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To See with Two Eyes: Peasant Activism and Indian Autonomy in Chiapas, Mexico by Shannan

L. MattiaceReview by: Lynn StephenJournal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 575-577Published by: University of New MexicoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3631149 .

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BOOKREVIEWS 575Stefansson reminds us that there are "qualitatively different kinds ofdisplacements" p. 185). Moreover,we should not forget the imaginativehold"homeland" asoverpeople.While I agreethat his is animportantnsight,andoneborneoutthrough he articlespresented n thisvolume,these authorsalso suggest,in presenting hecomplexitiesin identityformation hatarise frommigration, hat"home"becomes more a vestige of memoryandimagination,perhapsan alwaysbecomingrealitythat is only becomes "real"when looked uponwithhindsight.Coming Home? offers ethnographicallyrich portrayalsof the way theimaginingsandrealitiesof "home"affectrefugee experiencesandsubjectivities. tis perhapsmy own interest n diaspora tudies thatcompelsme to suggestthatthisaspectof the volume could be amplified f some attentionwere paidto returnsofsecond- andthird-generation efugeesandmigrantswho may not have ever been"home"before. Overall,ComingHome? covers a broadrangeof considerationsthat affectmigranthomecomingand ncludesresearch hat aims to exploremigrantreturnexperiences from a variety of perspectives.The volume is an importantcontribution o migrationscholarshipand an especially welcome examinationofthe overlooked and understudied henomenonof returnmigration.

Julia MeredithHessUniversityof New Mexico

To See with Two Eyes: Peasant Activism and Indian Autonomy in Chiapas,Mexico. ShannanL. Mattiace. Albuquerque:Universityof New Mexico Press,2003, 224 pp., 3 maps.$21.95, paper.Based on fieldworkcarriedout largelyin 1995 and 1996, this monographwill beof most interest o anthropologists ndpoliticalscientistsexploringthe historical,political,cultural,and economic factorsbehind themultiplemodelsof indigenousself-determination ow practiced n Chiapasand elsewhere in Mexico. The bookalso places indigenousself-determination n Chiapasin a comparativedialoguewith othereffortsto organizeethnicautonomyregimes throughoutLatinAmerica.ToSee with TwoEyes adds an importantpiece to the now-thick iteratureon theZapatistaArmyof National Liberation EZLN)in Chiapas, ocusingnot so muchon the EZLNitself, but on the way thatEZLNdemands or indigenousrightsandself-determinationmerged historicallyand were takenin differentdirectionsbydifferentethnicgroupsandorganizations n Chiapas.Througha detailed historical and political analysis, Mattiacedemonstrateshow a multitudeof factors influenced what came to be known as "indigenousautonomy"in eastern Chiapas. She shows how many of the major peasantorganizations hatoperated n the region beginningin the mid-1970s trainedkeyleaderswho laterbecame identified with indigenousrights struggles,providedamaterialbase for organizations hrougha focus on productiveactivities and land

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576 JOURNALOFANTHROPOLOGICALESEARCHredistribution, ndcreatedregionalstructures hat were adopted n some partsofChiapas as part of regional indigenous autonomyregimes. Her analysis alsofocuses on the role of national ndigenist policies andorganizations, uch as theNationalIndigenist nstitute INI),INICoordinatingCenters,SupremeCouncilsofdifferent ethnic groups, and other state-originatedorganizationssuch as theCONASUPO ocal counselsandINI theatrebrigades, n providingsome politicalopenings and terrain or experimentation t the local and national level for theempowerment f indigenouspeoplesandleadershipdevelopment.Heranalysisofindigenous nstitutionshighlightstensions anddisagreementsn such institutionsthat in some cases permitted hese spaces to be fully or partiallyappropriatedytheirindigenous participants nd their non-Indianallies. Such experienceswereimportant n the constructionof earlier experimentsof autonomysuch as theTojolabalregionalgovernmentof the late 1980s as well as in the EZLN RebelMunicipalities and Autonomous Regions and the Pluriethnic AutonomousRegions (RAPS)of the 1990s.The book's most in-depth focus is on the case of Tojolabal regionalgovernment hatemerged n the late 1980s built on botha peasantorganizationnthe region (CIOAC) and on the state-createdConsejo Supremo Tojolabal.Identified as a parallel government hatoperated n oppositionto the municipalone, this experiment s an importantprototype or currentautonomyregimes inChiapas.I wish that more of the book had been devoted to this case study.AsMattiace documents, the Tojolabalhave a unique ethnic history in that theircommunity structures were destroyed in the nineteenth century by Mestizolandownersand local community dentity s not as strongas elsewhere.Migrationbeginning n the 1950sfromtraditional reasof settlement o the Lacandonunglewherefamilies wereorganizedaccording o the structure f ejidos (agrarianeformcommunities) increased the possibility for building extralocal organizationalstructures.At the sametime, advocates or a regionalTojolabalgovernmenthavehad to battle conflict between ejido communities as competition for landintensified with each generation.In the structure of the book, Mattiace interjects what she calls four"Vignettes."The richest ethnographicmaterial s reservedfor these interludes.One, which documents he takeoverof an INI-runradio station n Las Margaritasin 1996andthesubsequentnegotiationsbetweenINIofficials and a wide rangeoflocal organizations,s particularly ich in illustrating he complexityand conflictthatexists betweendifferent ndigenousorganizations ndcommunities n Chiapaswith regard o how to interpretand implement ndigenousautonomy n concreteterms. While autonomous indigenous governance structureshave often beencreatedby indigenous intellectualsand organizational eaders at the top, localunderstandings f whatautonomymeans are often confused.After providinga detailed discussionof the process throughwhich the SanAndr s Accords on IndigenousRightsand Culturewerenegotiatedandsigned bythe EZLN andthe Mexicangovernment,Mattiaceconcludesby comparingwhathappened with proposals for indigenous self-determination n Mexico withoccurrences n other Latin American nations.In 2001, the Mexican government

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BOOKREVIEWS 577legislateda watered-downversion of the historicaccords,known as "San Andr6sLight,"which was profoundlyunsatisfactory o most indigenous organizations,groups, and communities. Mattiace concludes that unlike the cases of Panama(Kuna)andNicaragua Miskito),whereindigenousgroupswere able to negotiatea full-fledged egal autonomyregimeafterarmedconflicts,the EZLN and ts alliesin Mexico failed because access to decision-makingspheres was closed toindigenous eaders,and the EZLN and the national ndigenousmovementhad noinfluentialpolitical ally inside the governmentwho could bring the autonomyregime to legal reality. The fact that Mexico recognized multiculturalismsimultaneouslywith the implementation f a neoliberaleconomicregime limitedthe materialbase for the reproductionof indigenous culture. Thus, Mattiacesuggests the need for indigenousrights organizers o continueto press for bothmaterialandculturaldemands.To See with Two Eyes provides a valuable, detailed account of differentunderstandingsndexperiencesof indigenousautonomy n Mexico and elsewherein Latin America. While it is not as rich in ethnographicdetail as mostanthropologistsmightlike, it providesa useful frameworkor anyone nterestednissues of indigenousrightsand ethnic and cultural dentities n the Americas.

Lynn StephenUniversityof Oregon

The Guaymas Chronicles: La Mandadera; El Giiero on the Streets ofNorthwest Mexico. David E. Stuart.Albuquerque:Universityof New MexicoPress, 2003, xiii, + 394 pp., illustrations,maps.$24.95, clothIt's complicated o be stuckbetween two worlds.-David Stuart

This nostalgic, "novelized"memoir by an Americananthropologistportraysaliminalperiodof his youth in a liminal partof the continent: he U.S.-Mexicanborderlands.That is, afterfleeing his fieldwork in Ecuador,David Stuartwentnative in Guaymas,Sonora,by smugglingsmall amountsof consumergoods infromTucson,Arizona.Consequently, he book offers an engagingaccountof theinformal ectorof theMexicaneconomycirca1970,thebeginningof the end of thepostrevolutionarystate. But most important is Stuart's sympathetic, finallyheartbreaking arrative f his fatherly dentificationwith an eleven-year-oldnifiade la calle (street kid)-a creature ike "somethingout of a Dickens novel"-whom he hires to be his errandgirl (la mandaderaof the title).

Lupitahadn'tbeenjust some kid I liked.She had never had a fairchance tobejusta child.At times shewas detached, rightened, leepingwhereno oneJournal f Anthropologicalesearch,ol.60, 2004