The Mayan resistance to rural school in Quintana Roo, 1928-1934

Abstract

From 1928 to 1934 the Mexican government tried to establish rural schools in the federal territory of Quintana Roo. The goals were to integrate into the national dynamics and to “castillanize” the Mayas, who were the inheritors of Yucatan’s caste war, a struggle that began in 1847 in the eastern part of the peninsula. Many Mayan rebels sought refuge in the south east forests of that area around 1850, which is now the southern center of the state of Quintana Roo, and remained independent of the state governments of Campeche and Yucatán as well as of the national government. Naturally the Mayas resisted the establishment of rural schools by the Mexican state. The questions raised in this article are: How was that resistance? What were the expressions of rejection? Why did negotiations around the establishment of rural schools take place? Was the Mexican state able to erase the indigenous culture and customs? The article discusses the indigenous resistance based on James Scott’s concepts of resistance, hidden language and infrapolitics. The objects of study are the Mayas and their chiefs as well as the rural teachers sent by the Mexican Department of Public Education.

Key words: resistance, infrapolitics, hidden language and rural schools.