Between the State and Indigenous Autonomy: Unpacking Video Indígena in Mexico

Authors(s): Erica Cusi Wortham

Source: American Anthropologist, Vol. 106, No. 2 (Jun., 2004), pp. 363-368
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3566972
Accessed: 24-03-2016 21:00 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Wiley, American Anthropological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to American Anthropologist

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 148.197.146.3 on Thu, 24 Mar 2016 21:00:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Visual Anthropology 363

with my work accompanying the "Ojo de Condor" video tour.

REFERENCES CITED

Thanks also to Nelly Alvarado for assistance with translating this

Brysk, Allison

interview and to Margaret Kelly, Assistant Editor at American

2000 From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and

Anthropologist, for her usual careful work. I am grateful to the Bo-

International Relations in Latin America. Stanford: Stanford

livian community groups Comit6 Pro Bolivia and Alma Boliviana

University Press.

for their assistance at the Arlington screenings. Especially, I am

Flores, Daniel and Ascencio

grateful to Ivan Sanjinds, Jeslis Tapia and Marcelina Cirdenas for

2001-2002 Bolivian Links; Indigenous Media: Interview with Ju-

allowing me to accompany them on their tour and for their time

lia Mostia, Alfredo Copa and Marcelino Pinto. Translated by

in the interview.

Susian Briante with Freya Schiwy). BOMB (winter, 78):30-35.

1. These are the Bolivian Rural Workers Sole Syndicate (CSUTCB),

Ginsburg, Faye

the Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia Confederation (CIDOB), and the

1993 Aboriginal Media and the Australian Imaginary. Public

Bolivian Settlers Syndicate Confederation (CSCB).

Culture 5(3):557-558.

2. Marcelina Cardenas returned to Bolivia before the Taos Film

Stephenson, Marcia

2002 Forging an Indigenous Counterpublic Sphere: The Taller

Festival and was not present for the interview.

de Historia Oral Andina in Bolivia. Latin American Research

Review 37(2):99-118.

Turner, Terence

FURTHER INFORMATION

2002 Representation, Polyphony, and the Construction of

For a catalogue of films distributed by CEFREC, see http://cefrec.

Power in a Kayap6 Video. In Indigenous Movements, Self-

bolnet.bo and http://videoindigena.bolnet. bo.

Representation, and the State in Latin America. Kay B. Warren

For further information on the Native American Film

and Jean E. Jackson, eds. Pgs. 229-250. Austin: University of

and Video Center and Festival, see http://www.nativenetworks.

Texas Press.

si.edu/eng/green/index.htm. There is also further information on

Warren, Kay B., and Jean E. Jackson, eds.

viewing productions from the center's native film and video col-
2002 Indigenous Movements, Self-Representation, and the State

lection of Festival titles at the Museum of the American Indian in

in Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press.

New York. For titles and distributors of native media screened at the
Yashar, Deborah

NMAI Festival, see www.nativenetworks.si.edu/eng/orange/index.

1999 Democracy, Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal

htm.
Challenge in Latin America. World Politics 52(1):76-104.

Between the State and Indigenous Autonomy:

Unpacking Video Indigena in Mexico

ERICA CUSI WORTHAM

video centers established as a part of the TMA program,

Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California,

though funding for the program has steadily diminished

San Diego since 1994. Through the program, thousands of hours of

videotape have been recorded in and about indigenous

ABSTRACT This essay unpacks the complex emergence of

communities in Mexico, and hundreds of edited video pro-

video indigena, or state-sponsored small media, at the height

grams about indigenous cosmology, spirituality, land rights

of official pluralism in Mexico in the early 1990s. A government

and usage, expressive culture, political marches, and com-

munity sociopolitical structure circulate within and be-

video program created in a transitional institutional setting

yond community settings. While some programs are mu-

colludes with the indigenous autonomy movement-through

sic videos and short fiction, documentary realism is the

the work and visions of individual video makers and cultural

dominant genre for video indigena. These video projects are

activists-to produce a social form and process that has gained

screened in a wide variety of settings-representative of

international recognition while confronting particular chal-

the range of social relations in which they are embedded-

lenges in indigenous communities. [Keywords: indigenous media, including indigenous communities, rural and urban tours

organized by INI and non-governmental organizations, as

indigenous-state relations in Mexico, cultural activism]

well as international film festivals and special programs

In 1990 the Mexican government's National Indigenous In-

(Figure 1). Despite the emergence of several indigenous me-

stitute (INI) launched a video program designed to train

dia projects in other parts of the world during the late 1980s

indigenous people in the fundamentals of video produc- (namely in Canada, Brazil, and Australia; see Ginsburg 1993,

tion, Transferencia de Medios Audiovisuales a Comunicades y 2003; Marks 1994; Michaels 1994; Roth 1989; Turner 1991),

Organizaciones Indigenas (Transference of Audiovisual Media

INI's TMA program creators-urban, nonindigenous pro-

to Indigenous Communities and Organizations) (TMA).1

fessionals working in a bureaucratic setting-believed they

Funded entirely by then president Salinas's antipoverty pro- were "discovering something completely new" (interview

gram, Solidaridad (Solidarity), TMA trained 87 indigenous with Guillermo Monteforte, February 2000). Under various

individuals representing 37 discrete organizations from 13

names and funding structures, video indigena is happen-

different states from 1990 through 1994. Hundreds more

ing all over Latin America today, but in the Mexican con-

have been trained since then through a series of regional

text video indigena was given caracter nacional (national

This content downloaded from 148.197.146.3 on Thu, 24 Mar 2016 21:00:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
364 American Anthropologist * Vol. 106, No. 2 * June 2004

ii:

"'*l?'"4"bb~~iiiiiri

1ZC? ~ ~i~ ~k~i 8~ ~ ~8~ ~BI li~ :i3

~:;:::

:ii''.ii'i:iiii~i~~~~si~B~?ii~sP~~' I :i

I~ ?tt ;"~

?5 i:

~? ' al 1.4

?.

::?:?

FIGURE 1. Radio y Video Tamix's "youngest generation". Young producers in training, in and on the air from the Tamix television studio in

Tamazulapam. (Photo credit: Radio y Video Tamix 1996)

character) by INI. Like indigenous identity, indigenous ment projects), to launch INI's indigenous video program

video in Mexico constitutes an entangled social process sit- in 1990.

uated at the complex juncture of state-indigenous relations. While the title of INI's video program, Transferencia

de Medios Audiovisuales a Comunicades y Organizaciones

This essay unpacks the complex emergence and history of

video indigena's multifaceted, plural character by focusing Indigenas, speaks of the institutional prerogative to bestow

on some of the key figures in its development. As colleagues or grant indigenous people access to media, urban and for-

and collaborators with each other, their stories combine to

eign migration may have more to do with the proliferation

of audiovisual technology among indigenous communities.

show how specific regional and local expressions of indige-

nous autonomy were also key arenas through which video TMA was created as part of an institutionwide directive

to shift more functions and control over institutional re-

indigena developed.

sources and programs to indigenous people themselves, an

INVENTING AND UNTANGLING VIDEO INDiGENA:

initiative spearheaded by anthropologist turned bureaucrat

MOVING BEYOND STATE-SPONSORSHIP

Arturo Warman during his tenure as director of INI from

1989 to 1994 (Warman 1989). Video indigena was put into

Guillermo Monteforte, a Canadian national of Italian de-

scent who has lived and worked in Mexico as a professional practice-indeed, it was "taught"-through a series of eight-

film editor and documentary maker for over 20 years, has week video production workshops held at an INI training

been involved with indigenous video in Mexico since 1989 facility in the central valley of Oaxaca. Members of indige-

nous communities and organizations were trained in the

when, as an employee at INI's Ethnographic Audiovisual

basics of video production and editing, and as one of the

Archive, he skeptically looked on as anthropologists and

filmmakers discussed the possibility of un video indio (In- only instances of hard "transference" by the institution,

dian video) (INI 1990). Monteforte does not remember pre-

participants were given basic packages of video production

cisely when "video indigena" gained currency as a term. equipment.

Monteforte assumed the directorship of INI's first Cen-

He explained, "We invented it, we who are on this side,

wanting indigenous people to do video." His initial con- tro de Video Indigena (Indigenous Video Center, CVI) from

1994 through 1997. The idea of the CVI, representative of

cern about imposing audiovisual technologies onto indige-

the second phase of INI's video program, was to give conti-

nous communities was transformed as he saw the possibil-

nuity to the workshops, something Monteforte was person-

ity of using media as a tool for social change. The Archive

director enlisted Monteforte, along with two other Mexico ally committed to since he started the program. Monteforte

and a dedicated staff of three worked tirelessly to develop

City-based media professionals (who were socially commit-

the CVI as forum and facility for emerging video makers

ted and shared Monteforte's healthy skepticism for govern-

This content downloaded from 148.197.146.3 on Thu, 24 Mar 2016 21:00:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Visual Anthropology 365

challenge of video indigena for Garcia is to make "schemes"

to assemble, exchange ideas, postproduce and archive

of embedded, lived autonomy visible and self-conscious so

programs taped in their communities, and continue their

that they can be overtly defended.

training. Through their efforts and Monteforte's personal

According to Garcia, autonomy is evident and practiced

anti-institutional stance, the CVI in Oaxaca took on an

in the everyday life of indigenous communities in Oaxaca

"NGO profile" and became known as a place of refuge for

and video indigena is particularly well suited to the ways

politically active, critical indigenous video makers.

that autonomy, more than an abstract political notion, is

Ironically, and despite INI's further investment in cre-

lived by indigenous people. He explained:

ating two other CVIs in other parts of Mexico, 1994 was also

the beginning of the dismantling of the CVI in Oaxaca, as

Video indigena is loaded with symbols, codes; it is loaded

the promise and premise of transference was undercut by in-

with what we up there in the sierra call comunalidad.

stitutional responses to the indigenous rebellion launched

What are its elements? Principally, collectivity, language,

by the Ejercito Zapatizta de Liberaci6n Nacional (Zapatista facial features, intimacy. That is to say, in video indigena

the intimacy of a family is there in such a way that it

Army for National Liberation) that same year. The CVI en-

is barely noticeable. In other words, watching the video

joyed its heyday during the first years of Monteforte's lead-

you enter into that family, into the community and the

ership, but INI slowly wore down CVI staff with prolonged

community sees you as the same. You are not a stranger,

financial insecurity and indirect threats of being shut down.

but just another person from the community with a ma-

Monteforte severed ties with INI in 1998 to form an actual

chine stuck to your shoulder that is an extension of your

body, that permits you to tape what you want.

NGO, Ojo de Agua Comunicaci6n (Ojo de Agua Commu-

nications), which incorporates many former CVI staff and

Garcia's most recent video, Lhallchho/Our People (2003), a

fulfills his early objective of creating a productive safety net

careful and intimate portrait of a Zapotec community (not

for video makers after diminishing state sponsorship.2

far from his own) preparing for Day of the Dead celebra-

tions, perfectly demonstrates his approach. Interestingly,

the intimacy and closeness Garcia describes cannot be taken

VIDEO INDiGENA AS POSTURA

for granted as the case of Radio y Video Tamix (Radio and

The emergence of video indigena cannot be understood

Video Tamix) demonstrates below.4

through the institutional context alone. The indigenous au-

tonomy movement, as well as specific regional and local ex-

VIDEO INDiGENA IN THE COMMUNITY: DILEMMAS IN

pressions of indigenous autonomy, constitutes key sociopo-

MAKING CULTURE VISIBLE

litical arenas through which video indigena developed.3 In

a 2000 interview, Zapotec video maker Juan Jose Garcia (see Genaro Rojas and his younger brother Hermenegildo

and their cousin Efrain Rojas are active members of

also the interview with Juan Jose Garcia this issue) and

a community-based media collective in Espiritu Santu

former director of the INI's Centro de Video Indigena in

Tamazulapam, a highland Mixe community in the north-

Oaxaca City, explained that "el video indigena no existe." He

eastern sierra of Oaxaca State. The collective, Radio y Video

said, "video indigena doesn't exist because video is totally

Tamix, received formative training and equipment from

foreign tool to the indigenous world." For Garcia, video

INI's TMA program in 1992 and several of its members

indigena is a postura, or position, more than a differenti-

ated genre. If anything, he conceded, there could be such "grew up" as video makers at the CVI during Monteforte's

tenure as director. In addition to running a local television

a thing as "video Zapoteco" or "video Juan Jos&." There

are several basic points to glean from Garcia's discussion of channel, TV Tamix: Canal 12, members of the collective

video indigena. First, evidenced by the term indigena itself- have traveled internationally to present their video pro-

a broad administrative construction imposed on native peo- grams at indigenous film and video festivals in the United

States and other parts of Latin America. Radio y Video Tamix

ple in the 19th century (de la Cadena 2000)--video indigena

has received funding from national and state government

is "invented" from above through INI's TMA. As such, in

cultural agencies and from the Catherine D. and John T.

addition to carrying an uncomfortable symbolic load of

MacArthur Foundation. Their success and international rep-

government penetration and co-optation, video indigena

utation stands in stark contrast to their limited acceptance

does not reflect cultural specificities of the more than 56

in their home community where the apparent self-evident

native groups living within Mexico's borders. On the other

hand, and like the term "indigena" itself, video indigena capacity of video indigena to represent culture has been

has been appropriated and self-consciously resignified as a challenged with accusations of personal profiting and fiscal

irresponsibility.
postura or political position vital to indigenous struggles for

Some of the dilemmas Radio y Video Tamix face in mak-

self-determination. Garcia firmly believes that indigenous

video production would exist today with or without INI's ing culture visible to their community can be explained in

intervention: "It just would have been much harder," he part by understanding Genaro and Hermenegildo's diver-

admits. Garcia spent formative years as a young adult pro- gent approaches to video indigena as well as by the col-

lective's different use of television and video. To overtly im-

ducing music, radio and some video with a nationally recog-

nized NGO Comunalidad A.C. based in his home commu- merse video into their community's symbolic repertoire, the

collective inserts a static shot of the Mixe reboso, or women's

nity, Guelatao de Juirez, in northern sierra of Oaxaca. The

This content downloaded from 148.197.146.3 on Thu, 24 Mar 2016 21:00:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 366 American Anthropologist * Vol. 106, No. 2 * June 2004

woven shawl, to stand in for video color bars; plays the

ful programs at home, in Mexico, and internationally. Pro-

Mixe anthem over shots of triumphant community labor, duced with funds from a grant from the Oaxaca state fund

or tequio, prior to a television program; and uses local cul-

for culture, the video screened at the 1997 Native Ameri-

tural notions such as espacio sagrado (sacred space) for their

can Film and Video Festival in New York City. Moojk/Maize

channel's motto. For Genaro, indigenous video should be

presents a critique of consumerism and neoliberalism, an

in native language exclusively and its content should reflect

aspect of the program that is particularly appealing to out-

cultural values and customs. But video is also "an artistic,

side (international) audiences that look to (local) indige-

creative medium for expressing your locuras [crazy ideas]" nous cultural practices for a critique of globalism. But for

and TV Tamix is akin to a circus, "people come to see what's

Genaro and Hermenegildo, there is a dilemma in staking

new" (interview with Guillermo Rojas, 2000). One of his fa-

out a critical position. During a discussion about the mak-

vorite on-air tactics is to pretend, as he switches cameras

ing of this program, they asked rhetorically if it is their place

in the studio, that Tamix has an announcer in a remote lo-

to raise issues that the community itself does not explicitly

cation whose signal is being sent to the studio via satellite.

perceive as a problem. If a family's maize supply is insuffi-

What matters to Genaro is not so much "what you say [with

cient to cover a year of consumption and commercial corn

video] but that you say it in a way that wakes people up." and tortillas are cheap, what is the problem? The problem-

Hermenegildo and Efrain represent a younger genera-

of continued dependency on outside resources and the po-

tion of Tamix media producers. While they typically choose

tential loss of cultural traditions-is obvious to Genaro and

traditional flute and drum music and Mixe (or Ayuuk) lan-
Hermenegildo, but it reveals a deeper issue. For them, their

guage to fill the sound track of their video programs that community does not have enough of a "consciencia de lucha"

circulate beyond the community, they defend the use of

(awareness of social struggle).

Spanish language and rock music in their television pro- The problem with the video collective Tamix as voiced

grams. These are part of their reality as Mixe youth and

by community residents, however, is that they do not see

do not conflict with the collective's project of reflecting how the money is spent or what goes into video produc-

tions. In direct contradiction to the transparency video was

the community back to itself. For their program, Hoy en

la Comunidad (Today in the Community), a television se-

endowed with through the TMA workshops-it was taught

ries funded with a grant from a national youth program,

as an "electronic mirror"-video remains an opaque pro-

Hermenegildo and Efrain created a piece called "Mareados

cess to many community members. In the words of Vicente

con la Chela" (Dizzy on Beer) as a teaser for an on-air dis-

Atufez, Genaro's contemporary and also a founding mem-

cussion about alcoholism with regional representatives of

ber of Radio y Video Tamix, and who was selected to receive

Alcoholics Anonymous who were in town promoting an up-

harsh criticism at the community's 2000 general assembly,

coming informational meeting. Hermenegildo and Efrain

people do not value what they do because they don't see

effectively challenged Gernaro's cultural guidelines by turn-

culture [on video] like they might see the construction of a

ing the cultural normalization of alcoholism at the commu-

house. People know what it takes in labor and money to

nity fiesta on its head as a problem to be directly treated. build a house, to make it sturdy and beautiful, he explained

Some of the deeper contradictions that have challenged

(as I paraphrase), but they can't see where the money for

the group are connected to the notion of communal work a video production goes. In response, Hermenegildo com-

or tequio. During one of the field clearing days of tequio, in pares making video to baking bread: "Video isn't like mak-

an area involved in a heated land dispute with the neigh- ing bread where the product is visible and everyone buys

boring Mixe community Tlahuitoltepec, Tamix was asked

it" (interview with Hermenegildo Rojas, 2000). With video

by the municipal council to tape the community working. they often have to leave the community (to tape, edit, or

Despite this nod of legitimization, Hermenegildo and Efrain screen) and they get funds from outside sources. "It's not

were continually told by comuneros, or landowners, to put self-evident so it is suspect." Tamix video production is crit-

the camera down and pick up a hoe, or in other words, to do

icized more than their television programs because they

"real" work. Not only one of the most important symbols

leave the community. People know that their videos are

of community life-as Video Tamix also reinforces in their built with images of the community and they accuse the

television programs-the tequio is also obligatory and taken

group of commercializing something that is not theirs but

very seriously in Tama. A comunero who does not attend the community's as a whole. On the other hand, Canal 12

the tequio is subject to a fine or a day in prison. Videotap-

does seem to function like a recuerdo, or memory, for many

ing, in the eyes of many Tama comuneros is not legitimate

residents, and older folks particularly appreciate the pro-

community work and, therefore, does not constitute an ad-

grams in Mixe language (Figure 2).

equate exemption. Far from how Garcia described the cam-

Many indigenous video makers in Mexico today-

era as an unproblematic extension of the body, holding a

whether or not they are actively involved in the autonomy

camera on your shoulder or worse, in your palm, is also not

movement-are activists in their communities, using video

considered "real" work in a physical sense.

to refocus and revalorize community life. Most have been

Ironically, the collective's video program Moojk/Maize

trained through the INI's video program and in their social

(1996), which carefully situates corn as one of the key ele-

roles as cultural brokers, they actively shape how their com-

ments of Mixe life, has been one of the group's most success-
munities understand identity (by making their cultures visible

This content downloaded from 148.197.146.3 on Thu, 24 Mar 2016 21:00:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Visual Anthropology 367

..'?" . "'""LI."?U.?'Ul~b~?II ..~~~-~-.1~~~~?-?-?-???11?1~?-?~~~ ~?..---??1IICII?~????IIF?I~?I~???~-?CI-. ~~~~~~-r?--~ .~P?~~~---~----.~-~~~.~-.II .IIC?C~.I~-^.~-~-. ~~~F-?l ~... ~-?C?*?l.--r~~l -~-.~-.? ?~C?IIIFU*C?Y?I~F???FCi-

$..I*

I*"i
X"'

f-

.?;s;:?~

::;.':('.:"

.r:

?:i..

~, P

.il~

?fi~t~

??qL

?? ?:.:??:i::??;:.?:::'':? ';??
::~? :.:??

:i::??: :

::~i:;il:?:???? ?
'Li Il~;e;li:-:ll':::eii??;::; ?:::?????????

:~???:?

i"? . ??::.:?::m;.::: ??:: ??:.. ? .:. ...

:??.::::

??..:? ?:?: i?

FIGURE 2. Abandoned satellite dish in Tamazulpam, the site of the first transmissions of Radio y Video Tamix. (Photo credit: Erica Cusi

Wortham, 1999)

on video). This is part of an older INI legacy of cultural pro- organization was given the Taos Mountain Award for "lifetime

achievement of an outstanding aboriginal film professional."

motion. This brief essay demonstrates that video indigena,

3. In fact, a Oaxaca City-based Zapotec video collective who expe-

like indigenous media more generally, indexes a range of ne-

rienced their heyday in the late 1980s claims INI director Warman

gotiations and broader relationships of power and position-

"stole" the idea of "video indio" directly from them after he in-

vited the group to INI's Mexico City offices for a private screening
ing between state-led institutions and categories of iden-

of their work in 1988.

tity, and indigenous activists. How, then, to define video

4. For a full list of video programs made by Ojo de Agua Comu-

indigena? Video indigena is not all video made by or about

nicaci6n and Radio y Video Tamix, contact Ojo de Agua Comuni-

indigenous peoples, however, it is video or state-sponsored

caci6n, 2a Cerrada de M. Alcali 211-a, Colonia Diaz Ordaz, Oax-

aca Oaxaca CP 68040 Mexico; Phone: 951-515-3264; Fax 951-515-

"small" media produced at a particular historical moment

3264; comin@laneta.apc.org, www.laneta.apc.org/ojodeagua; Contact

in a particular sociopolitical conjuncture (Wortham 2002).

Guillermo Monteforte.

Through INI, the Mexican state enlisted indigenous peo-

ples to construct "a visual memory" that corresponded in

REFERENCES CITED

unthreatening ways to Mexico's diversity, formally recog-

de la Cadena, Marisol
nized through constitutional reforms in 1992 (INI 1994:2).

2000 Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in

Yet as the state builds its patrimony of pluralism, indige-

Cuzco, Peru, 1919-1991. Durtam: Duke University Press.

nous activists are constructing forms of autonomy that re-

Fox, Vicente

2003 Vicente Fox durante la ceremonia de firma del decreto

define their communities through the use of audiovisual

May 19, 2003. Accessed January 15, 2004.

technology.

Ginsburg, Faye

1993 Aboriginal Media and the Australian Imaginary. Public

Culture 5(3):557-578.

2003 Atanarjuat Off-Screen: From "Media Reservations" to the

World Stage American Anthropologist 105(4):827-831.

NOTES

National Indigenous Institute

1. In May of 2003, Mexican President Vicente Fox announced the

1990 Hacia un video indio. Cuadernos del INI.

end of INI's 54 year existence, or, rather, its legal transformation

1994 Encuento Interamericano de Videoastas Indigenas: Trans-

into the Comisi6n Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indi-

ferencia de Medios Audiovisuales a Organizaciones y Comu-

genas (National Commission for the Development of Indigenous

nidades Indigenas. Encuento Interamericano de Videoastas

Peoples). While the new commission promises to "secure a new

Indigenas, La Trinidad, Tlaxcala.

relationship among indigenous peoples, society and the state" ac-

Marks, Laura

cording to Fox, critics foresee little change and lament the lost op-
1994 Reconfigured Nationhood: A Partisan History of the Inuit

portunity to support indigenous autonomy (Fox speech, May 19,

Broadcasting Corporation. AfterImage, March:4-8.

2003).

Michaels, Eric

1994 Bad Aboriginal Art: Tradition, Media and Technological

2. Ojo de Agua Comunicaci6n was recently recognized at the Taos

Horizons. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Talking Pictures 2003 Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The

This content downloaded from 148.197.146.3 on Thu, 24 Mar 2016 21:00:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 368 American Anthropologist * Vol. 106, No. 2 * June 2004

Roth, Lorna, and Gail Guthrie Valaskakis tion of Indigenous Identities in Mexico. Ph.D. dissertation, De-

1989 Aboriginal Broadcasting in Canada: A Case Study in De-

partment of Anthropology, New York University.

mocratization. In Communication for and against Democracy.

M. Raboy and P. A. Buck, eds. Pp. 221-234. Montreal: Black

Films and Videos

Rose Books.

Turner, Terence Garcia, Juan Jose

1991 The Social Dynamics of Video Media in an Indigenous So- 2003 Lhallchho/Our People. 27 min. Ojo de Agua Comuni-

caci6n, prod., for the Instituto Latinoamericano de Comuni-

ciety: The Cultural Meaning and Personal Politics of Video-

Making in Kayapo Communities. Visual Anthropology Review caci6n Educativa. Distributed by Ojo de Agua Comunicaci6n.

7(2):68-72. Rojas Ramirez, Hermenegildo

Warman, Arturo 1996 Moojk/Maize. 21 min. Distributed by Radio y Video Tamix

1989 Politicas y Tareas Indigenistas (1989-1994). Boletin Indi- and Ojo de Agua Comunicaci6n.

Lupone, Luis, and Teofila Palafox

genista 2(4):2-5.

1987 Tejiendo Mar y Viento/Weaving Sea and Wind. 62 min.

Wortham, Erica

2002 Narratives of Location: Televisual Media and the Produc- INI. Prod. and dist.

An Interview with Juan Jose Garcia, President of

Ojo de Agua Comunicaci6n

tended to provide native organizations with video equip-

ANNA BRiGIDO-CORACHAN

ment and training so that they could represent indige-

New York University

nous realities from their own perspective. This same year

also saw the creation of OMVIAC, the Mexican Associa-

ABSTRACT This is an interview with Zapotec video maker Juan

tion of Indigenous Video Makers (Organizaci6n Mexicana

Jose Garcia, president of the award-winning media organization

de Videoastas Indigenas), whose main purpose was to uti-

Ojo de Agua Comunicacion, in Oaxaca, Mexico. He presents a

lize all the resources that were being provided by the TMA.

brief history of native video in Mexico and discusses issues such

For several years the TMA workshops generated hundreds

of visual recordings, some of which resulted in completed

as indigenous video production and circulation, thematic content,

video documentaries. Most video makers took advantage

communal practices, relation to indigenous communities, fund-

of the tools provided by the INI without necessarily adopt-

ing, and current projects of his group. [Keywords: Indigenous

ing its "official institutional discourse." In 1994, Guillermo

media, Mexico, visual anthropology]

Monteforte, a producer and video maker who had been

working at the TMA from its inception, founded the first

Juan Jose Garcia (Figure 1) is a Zapotec video maker and the

Indigenous Video Center in Oaxaca (Centro Nacional de

current president of Ojo de Agua Comunicaci6n, a media or-

Video Indigena, CVI) using personal funds he received from

ganization that produces and promotes video projects and

a video award. The center offered basic production and

community-based activities in the region of Oaxaca, Mexico

post-production equipment, and gave more advanced work-

(see Erica Wortham this issue). Ojo de Agua received the

shops to native and non-native video makers from the re-

Taos Mountain Award for lifetime achievement at the Taos

gion. According to Garcia, the CVI became a "point of ref-

Talking Picture Festival in April 2003. Garcia also worked

erence for the instruction of new comunicadores (communi-

in several local radio stations and was the director of the

cators) who used video as a tool; it was a gathering place for

Indigenous Video Center of Oaxaca from 1998 to 2002.

video makers, a place where materials could be exchanged

His previous audiovisual works include Nuestro Pueblo (Our

and safely stored in favorable conditions." These native co-

People), which depicts communal traditions maintained by

municadores became responsible for gathering and dissem-

the Zapotec community of Zoochila, and Asi es mi Tierra

inating the traditions and viewpoints of their people, thus

(My Homeland Is Like This) that documents the practices

strengthening local histories and practices.

of Mixe community healers from Chichicaxtepec. The fol-

lowing interview was conducted during Ojo de Agua's U.S.

Anna Brigido-Corachin (ABC): The Indigenous Video

Video Tour: Video Muxico Indigena/Video Native Mexico,

Center (CVI) in Oaxaca has now been operating for a

sponsored by the Smithsonian National Museum of the

decade. What are the links between Ojo de Agua and the

American Indian, in New York, April 2003.

CVI? At what point did you decide to leave the center and

At the beginning of our conversation, Garcia gave a

create Ojo de Agua?

brief history of native media in Mexico and the state-funded

Juan Jose Garcia (JJG): The Video Center stopped receiv-

programs that preceded the creation of Ojo de Agua. He ex-

plained that, in 1989, the Instituto Nacional Indigenista ing support from the INI in 1999. That year the number of

(INI) created the Project of Audiovisual Media Transference employees was reduced from three to two and the financial

to Communities and Indigenous Organizations (Transfer-

resources were severely limited. 1999 saw numerous indige-

encia de Medios Audiovisuales, TMA). The program was in-

nous productions, but 2000 was the end of it-we only held

This content downloaded from 148.197.146.3 on Thu, 24 Mar 2016 21:00:01 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms