• Work carried out
I interviewed thirty participants in Mexico most of whom contributed to all three work packages. About two thirds were from indigenous communities and about one third were women. I also collected 20 bi-lingual published texts published in Chiapas, 10 theses produced in Spanish by bi-lingual Maya students in the social sciences and humanities, and a collection of bi-lingual teaching materials from the 1970s to the present day. In Copenhagen, I transcribed the interviews into written Spanish, read the published and unpublished texts from Chiapas, and secondary literature at the library in the University of Copenhagen and worked to produce presentations and articles.
• Main Results
Writers and artists from native communities questioned anthropological and archeological definitions of ethnicity and considered that recent scholarship on the history of the Maya had had only a limited impact on their work and less on most indigenous people in Chiapas. They objected to the “folklorization” of Maya culture in Mexico, and some authors also object to the expectation that they publish bi-lingual native language-Spanish editions. Furthermore, many native language artists and authors identify primarily with their town, community or linguistic group, not with the term “indigenous”, which is felt to be an official label, defined and imposed by the state that one must adopt to gain recognition, sponsorship and employment opportunities. Increasingly, then, native artists and writers in Chiapas have come to problematize the bases upon which the concepts of indigeneity and ethnicity are defined in academic disciplines as well as the mestizo nationalist discourse of the Mexican nation-state.
The state has played a pivotal role in the development of bi-lingual education, literacy, literature and artistic expression in native languages in Chiapas from the 1970s. In response to growing political and human rights activism, state actors and institutions increased the sponsorship of indigenous cultural activities and the provision of education and employment for indigenous professionals. In 1992, the state established the Centre for Maya and Zoque writers (UNAMEZ), which through its workshops became significant in the development of creative literature in native languages in Chiapas. In 1997, as a direct response to the Zapatista uprising of 1994, the Mexican government established the State Centre for Indigenous Arts and Literatures (CELALI). CELALI co-ordinated and financed cultural activities and institutions and took over administration of the UNAMEZ writers’ workshops, and through prizes, grants, fellowships and publications fostered the development and diffusion of creative literature by native language writers in Chiapas. State sponsorship contributed to the flourishing of indigenous cultural expression in the 2000s. But, indigenous literature also increasingly became a state project, co-ordinated by CELALI.
• Exploitation and dissemination
So far I have attended a series of seminars, conferences and workshops in Denmark, Mexico and the US, I am writing 2 articles at present, and intend to attend and organize dissemination events postponed by Covid as soon as possible.
