Tx’otx’ and la defensa del territorio : articulating Mam territory as an Indigenous cross-border nation

ABSTRACTThis article examines the way the Maya-Mam, an Indigenous people divided by the Guatemala–Mexico border, define territory in relation to and across state borders. As state borders geographically, socially, culturally, and politically divide the pueblo Mam, state maps bolster these divisions and state subjugation by promoting a nation-state framework that circumscribes the Mam within its borders. However, the Mam are problematizing state depictions of spatiality: they denaturalize state borders by articulating alternative ontologies of territory. This study shows that in their everyday lives, Mam councils, activists, and individuals aim to promote broader cross-border Mam unification to better defend territory from potential harm. They use a dual-prong approach for articulating territory: through the development of narratives that draw upon a more holistic understanding of territory’s ‘nature’ and by making counter-maps that incorporate Mam understanding of territory. I argue that these Indigenous efforts weave together a resistance to and refusal of state frames.KEYWORDS: Indigenous peoplesterritoryborder politicscounter-mappingMamcross-border nations AcknowledgmentsI thank Mam council leaders and other participants for helping make this research possible. I also thank Patricia Richards and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Participants are called by pseudonyms throughout, except scholars who requested their names’ inclusion.2. Peoples or pueblos is a political term that may signify Indigenous nationhood and collective rights, including rights to territory, self-determination, autonomy, language development, education, and cultural practices (Richards and Gardner Citation2022).3. After Guatemala’s armed conflict, state officials and guerrilla groups signed peace accords, including the 1995 Agreement on Identity and Rights for the Indigenous Population (also called the Indigenous Rights Accord).4. IRB approval as Gardner (#2011108180) and Gardner (IRB-FY2018 36737).5. The map was created by the Comité Estatal de Información Estadística y Geográfica (CEIEG), a Mexican government body that includes the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI).6. Figure 3 depicts other Indigenous languages spanning the Belize–Guatemala border, but this is tied to territorial disputes between states that are beyond the scope of this article.7. ALMG is a state organization developed in 1990 following the Guatemalan Congress’ passage of the Ley de la Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala.Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by Sam Houston State University and The University of Georgia.Notes on contributorsJeffrey A. GardnerJeffrey Gardner is an assistant professor of sociology at Sam Houston State University. His research interests include social movements, racial and ethnic inequality, and political sociology. His work centers on border politics in Latin America, with a focus on the collective rights struggles and collective identification of Indigenous peoples divided by contemporary state borders.