Yasnayá Elena Aguilar, the indigenous writer who transmits her ancestral knowledge through literature.

We talked with the Mexican indigenous author and intellectual about borders, caring for one another, and the future of humanity

Welcome back Piratas!

Daniela and Joshua have been low on sleep, high on caffeine, and typing away furiously this week. In the freelance world, work seems to arrive in waves, and this one nearly capsized our Goodship Capybara.

Despite that however, Daniela managed to conduct and transcribe a beautiful interview this week with renowned Indigenous author Yasnayá Elena Aguilar.

Read on for her thoughts! And her wisdom

Yasnayá Elena Aguilar, the indigenous writer who transmits her ancestral knowledge through literature.

We talked with the Mexican indigenous intellectual author about borders, caring for one another, and the future of humanity

Photo: Daniela Díaz R

Yasnayá Elena Aguilar is an academic,a  feminist, linguist, and a member of the indigenous Mixe people, in Oaxaca, México. Daniela had the opportunity to interview her at the “HayFestival”, a culture event in Cartagena, where she participated in several panels to promote her books on linguistic diversity. She has a degree in Hispanic Language and Literature and is an activist for the COLMIXE Collective, a foundation devoted to the research and promotion of Mixe Culture.

She speaks with precision, in a gentle, soft tone that somehow lends increased impact to her responses, which are rich in knowledge. She is well known for her activism in indigenous and feminist movements. 

Taking advantage of her visit to Colombia, we cornered Yasnayá in Cartagena for a few minutes to ask her about indigenous struggles, women's struggles and how to protect the planet.

PWS: How do you consider that women and racialized people are transforming culture?

I believe that all people and women are transforming society from the spaces that we can. Of course, some efforts are more visible than others. A woman who takes care of another woman with a disability. or a woman who takes care of her elderly mother is transformative— without that care the world could not exist. I like to take a larger perspective on culture, one where all of us - for better and for worse - are constantly having an impact.

PWS: Feminism has centered many recent debates around the concept of care-giving [and the share of that work which falls disproportionately to women]. Do you think we are talking more about its importance? 

We see more and more talk on this subject and that is good, because we need caregiving not to be understood as a burden, but rather as a necessary labor that should be shared collectively. The responsibility for care should not fall on women alone, but be distributed equally among men or trans people [as well]. 

Thinking about care-giving in more structural terms, for example, we always think of political power as something that must be seized if we want to affect transformation [of society]. But this concept feeds into the idea of power as something deeply masculine. 

What if  instead we view politics as a societal pact that we all share, as a common responsibility? For me, that is the only way forward.

PWS: Do you consider your presence in spaces like this festival to be disruptive? Can representation alone transform?

Well, for me being here is important because it allows me to have encounters with people that would normally be very unlikely. I come from a very particular context because I live in an indigenous community, so I like being here because it gives me the opportunity to meet people from different contexts and learn from them.

PWS: Mexico and Colombia have many differences, but also similarities. Is there anything in particular that interests you about our country?

I am struck by the power of the struggle of the indigenous peoples in Colombia. I try to follow what is happening here with the indigenous communities and situations, such as the existence of the indigenous guardianship [of natural habitats, parks and protected wilderness reserves]. That interests me a lot. I am impressed by the power of these struggles, but also by the resilience of the people. This is a country that has suffered a lot, but at the same time it also contains a level of hope that I have seen in very few places. 

In another sense, being here also creates other crucial reflections [on these cultures], as brotherly peoples. For me, borders as we know them have very little time remaining, so I believe nationalism does a lot of damage. I feel closer to an indigenous person in Colombia than to certain social classes in my country [Mexico]. It is absurd for me,  the idea that I would feel less sympathy for someone merely because they were born five millimeters on the other side of the Mexican border. 

With Colombia we share several situations, such as the colonial paradigm that controls the world, but in particular the use of a colonial language such as Spanish, as well as native peoples' defense of territory. 

In our indigenous peoples there are many philosophical and practical ideas that are key to the principal challenge capitalism has created: climate emergency. Our Indigenous knowledge can provide concrete solutions to pressing contemporary problems. Many of the traditions of indigenous peoples with their territories give us clues about how our relationship with the earth should be. That is fundamental and can save people's lives.

PWS: In other words, is it time for the West to look at this ancestral knowledge? 

Yes, it is important to listen to them, but also to join in the defense of the land. When an indigenous people fights for a territory, they are defending the possibility of life for all humanity. It is not only the territory of the community, because the oxygen generated by that forest does not only benefit the indigenous people who defend it. We have to understand everything in a more interconnected manner. It seems obvious, because even Western science has talked about the interweaving of ecosystems. I believe that to support the struggles of the indigenous peoples is to support a commitment to life for all humanity.

PWS: Do you think that the turn of certain Latin American countries - among them Colombia - towards progressivism could bring people closer to those struggles? What do you think of that tendency? 

Well, on the one hand nobody wants the right to be in power, but when the left arrives, certain dynamics are generated where the state begins to co-opt the social movements and everybody goes to the government, the social base is abandoned and that is a very serious mistake. If someone has to leave activism to work for the state, we have to be very strategic. We can't all leave because then the right comes back and you have a  social movement in ruins. A big mistake of the left is the co-optation of the grassroots social movement. The social base must stay, continue its work, and from there make the necessary criticisms. 

We cannot put all our hope in the state.

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The Big Headlines in LATAM

• In Colombia, the most talked-about news this week was the resumption of talks with ELN rebels. Talks had been in recess since December last year in Caracas, Venezuela. The second round of talk began this week in Mexico City. 

• Meanwhile, the climate in Peru remains tense. On February 11, seven Peruvian National Police officers were killed in an ambush in the Apurimac River Valley, in Cusco, in the south of the country. The details of the perpetrators of the attack are not yet clear, but the first versions of the government point out that the attack was carried out by Shining Path guerrilla groups operating in this area, which is also known for the cultivation of coca crops.

• In Nicaragua, after the release last Thursday of 222 political prisoners, the controversy surrounding Daniel Ortega continued. This time on account of a 26-year prison sentence to Rolando Alvarez, a bishop who refused to board the plane with the rest of the prisoners who were banished from the country. 

Monsignor Alvarez, who has been one of the most critical voices against Ortega and Murillo, was convicted without trial and accused of crimes that the regime often charges its opponents with - "propagation of false news" and "conspiracy to undermine national integrity". After being arrested for refusing to be expatriated, the bishop exclaimed: "I will tremble on my knees, before God alone", a phrase that quickly went viral on social media.

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What we’re writing

This week we had a lot of assignments on this ship. For her part, Daniela was traveling around the Colombian Caribbean and found a hopeful story of girls who fight against machismo through soccer. You can read the article here.

Joshua covered the beginning of the second round of talks between the Colombian government and ELN on Monday for Al Jazeera. 

He also covered how peacebuilding in Colombia is going more broadly for the New Humanitarian. Since Petro assumed office, expectations for peace in affected communities have been sky-high. Some progress has indeed been made on the political front, but violence in rural areas continues to rise. Now 7 months in, how is “Total Peace” going in Colombia?

Spanish word of the week:

No ha pegado ojo

The literal translation of this phrase is “They didn’t glue an eye.” Weird, right? But it’s a really common phrase that means “Didn’t sleep a wink”.

anoche el maldito perro estuvo ladrando durante horas, no he pegado un ojo- Last night the goddamn dog was barking for hours, I didn’t sleep a wink.

We at PWS like examples with barking dogs it seems. They have been a staple of the last few weeks lessons- likely because as I write this, my goddamn neighbors dog has been barking for hours.

Hasta pronto piratas! Take care!

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