The Chiapas Jaguar as Symbol of Maya Resintencia – Resistance and Intention

Abstract:In Prácticas descoloniales: El movimiento de resintencia cultural y lingüística, Tseltal Maya scholar and educator Daniel Ochoa shows how an Indigenous perspective can bring forth ideas about language and education. He combines resistencia /resistance and intención /intention into resintencia, a decolonial practice based on nurturing Indigenous culture. The focus is not just on opposing colonial forces, but also, like jaguars faced with capitalist encroachment, maintaining indigenous tradition in the face of global pressures. I consider Ochoa’s ideas on Indigenous educational and cultural practices in light of Maya jaguar ontology, as well as in comparison with biological studies of jaguar behavior. I then consider how the Zapatistas incorporate similar ideas of resintencia and jaguar ontology into their political praxis. Drawing from Tsotsil Maya sholar and poet Manuel Bolom Pale’s examination of Tsotsil linguistic epistemology Chanubtasel-p'ijubtasel: Reflexión filosófica de los pueblos originarios, I compare this with Zapatista concepts as described in Dylan Eldredge Fitzwater’s Autonomy Is in Our Hearts: Zapatista Autonomous Government through the Lens of the Tsotsil Language. Together these works show how Maya writers and educators, and citizens on Maya autonomous lands, are living a jaguar ontology that strives to keep balance in the world.