Abstract

MENDEZ GARCIA, Elia María Del Carmen  and  FUENTE CARRASCO, Mario E.. From the vernacular senses of water to its defense. The experience of the Zapotec water planters of the valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Cultura representaciones soc [online]. 2020, vol.14, n.28, 00008.  Epub Feb 21, 2022. ISSN 2007-8110.

The objective of the research is to unveil a new type of strategy of struggle of the indigenous peasant communities in Mexico: the use of the vernacular language as an arena in which to settle the dispute over the meanings of both agrarian and community projects. The empirical reference is the practice of sixteen communities organized as the Coordinator of People United for the Care and Defense of Water (COPUDA, for its Spanish acronym) in Oaxaca, who have been called water planters for having built more than 300 rainwater harvesting works. The history of the struggle of these people dates back to the opposition to the 1967 ban decree. In 2015 they managed, through a legal demand, to get the Supreme Court of Justice to order an indigenous consultation. The understanding of this struggle evolved from the elaboration of a methodological proposal based on the use of speech from an hermeneutic perspective. It makes visible the emergence of peasant and indigenous subjectivities from which strategies are developed for the material (agrarian) and symbolic reproduction of life. The study shows the relevance of these subjectivities as key components in the new struggles for greater cultural relevance and environmental justice in the face of the logic of a neoliberal State.

Keywords : vernacular sense; water; environmental justice.

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