1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910826090803321

Autore

Higgins Nicholas P (Nicholas Paul), <1971->

Titolo

Understanding the Chiapas rebellion : modernist visions and the invisible Indian / / Nicholas P. Higgins

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, Tx., : University of Texas Press, 2004

ISBN

0-292-79726-5

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (276 p.)

Disciplina

323.1197/4207275

Soggetti

Mayas - Mexico - Chiapas - Politics and government

Mayas - Mexico - Chiapas - Government relations

Mayas - Civil rights - Mexico - Chiapas

Chiapas (Mexico) History Peasant Uprising, 1994-

Chiapas (Mexico) Politics and government

Chiapas (Mexico) Ethnic relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction : approaching the Indian in world politics -- Maps of the mind : Spanish conquest and the Indian soul -- Enlightenment legacies : colonial reform, independence, and the invisible Indian of the liberal state -- The governmental state : Indian labor, liberal-authoritarianism, and revolt -- Institutionalizing the Indian : corporatismo, indigenismo, and the creation of an authoritarian regime -- Neoliberal governmentality : social change, contested identities, and rebellion -- Visible Indians : Subcomandante Marcos and the "indianization" of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation -- Conclusion : modernist visions and the invisible Indian.

Sommario/riassunto

To many observers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mexico appeared to be a modern nation-state at last assuming an international role through its participation in NAFTA and the OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development). Then came the Zapatista revolt on New Year's Day 1994. Wearing ski masks and demanding not power but a new understanding of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, Subcomandante Marcos and his followers launched what may be the first "post" or "counter" modern revolution, one that challenges the very



concept of the modern nation-state and its vision of a fully assimilated citizenry. This book offers a new way of understanding the Zapatista conflict as a counteraction to the forces of modernity and globalization that have rendered indigenous peoples virtually invisible throughout the world. Placing the conflict within a broad sociopolitical and historical context, Nicholas Higgins traces the relations between Maya Indians and the Mexican state from the conquest to the present—which reveals a centuries-long contest over the Maya people's identity and place within Mexico. His incisive analysis of this contest clearly explains how the notions of "modernity" and even of "the state" require the assimilation of indigenous peoples. With this understanding, Higgins argues, the Zapatista uprising becomes neither surprising nor unpredictable, but rather the inevitable outcome of a modernizing program that suppressed the identity and aspirations of the Maya peoples.