El espejo neozapatista: Reflexión y refracción del sujeto cultural indígena en México

This dissertation explores the discursive possibilities of a renewed debate concerning the figure of the indigenous cultural subject as a locus of cultural agency initiated by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). It is argued that homogenising and objectifying forms applied historically to the indigenous subject in Mexico by dominant discourses are potentially undermined through alternative interpretations: instead of considering such essentialism as alien to the ethnic diversity of indigenous peoples, Neozapatismo has constructed a common locus of solidarity and alternative forms of resistance.

In the first part, key moments in the history of Mexico are explored, as well as the construction of national and cultural identities in order to show how the indigenous cultural subject has suffered different forms of representation and determination. The purpose is to analyse the origins, and trace the 'cultural fabrication' of those ideologies of discrimination.

The second part of this dissertation discusses the necessity of a more inclusive democratic deliberative and radical perspective where different voices belonging to the most diverse groups of civil society inspired by the indigenous struggle for recognition have equal access to the public sphere, in order to reveal and galvanise forms of liberation and justice. The internationalisation of the indigenous cultural subject performed through Neozapatismo is also analysed: how it has disclosed new forms of solidarity and the social networks through which indigenous peoples have been included in an overarching world struggle against economic, cultural and political forms of domination.

The last part examines contemporary forms of representation of the indigenous subject spurred by Neozapatismo: through the critical perspective of intellectuals that consider it as manipulative of indigenous peoples; and by examining cultural production made for and by this social movement. It is argued that Neozapatismo is constructing a multidimensional indigenous subject, one that is actively shaped by the interpretative synergy of indigenous groups, likely for the very first time in Mexican history, and by external activism.