Indigenous insurgency: Protest, rebellion and the politicization of ethnicity in 20th century Mexico

This dissertation analyzes the dynamics of indigenous insurgency across 883 Mexican municipalities during the dual process of transition from authoritarian rule to democracy and from a state-led to a market economy, 1976--2000. By indigenous insurgency I understand the process by which indigenous populations became key political players for the first time since 1492. This process was marked by a long cycle of indigenous protest and two of its most important outgrowths: the 1994 indigenous rebellion in Chiapas and the politicization of ethnicity in the 1990s.The general proposition I make and test is that the breakdown in local political and religious monopolies created the conditions for indigenous insurgency in Mexico. I argue that the changing local dynamics of indigenous insurgency was the unintended result of the dismantling of one-party rule and of the monopoly of the Catholic Church. I suggest that economic policy changes had a crucial triggering effect but changing dynamics of insurgency were ultimately shaped by local political and religious competition.Statistical analysis based on the Mexican Indigenous Insurgency Database suggests that religious competition was a strong predictor of indigenous insurgency. The Protestant penetration in indigenous municipalities drew the Catholic Church closer to the Indian poor. But a reputation of having sided with the "rich" for centuries forced the Catholic clergy to take radical commitments toward the Indians, including the organization of communal cooperatives and popular protest movements. In Chiapas, the social basis of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) was drawn from these Catholic social networks. Finally, the Protestant strategy of translating the Bible to indigenous languages forced the Catholic Church to embrace Indian languages. The resultant revival of autochthonous languages that came along with religious competition served as a critical input for the politicization of ethnicity.Local electoral competition was a strong predictor of indigenous insurgency. The transition from one-party rule to a two-party system was associated with rising levels of protest, but beyond two-party competition protest subsumed. Left opposition parties initially contributed to the mobilization of indigenous peoples, but once established as real contenders for power they discouraged protest. Bipartisan competition was a powerful deterrent against the emergence of guerrilla movements. Finally, left opposition parties discouraged the politicization of ethnicity, but the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) played a mixed role, depending on local conditions: While in Oaxaca it encouraged the politicization of ethnicity as a means to deter the electoral advancement of the left and to avoid the emergence of an Indian guerrilla movement, in Chiapas the PRI remained a fierce detractor of the establishment of Zapatista-dominated ethno-territorial regions.