We do not have the means to maintain an entire website in English. Also, some level of Spanish is necessary to interact with the Yakn’lea project in any case, such that diverting energies to direct ourselves to monolingual English speakers doesn’t make much sense. But we realize that English speakers have been - and will continue to be - interested in the project, and we have greatly appreciated the collaborative support we have received time-to-time from those abroad. For this reason we have translated a summary of the project, explain how it came to be, and give advice as to how to communicate with us in English if need be - we’d love to hear from you!
The Ya’knlea Project
Ya’knlea means alive and beautiful wood in Zapotec.
The Ya’knlea workshop emerged as a collaborative project together with the local human rights organization OIDHO (in English, Indigenous Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca). Our objective is to provide resources and training in the art and trade of carpentry to the youth of the indigenous communities affiliated with OIDHO.
Ours is a project with a few clear objectives: To provide training to those interested; to organize ourselves cooperatively as workers; to make furniture and artisanal products for sale in order to financially support the continued operation of the workshop; to involve our space, resources, and energy in collaborative projects with others who share our political objectives and everyday values; to encourage the responsible use of natural resources; and to promote gender equality in our work environment.
At the same time, Yakn’lea is an adaptable project open to reformulation according to the proposals and priorities that emerge among the people involved. Along the same lines, we are open to possible collaborations that may well emerge with other people and collectives, whether in Oaxaca or elsewhere in the world, who are interested in contributing to the development of the project and who think such collaboration would benefit their objectives in return, that is, in symbiotic fashion.
If you wish to contact us for a carpentry contract, or to share a proposal or project idea, please write to us at: yaknlea@gmail.com. While the first languages of those involved in Yakn’lea have ranged from Zapotec, Chatino, German, Catalan and English (among others), Spanish is the lingua franca of the project and a certain level of Spanish is necessary to collaborate with us in any in-depth way. If you cannot write in Spanish yet wish to contact us, you are welcome to write in English. Please keep in mind, however, that your communication will be read by folks who do not have a mastery of English and write accordingly, i.e., avoiding unnecessary complexity. Thank you!
Social and Historical Context of the Yakn’lea Project
The state of Oaxaca is located in the south of Mexico. Its territory of 95,364 square km may be divided into 7 regions corresponding to diverse microclimates, cultures and ethnicities. Among Oaxaca’s 3.5 million inhabitants 54% are indigenous, the most numerous groups being Zapotec and Mixtec. According to the 2009 United Nations Development Program Report on Human Development, Oaxaca has one of the highest illiteracy rates in Mexico - 19.77%. Two-thirds of the population do not have their basic survival needs met (potable water, electricity, plumbing, cement floors and walls). Each Oaxacan home is inhabited by an average of seven persons. Life expectancy is one of the lowest in the country.
As is the case with other poor states in the Mexican south, Oaxaca is still characterized by clientelism, a corrupt network of regional political bosses, and selective application of the law (caciquismo). Economic development in Oaxaca has largely consisted of state and private investment in agriculture, a sector with a long history of government subsidy.
This system of subsidy and its legacy has complicated social relations among indigenous people, mestizo peasants and agricultural producers in general, by influencing their diverse and diverging interests towards those of the PRI – the long-standing Institutional Revolutionary Party – and currently the PAN-PRD-PT coalition government. Ultimately this has led to a large-scale trampling of indigenous peoples’ rights and the dispossession of both indigenous peoples and mestizo farmers of their subsistence base.
This system of subsidy and its legacy has complicated social relations among indigenous people, mestizo peasants and agricultural producers in general, by influencing their diverse and diverging interests towards those of the PRI – the long-standing Institutional Revolutionary Party – and currently the PAN-PRD-PT coalition government. Ultimately this has led to a large-scale trampling of indigenous peoples’ rights and the dispossession of both indigenous peoples and mestizo farmers of their subsistence base.
It is due to the current situation in Oaxaca described above, and due to the fact that state institutions have largely abandoned the political social, and economic plight of the great majority of the population and indigenous people in particular, that this project was originally conceived.
Given the dominant agricultural base of economic activity in Oaxaca, in which most of the indigenous population participates, we thought it could be of benefit to introduce new production processes and labor practices in indigenous communities; to share the resources and technical knowledge necessary to engage in a greater variety of trades, employment, and subsistence activity.
We consider the social context of Oaxaca to be very favorable to this sort of initiative, an initiative whose objective is to organize production processes so as to strengthen community autonomy among the most marginalized social sectors - not based on the paternalist perspective and praxis of “helping”, but rather in order to facilitate direct access to material, technical, and intellectual means useful in developing practical autonomy through cooperative organization of labor.
We consider the social context of Oaxaca to be very favorable to this sort of initiative, an initiative whose objective is to organize production processes so as to strengthen community autonomy among the most marginalized social sectors - not based on the paternalist perspective and praxis of “helping”, but rather in order to facilitate direct access to material, technical, and intellectual means useful in developing practical autonomy through cooperative organization of labor.