"Desencuentros", "Encontronazos" y "Reencuentros": movimientos indígenas y organizaciones no-gubernamentales en México

Abstract

Since the eighties, specific relations of conflict and cooperation between the new indigenous agents which emerged in different parts of Mexico at regional and local levels, on the one hand, and non-government organizations (NGOs) managed by urban professionals for the planning and realizing of rural development projects in indigenous areas, on the other, have been observed. Divergent interests, goal orientations and biographical backgrounds of the respective persons as well as the organizational and economic dependence of their efforts and activities upon external agents contributed to basic conflicts. A study based on ethnographic research in the Purhépecha region of Michoacán reveals the dynamic relations between both agents: the arduous ways to a more efficient cooperation of NGO professionals and the respective local/regional indigenous intelligentsia as well as to common decision processes have led, on both sides, to a certain emancipation from B national and foreign B official political institutions and tutelary organizations.