Americans who still speak over 900 languages. Since most of the invading and ruling force was male, they procreated forcibly or consensually with the indigenous women, creating the mestizos or mixed population. These offspring of two cultures were generally not welcomed by their indigenous relatives, or recognized by their Spanish fathers. Over the years the percentage of mestizos grew, and as allies of the ruling Spaniards born in the new world, eventually they overthrew the yoke of Spain in Latin America.
In Mexico alone there are 10 to 14 million language speakers, of which one million do not speak Spanish. Again, who decides if someone speaks a language and is indigenous? The Census takers ask people if they speak a language other than Spanish. In a country where 90% of the people are racially indigenous, but are ruled by light skinned descendents of the Spanish invaders, where all the people visible on TV are fair skinned, where “Indio” is synonymous with dummy, where thousands of indigenous people are forced to work stoop labor in agricultural fields for a pittance, where they are ridiculed for not speaking good Spanish, and to get ahead you have to abandon your traditional ways – with all those pressures it is a wonder that anyone says, “Yes, I speak Chatino or Mazateco.”
The discrimination against the indigenous people by Spanish speaking fair skinned people is more cultural than racial. It is common to see older people in traditional garb speaking their language, while their middle aged children wear western garb and speak both languages. Their children in turn are fluent in Spanish, are educated as professionals, and have abandoned their indigenous roots. And of course there are dozens of people from every village in Mexico all over the US, adding English and pop culture to their collection of languages and likes. So we can say that being an Indian in Oaxaca means that of all the options available to a group of people – migrating to the big city to be a mestizo, going farther north to be a brown “gringo”, or staying home to till the land and sell craft to tourists – they have chosen to remain indigenous in their own land. Land is held collectively by the tribes or by individuals, and in many areas the indigenous people are able to earn a good living through agriculture, forestry, trade, tourism or selling their handcrafts.

Now that we know who they are, what do the indigenous people of Oaxaca want? I am not an Indian, I am a blond, blue-eyed American of Swiss-German-English descent, as you can see from my picture at www.gerryoaxaca.blogspot.com. However, I have lived among Zapotec Indians in Oaxaca for the last 55 years, have two Zapotec daughters, and a half Zapotec brother and sister. For 30 years I have been a practicing physician among Zapotecs and other ethnic groups in Oaxaca, and have visited almost all of the ethnic groups of Mexico. As an observer of indigenous people in Mexico and Latin America, I think am qualified to speak about what they want.
First of all, the indigenous people are a subset of a group called humans, and share all the human desires and needs – food, shelter, to be part of a family, respect, remunerative work, to know and fulfill their role in their community, and be at peace with God.
In my first article about Oaxaca, I mentioned the primary actors on the scene, the Indians, the Spanish speakers, and the recent arrivals. Before the arrival of the third party, the poor, illiterate Indians and the ruling mestizo class had arrived at an uneasy peace. But the presence of foreigners has changed that balance of power. The tourists, missionaries, hippies, anthropologists, drug dealers, snowbirds, surfers, retirees and radicals who arrived in the last 80 years began to know, appreciate and love the indigenous people. As their customs, languages, ruins, crafts and society began to be valued by others, the indigenous people began to realize their true worth. The old alliances of religious/civic power that kept the indigenous people ignorant and impoverished were broken, and they began to educate themselves and their children for a different world.
The various tribal groups of Oaxaca have different histories: Zapotecs have better land and are prosperous traders; Mixtecos have poorer land, less valuable crafts and migrate to improve their lives; the Trikis are fighting among themselves over land and power; the Mazatecos, Chinantecos, Amuzgos and other groups have different needs and desires. But all want to have more autonomy in their communities, better prices for their products, bilingual education for their children, respect for their cultures, and hope for a brighter future.