Expressions of Agency and Configurations of Power in Mixe Women's Political Practices

Abstract

In the northern highlands of the State of Oaxaca (Mexico) there has been a political empowerment of Mixe women, which has led to an exponential increase in the number of female municipal presidents who have served in their political system of office. This article presents the main results of the research "Community and political participation of women in a Mixe community: Ethnography in San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla", which, based on a literature review, participant observation and in-depth interviews, provided an account of the ways in which external Western influences affect the cultural and gender dynamics within this indigenous community. From a descolonial feminist epistemological and methodological framework that provides us with a lens to look at the complexity of the experiences of these women as subaltern and racialized actors, it is shown how geographical, historical and cultural conditions give way to the emergence of new micropolitics, configurations of power and expressions of agency in the political practices of Mixe women living in the town at the entrance to the Mixe highlands.