Creating Indigenous sovereignty in Mexico: What fair trade coffee has to do with it?

Critical Ecologies

In the southernmost region of Mexico, indigenous people have been resisting dual colonial and capitalist oppression for at least 500 years, and they have also been selling coffee beans through a global market. Is this an attempt to tap into circuits of economic development or a trade-off between indigenous autonomy and profits? MA student Polina Volkova, argues that it is neither and explains that cultivating fair-trade coffee is but one of the many practices of everyday Indigenous resistance. Fair-trade exchanges help sustain Indigenous knowledges, support cultural continuity, protect native species of corn, and pursue the life as imagined by Indigenous people. Talking about the dominant image of the ‘capitalist world’ as a legacy of colonialism, we discuss the imperative to decolonize development and recognize diverse practices through which Indigenous people build sustainable livelihoods and resist oppression.