Cherán & Indigenous Anarchy
Today I’m continuing in the theme of serendipity. I’ll be talking about a town called Cherán in Michoacan, Mexico, where the grandmothers and young people stood up to the drug cartels and government. Fourteen years later, they're still thriving. With bonus synchronicities, here's what they have to teach us about courage and anarchy.
deer, dolls & day of the dead
Five years ago, in October of 2019, I travelled to Patzcuaro, a small town in Michoacan, Mexico, for Day of the Dead. I have a friend who does guided tours and now lives there. Part of the tour was to the gallery of a French photographer named Florence Leyret. If you follow this link, you’ll see the dramatic masks and juxtaposition of dolls and animals in this complex heritage, some of which I display here:
Florence writes:
As a French photographer based in Michoacán, certainly the most notorious state of Mexico for its stories of violence, corruption and drug cartels, I have been recording the richness of the indigenous Purépecha culture. I wish to be able to share with the world the depth of beauty and the cultural richness that sustain life here—far deeper and profound than the negative headlines that too quickly shape our understanding of Mexico.
As much as I was intrigued by these colorful and chaotic images, I was captivated by another series of black and white portraits of young people with grandmothers. These, she explained, were from nearby Cherán where the grandmothers and youth stood up to the drug cartels and corrupt government … and won!
In the video, I show the photo I bought from Florence:
This is an artist named Giovanni Fabían, who is in a collective called Cherani. Their address is http://artecherani.com/ if your browser allows it—mine doesn’t. Their byline is Empoderamiento de la Propia Identidad: Taking Power from Our Own Identity.
Here is some of Giovanni’s work:
Florence and I developed a strong spiritual bond, that continued after my return to the States, based on our shared sense that nothing happens by accident. Everything is interwoven and there is purpose in all things. She will be not at all surprised by the rest of the story.
terror and avocados
A few months ago, Frances Leader (I think) reposted This Mexican Town Kicked Out the Government 10 Years Ago and Is Thriving. As I clicked on the link, I thought, “What are the odds that it’s Cherán?” You may think the odds are good, how many are there? But you’d be forgetting about the Zapatistas in Oaxaca, and we should never forget about the Zapatistas!
The link went to Crow Qu’appelle at Nevermore Media, which is ‘an anarchist journal of heresy and thoughtcrime.’ Right up my alley! Here is how his article begins:
Recently, two members of the Nevermore team traveled to the autonomous town of Cherán in Michoacan, a state which has long been a hotspot in Mexico’s bloody drug war. After years of being terrorized by narco-traffickers who operated in conjunction with the state government, the inhabitants of Cherán revolted in 2011, successfully expelling both the government and other organized crime from their municipality.
After taking control of their community, the people of Cherán decided to ban political parties, abolish police, and establish a unique form of participatory democracy based on their indigenous Purépecha traditions.
As anarchists, it was truly beautiful to be in a place where the people have seized control of their community from the state, and we were delighted to see that the community, by all appearances, is doing very well.
The territory of Cherán covers an area of more than 20,000 hectares, and the economy of the region has long been based on the commercial harvesting of pine resin, as well as agriculture, timber, and the raising of livestock.
However, beginning in 2008, the community began to be plagued by illegal logging, which was carried on by businesspeople who are also involved in both the drug trade and the avocado industry.
These loggers proceeded to cut down the community’s forests at a breakneck pace. Between 2008 and 2011, over 8,000 hectares were devastated. To make matters worse, these criminal elements profiting from the destruction of the forests were doing so with the intention of converted the deforested land into avocado plantations.
In other words, they were planning to take over the area and use it as a base of operations for years to come.
Out of fear of the Malos and their threats, nobody would go to the forest anymore because they wouldn’t come back.”
The situation of terror did not cease and neither did the loggers. But the situation changed when the “Malos” began to demand more and more from the community.
“First it was the forest, then the cattle, then the women. Then the ‘Plaza’ (extortion fees). Before, they would enter the town armed. We couldn’t do anything.” Josefina explained. But everything changed when they began to exploit the water source that supplied the community.
Crow explains how this was an uprising led by women. Mrs. Josefina Estrada Velázquez, who describes herself as a housewife, is pictured above. The men were working in the fields or in the US to send money back. Only the grandmothers, mothers and young people were left. On the day they had enough, the bells rang at 7 am and they blocked the road, detaining five of the loggers.
When armed forces came to break out the detainees, the resistance used stones, sticks, bottles of gasoline, and fireworks called cuetones. Although there were deaths on both sides, Cherán prevailed and expelled the Malos.
During the time that followed, they organized a horizontal government in which each fogata, comprised of a street, sends representatives to the four neighborhood Communal Councils, which then send representatives to the Consejo Mayor. The positions are rotated and it’s common for housewives (I love that Crow uses this word!) to hold important roles of responsibility.
Security is key, and all three access points are guarded around the clock. The police and all political parties were disbanded. And they protected themselves legally. Crow continues:
Cherán began to seek legal recognition of its right to self-govern, advancing a argument based on the 2nd article of the Mexican constitution, which protects the right of indigenous communities to govern themselves. In 20XX, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled in favor of the community, meaning that the authority of the Consejo Mayor over the territory of Cheran K’eri, including that of self-defense, is considered legal and legitimate by the Mexican state.
Pedro Chavéz explains: “We have the constitutional right of self-determination to decide how to organize ourselves politically, culturally, educationally and above all in the defense of our territory. We are not outside the law or the constitutional framework.”
birds of a feather
Other words for anarchy are community self-governance and small-scale sovereignty. I’m going to be talking about Appalachia and showing why standing up to government and corporations isn’t just for Mexico. These days, we all need to learn more about anarchy and what it really is.
In another synchronicity, if you look closely at the photo of Giovanni, you’ll see he has an owl tattooed on his chest. Tobin Owl of To the Root has been connecting me to his whole fine flock of feathered friends, where we’ve been talking about David Graeber.
And it turns out that Crow’s fiancé is from Cherán and he’s invited me to his wedding in February! I think this is too much synchronicity to resist. Here he is with his gorgeous fiancé Alexia:
And, as everyone knows, crows have always been my totem creature!
Douglas Jack has spent 60 years working with elders in indigenous communities. He explains the longhouse economy, the 50-country Axis alliance for peace in WWII, scriptures that enslave, council process, and participatory empowerment. Going to the roots of words, he exposes new meaning. I respond from the perspective of my home-centered economic model of small scale sovereignty.
Economics is a system of organizing labor by issuing and collecting money backed by ownership of the assets; anarchy is rule by rules rather than by rulers. As the czar or czarina of your fiefdom, what will your policies be? This discusses Universal Basic Income, student debt forgiveness, naive do-gooders, capitalism vs. socialism, and cheap vs. free. As a supplemental economy, it takes the mortgages back from capitalists and takes the social pension back from government. It enables those who work for corporations to benefit from the local economy while adding to the reserves that generate more prosperity. With a segue into a spirituality of enough, it ends with Matt Ehret on protectionism vs. free trade and the need for a standing army.
Just incredible, Tereza. My wish is that a movie is made out of this story. We need these stories to feed our imagination. Thank you for feeding my imagination!
Lovely story with lessons:
1. Never underestimate what the protective power of mothers can achieve.
2. "Participatory democracy based on their indigenous Purépecha traditions": Long term viability of a revolution necessitates that it be anchored in the civilizational heritage of a society.