What we need are new customs

Abstract

In 1995, the state of Oaxaca, Mexico reformed its constitution to recognize the right of Indigenous municipalities to elect their local governments according to autonomously determined “usos y costumbres.” This chapter explores this paradigmatic case of the politics of recognition and multiculturalism to see how Indigenous communities’ systems of political and social organization function in practice, when faced with the challenges of migration, decentralization, rural-urban tensions, the struggle for gender equity, and changes in subnational institutions. These new challenges, coupled with the recognition of Indigenous rights, often reveal tensions between individual and collective rights and lead to conflicts within and between communities. The author interprets the praxis of Indigenous autonomy in terms of the construction and exercise of citizenship and argues that one way to resolve the tensions experienced by usos y costumbres municipalities is through the exercise of multiple and differentiated citizenships.