Transnational Oaxacan indigenous identity: The Case of Mixtecs and Zapotecs

Abstract

This paper examines cultural and political dynamics that result when migrants from indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, migrate to the United States. Forced from their homeland because of economic conditions and prevented from complete settlement and incorporation in the United States due to their “illegal” status and economic and social barriers, the migrants create and live within a third sociocultural and political space popularly referred to as Oaxacalifornia, The cultural politics of this third space are shaped by tensions between the indigenous communities and various instances of the Mexican state that attempt to retain political hegemony over the indigenous communities within Mexico and abroad. Central to the transnational projects of the transnational indigenous organizations is the construction of pan‐Mixtec, pan‐Zapotec, and pan‐Oaxacan indigenous identities, which is a strategy with some contradictions, but one that appears to be effective for advancing the objectives of the organizations at this historic moment.