Indigenous Feminism in Mexico. In the evolution of Mexican feminism, indigenous women were also able to conquer spaces and to speak up about their specific needs. Two important events stimulated the emergence of a female indigenous movement: the movement of 500 Años de Resistencia Indígena, Negra y Popular in 1992 – a movement that rose from the Encuentro de Dos Mundos: 1492-1992 –, and the uprising of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in 1994. These events found their origin in the peasant and popular revolts after 1968 in the context of the political and economic crisis. 36 For more information on the earthquake of 1985: X. X. XXXXXXXXX (ed.) (1987), Memoria periodística del terremoto (19 de septiembre - 10 de octubre 1985), Mexico: UNAM; X. XXXXXXXXX (1990), Ciudad rota: la ciudad de México después del sismo, Mexico: UNAM; X. XXXXXX et al. (2005), Terremoto. Ausentes/Presentes, 20 años después, Mexico: Planeta. The Mexican government reduced the structural resources for agriculture, and privatized companies supporting rural farmers. The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) forced Mexican farmers to face unequal competition with U.S.A. farmers who had access to considerably more resources. At a social level, the government chose for assistance policies. These policies did not resolve the situations of poverty for rural and indigenous peoples. They emphasized the inequalities, and showed how discrimination based on class and race had become natural in Mexico. The general discontent resulted in a struggle of the peasant and popular movement against the existing political structures, and against the omnipresent clientelism and paternalism (Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx, 2010: 86-87). The uprising of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional on the 1st of January 1994 was a turning point for the indigenous movement. The main demands of the Mexican indigenous movement were the observance of constitutional rights and of their specific indigenous rights, and free determination and autonomy of indigenous peoples. Together with the Zapatista uprising, a movement of indigenous women emerged. These women supported the claim of autonomy based on ethnicity and culture of the Zapatista movement, but in addition, they opposed the subordination and discrimination they experienced as women. However, the development of the indigenous feminist movement was not the result of the Zapatista uprising, because it started earlier. It was rooted in the rural struggles of popular feminism. ...
