Indigenous Peoples separated
by the Border Stand United Against the Trump Border Wall
Por Isaín Mandujano May 30,2017
TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Chiapas, Mexico
(Apro)
Por Isaín Mandujano May 30,2017
TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Chiapas, Mexico
(Apro)
Shannon Rivers and Rafael Alfonso Garcia did not know each other until last weekend, when they met face to face in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. There, attending the Congreso Nacional Indígena of Mexico, they both crossed paths, shared their words and shook hands as brothers of the O’odham Nations.
Both now
speak a second foreign language other than their own O’odham native tongue:
Rivers, English and Alfonso, Spanish but both belong to the same indigenous
peoples divided by a Mexican-American border established 1853, as consequence
of the Gadsden Purchase (La Venta de La Mesilla), a treaty made five years after the Treaty Guadalupe-Hidalgo
(1848), which ended the US war against Mexico and set the international border
between the two countries.
The two
belong to the O’otham Nations, as it is written on the other side of the Rio
Grande; Tojono O'otam, as it is pronounced on the Mexican side. They are also
part of the 82,000 remaining Indigenous Peoples of this population, of whom
about 42,000 reside in Mexico and about 40,000 in the United States. Their homelands in the desert territory of
Sonora and Arizona, are divided by about 120 kilometers of international border
which was imposed on the O’odham Nations after the War on Mexico in 1848. Both
Rivers and Garcia state in unity that the O’odham were never consulted regarding
the establishment of the border.
In an
interview with Apro, both men point out that they traveled to Chiapas to raise awareness
of their fight as O’odham Nations before the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation (EZLN), the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), its Indigenous
Council of Government (CIG) and its spokeswoman María de Jesús Patricio
Martínez, better known as Marichuy.
Although
they arrived separately in Chiapas, now that they met they have united their voices
and claims to be heard, if possible, before the international courts, as theirs
is a case of an indigenous nation whose territory was divided by an
international border of the states that they as Indigenous Peoples never agreed
to nor were they consulted in the decision between the two governments.
Further
to this violation of Indigenous territory, should the construction of a "border
wall" as proposed by Donald Trump be realized, this would be a double
grievance for the indigenous peoples of the region, who even now with great
difficulty maintain relationships of commercial exchange, family ties,
indigenous ways of knowing, customs and traditions that have endured from
ancestral times.
Shannon
Rivers explains that the Tohono O’odham Nation has adopted a resolution
addressed to the Trump government making it known that the border wall would be
yet another violation of human rights and indigenous rights for thousands of O’otham
people.
Likewise,
Rafael Alfonso Garcia said that he and the O’odham in Sonora have raised their
voices on the Mexican side to ask that both governments not allow further
offenses to the original peoples.
Shannon
Rivers warns that long before there was a USA, before Mexicans or Americans,
the O’odham Nations are constituency of an indigenous peoples originating from
this continent in time immemorial. They were not discovered by anyone, they
were already here, and neither were they conquered because they still survive even
after more than 500 years of colonization in their delimited territories.
They
also argue that International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169 states
that when the territories of indigenous peoples are bisected by international
borders, the Indigenous Peoples are to be allowed free transit between the two
countries, and that building the border wall as Trump proposes would further violate
these fundamental rights as Indigenous Peoples.
"If
necessary, we will go to international tribunals to prevent the border wall
from being constructed, since the already false border imposed on us has
violated the integrity of our Indigenous Peoples as O'otam Nations," says
Rafael Alfonso.
Shannon
Rivers and Rafael Alfonso Garcia played an important role in the context of the
Constitutive Assembly of the Indigenous Council of Government (CIG) for Mexico realized
from May 26-28, 2017 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.
The
former was responsible for leading a traditional ceremony of spiritual exchange
during the closing plenary by way of an eagle feather, given to Marichuy, the
spokesperson and now independent candidate of the indigenous peoples to the
Presidency of Mexico in 2018.
"When
we heard that this event was about to happen, we decided to accept the
invitation by the Congreso Nacional Indigena to come and be here as witnesses
and observers from the Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples of the north. Coming
from the other side of the US-Mexico border, we let it be known that we are not
Americans, we do not recognize that imposed border. Long before that we are the
Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples of the territory and the continent and
as such we are came here in solidarity and support for Marichuy, "
underlined Shannon Rivers.
Rafael
Alfonso was elected as a member of the Concejo Indigena de Gobierno (CIG)
Council of Indigenous Government of Mexico along with 50 other people, men and
women of different indigenous peoples of Mexico. He, who traveled from Sonora
to Chiapas, forms an active part of that geopolitical entity created by the Congreso
Nacional Indigena and the EZLN on May 28, 2017 here in Chiapas.
(Translation: TONATIERRA)
Pueblo indígena separado por la frontera va contra el muro de Trump
María
de Jesús Patricio Martinez, Marichuy, is Mexico's National Indigenous
Congress ( CNI ) and the Zapatista National Liberation Army ( EZLN)
candidate for presidency in 2018.
These are the Seven Principles of the Mexico's National Indigenous Congress ( CNI): 1. Serve and do not self-serve 2. Construct and do not destruct 3. Represent and do not supplant 4. Convince and do not defeat 5. Obey and do not mandate 6. Lower to humility, and do not rise to arrogance 7. Propose and do not impose |
Beautiful.
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