Capacitaciones autónomas indígenas - Respuesta a la política asimiladora nacional. El ejemplo de los Wixaritar de México

The conditions of the indigenous peoples of Mexico are, inter alia, determined by the national assimilation politics of the Mexican government. Unter the name of the so-called Indigenismo, official programmes for the assimilation and acculturation of the native population are carried out. Rejecting the disregard of indigenous self-reliance and plurality, Mexican indigenous peoples claim the recognition and implementation of their rights and make efforts to put local constructions of autonomy into practice. However, the sector of education and formation forms an important junction within the debate of indigenous autonomy: it is claimed both by governmental integration programmes and by the indigenas in the course of the establishment of an independent indigenous education. Also the Wixaritari, people of the Sierra Madre Occidental, respond to the issue for autonomous indigenous formation themselves, “from below”, in their own way. In this paper, we present the concept of capacitaciones and discuss its role for a self-contained development on the basis of the concrete experiences of the autonomous indigenous community of Bancos de San Hipolito.