abstract
This essay analyzes the ways in which the Zapatista Tseltal, Tsotsil, Tojolabal and Ch’ol communities in Mexico theorize power and exercise politics as part of their respective daily activities in the autonomous municipalities of the state of Chiapas. In particular, it analyzes two concepts in the Tseltal language. The first of these, the concept of lekil kuxlejal, refers to a dignified life-existence in the commons that is sustained through socio-natural collective care; the second of them, that of ajvalil, refers to the figure of the boss-government, which condenses colonial structures of power. Both concepts acquire particular intensities and tones when they enter terrains of political dispute, particularly when they are mobilized by Tseltal, Tsotsil, Tojolabal and Ch’ol Zapatista communities to sustain the exercise of autonomy in their territory, as well as to question and name the power structures they struggle against.
keywords
Zapatismo; cosmopolitics; Indigenous epistemologies; decolonial struggles; collective caret-taking