To See with Two Eyes: Peasant Activism and Indian Autonomy in Chiapas, Mexico

by Shannan L. Mattiace

Throughout Latin America, native peoples have long been viewed as obstacles to development. In Mexico, beginning in the late 1930s, the government organized indigenous peoples into peasant organizations tied to the official party in an attempt to assimilate them into mestizo society. The unexpected result was the emergence of political consciousness among Indians in Chiapas, Mexico. Since the 1994 Zapatista uprising, indigenous peasants increasingly have cast their demands within a framework of legal and cultural autonomy. In this book, based on fieldwork in eastern Chiapas with the Tojolabal-Maya people, Shannan Mattiace shows that on the ground, the struggle for autonomy is integrally related to peasant politics and everyday struggles for survival. Her years of fieldwork prior to 1994, and after, have provided her with important ethnographic accounts and extensive interviews. To See With Two Eyes will be of interest to scholars in Latin American political science, anthropology, and history.
"Mattiace has conducted original research on an incredibly important topic. While she is particularly interested in Chiapas, she situates the Zapatista experience in broader perspective-analyzing the Zapatistas against Mexico's historical record of popular organizing, contemporary indigenous movements in other parts of Mexico, and other indigenous movements in Latin America."--Professor Deborah Yashar, Princeton University

222 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2003

Reviews

[Ash]

It provided a great context to the Zapatista rebellion by focusing on the history of organizing within indigenous communities in Southern Mexico.