Indigenista Dreams Meet Sober Realities

Abstract

In 1951, Mexico’s National Indigenist Institute (Instituto Nacional Indigenista—INI) opened its pilot coordinating center in highland Chiapas. For several years, Mexico’s top indigenistas directed the center and tested several innovative projects aimed at promoting economic development, modernization, and cultural assimilation among the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya. They also tried to protect the indigenous from their worst non-Indian exploiters. After a period of initial fanfare, this important center slid into decline, hampered by inadequate budgets, compromised programs in education, health, and agriculture, and a demoralized staff. Its decadence had implications for the dozens of centers built by the INI in subsequent years. Crippled by local opposition, an outdated theoretical underpinning, and tepid political support, this coordinating center—and the INI in general—also suffered from close association with the Ministry of Public Education and other institutions of Mexico’s corporatist state. En 1951, el Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI), en México, abrió su coordinadora piloto en los altos de Chiapas. Durante muchos años, los mayores indigenistas de México dirigieron el centro y probaron varios proyectos innovadores dedicados al fomento del desarrollo económico, modernización, y asimilación cultural entre Mayas Tzeltales y Tzotziles. También intentaban proteger a los indígenas de sus mayores explotadores no-indígenas. Luego de un periodo de fanfarria inicial, este centro importante se deslizó al decline, obstaculizado por presupuestos inadecuados, programas transigidos en la educación, salubridad, y agricultura, y un equipo desmoralizado. Su decadencia tuvo implicaciones para docenas de centros que construyera el INI en años posteriores.

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