Indigenous Transborder Citizenship: FIOB Los Angeles and the Oaxaca Social Movement of 20061

Abstract

Concepts of citizenship need to be reworked in the context of transborder migration, political participation, and identify formation processes. Here I use the concept of transborder citizenship as a frame for understanding multilayered citizenship among indigenous migrants and immigrants. My focus is on understanding how citizenship is conceptualized, acted upon, and practiced strategically in transborder indigenous organizations located in multiple sites in Mexico and the United States through an examination of how indigenous migrants participate in and support social movements in their places of origin. While much of the coverage and analysis of the Oaxaca social movement of 2006 was focused on the city of Oaxaca and the role of urban Oaxacans, along with teachers in the movement, indigenous Oaxacans in the United States also participated in the social movement through a chapter of the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, APPO) organized in Los Angeles. My analysis suggests that through their participation in APPO Los Angeles, indigenous Oaxacans who are members of the Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales (Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations, FIOB) successfully created a hybrid of model of citizenship based in part on traditions from Oaxaca, Mexico, which cut across geographic, ethnic, legal, economic, and social borders. I end with a conceptual discussion of how this case illustrates multiple senses of citizenship that build on both indigenous models and those of scholars of globalization.

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