Puchiwuin Limaxcanin Huehuetla: sovereign possibilities at the crossroads of neoliberal multiculturalism

• In Event: Neoliberal Multiculturalism in Mexico: Social Movements, the State, and Contradictory Forms of Inclusion and Dispossession

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the Mexican state recognition of indigenous rights and how they rearticulate racial ideologies through the institutionalization of ambiguous legal frameworks and the Totonac response to these. In the context of the establishment of the state sponsor Indigenous Court in the Totonac town of Huehuetla I point to the multiple moments these multicultural legal frameworks and discourses articulate reproduce, and dislodge virulent racial discourses inscribed under the rubric of what has been termed by the state "usos y costumbres." Yet, I argue if only reading from above we miss the numerous instances in which the Totonac have created semi-autonomous spaces through these multicultural institutions from which they produce, expand and practice their sovereign power beyond state margins.

Author

• Korinta Maldonado Goti, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign