Collective work

Walking in the streets of Capulálpam de Méndez, every light post has a poster announcing next week’s tequio - collective work. Community members are called to clean the streets of the village together.

"Tequio is the labour that we all give to the community, it is the energy, the action that we contribute to the common benefit," Jaime Martínez Luna explains.

Apart from the system of cargos, people participate in short-term community projects, such as cleaning the village or surrounding forests, painting fences, road construction, creation of an irrigation system, etc. Tequio is another way to substitute the role of the state in executing infrastructure projects and providing necessary services. The assembly decides what is needed, and tequio is a sort of tool to do so. Community members thus have the responsibility as to how the projects are executed in their hands, unlike in cases when outside companies take care of them.

Usually, representatives of each family gather for a few hours or days to do what is necessary for the betterment of the community.

Similarly to the case of cargos, there is no financial reward for tequio. However, the authorities usually keep the record of who participates as in some villages and towns it is a prerequisite to the right to vote or other benefits and involvements in the system of cargos.

"No matter if we like it or not, it is necessary to participate in tequios," Martínez Luna states. "There are no individuals, there is only a series of agreements that the assembly approved and that need to be executed through tequios."Martínez Luna talks about reciprocity as one of the fundamental ideas of communality. "The day we complete tequio together, that action will empower us. It will make us realize that we are reciprocal, our actions are reciprocal, and the respect is also reciprocal, it is for all of us."

According to Fernando Ramos, "tequio also teaches community members values and morals".

In connection to collective work, Ramos talks about the perception of obligations and rights in Oaxacan communities. "Here, obligations come first and then we have rights. It is a completely different concept from the Western world where you talk about rights, but there are almost no obligations."

The obligations and responsibilities of a member of a community are clear to everybody who grows up in the Sierra Juárez. Participating at tequios and in the system of cargos; participating at the assembly, contributing for the good of the the village, protecting the territory - these are the main responsibilities.

Once a community member meets these expectations from the community, he or she can exercise his or her rights, such as voting. "There is also the right to be protected by the community and to be able to say proudly: I come from Yavesía. I have the right to a territory and a piece of land," Fernando names some of his rights. He keeps on fulfilling his obligations there even though he does not live in his village anymore, nor does he have a house there.

"If migrants want to keep their rights, they have to continue fulfilling their obligations for the community," Fernando Ramos suggests.

Migration as a strategy to maintain the system

Like many villages everywhere else in the world, the region of Sierra Juárez is also losing its inhabitants to bigger cities or other countries in search of better economic opportunities for themselves and their families.

Migration from Oaxaca to the United States dates back to the Bracero Program established after WWII and lasting until the 60s. A lack of workers on the farms in the U.S. led to a legal migration deal between Mexico and its northern neighbour. The waves of illegal migration from Oaxaca grew in the 80s when Mexico was going through an economic crisis and later in the 90s when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was introduced. Signing NAFTA affected farmers in Oaxaca. With only their small plots of land, they were not able to compete with the transgenic corn and other crops coming from the U.S. and had to search for other options to feed their families.

Santa María Yavesía has high numbers of migrants living in the U.S. long-term and also those searching for seasonal jobs there.

People in Yavesía live most on fruit trees, they grow their corn and other basic crops that they sometimes sell. Some have small businesses, small restaurants or bakeries; others work as carpenters or construction workers. While many locals state that the village would be self-sustaining even without cutting down the forests to sell the wood - like surrounding villages do - seasonal migration to the U.S. has become common in Yavesía. It helps to sustain its inhabitants and their lifestyle. Migrants who are based in the U.S. organize seasonal work for their community counterparts who join them for a few months a year and then come back to their village to take care of the fields.

"We were able to sustain ourselves from our fields, however, as our three daughters are growing up, they need more investments, so my husband has been working in the U.S. for the last nine years. He leaves us for four to six months a year," Ana Ramírez Martínez says.

In many indigenous villages across the country, migration has become a strategy to keep the system of uses and customs alive. While Oaxacan communities refuse some of the practices of the capitalist system based on consumerism and an individualistic society, at the same time they use it to maintain what matters to them. "We are conserving our communal life right from the heart of capitalism," Ramos states in regards to Mexican-US migration.

Walking by a river that divides the village’s two neighbourhoods, we hear the laughter of kids playing in the water and, unexpectedly, English language. "They are grandchildren who came to visit their grandparents from the U.S." Ramos explains. It is July, vacation time.

Even though kids who were born in the U.S. might more often speak English than Spanish, migrants who have been living outside of the village created various collectives in their new places of residence and keep on meeting, sharing and celebrating and thus keeping their culture alive no matter where they are.

They also help their place of origin remain independent from political parties (which are constantly trying to enter). Many migrants feel obliged to contribute to the community's budget. The municipality of Yavesía reaches out to the collectives if they need money for infrastructure projects, for buying a new bus, or when celebrations in the village are approaching. Usually, migrants and their families also participate in celebrations that take place in the village; it is a perfect opportunity to visit family members who stayed behind.

While men are gone, the system of uses and customs needs to be adjusted. In some cases, migration is the reason why women enter the system of cargos. In other cases, migrants pay someone from the village to do their service. Fernando Ramos is currently paying somebody from Yavesía to do his cargo. However, it is not always possible.

"Obviously, collective work is an activity that you can pay someone to do. That is how you fulfil your obligations as a citizen, and you also create employment for the people who need it. It is a job that you can delegate. What is impossible to delegate is a decision-making cargo when you already have a position that comes with more responsibility," comments Baltazar from Capulálpam de Mendéz.