|
By Howard Campbell
Francisco Toledo is an original, an artistic genius. Yet he is also a product of Mesoamerica, one of the great world civilizations. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, Mexico already possessed rich and complex ancient cultures. The most noteworthy were the Aztecs, Mayans, Mixtecs and Zapotecs, the latter two located in Oaxaca, in southern Mesoamerica. Oaxaca contains a remarkably diverse  ecology that includes craggy mountains, tropical jungle, rugged canyons, fertile agriculture valleys and stunning Pacific Ocean beaches. Dozens of distinct cultural and linguistic groups languages and were bitterly opposed to domination by the Nahuatl peoples of central Mexico. Even the larger ethnolinguistic groups, such as the Zapotecs and Mixtecs, divided into numerous subgroups, many of which spoke mutually unintelligible languages. The five kilometers between one Oaxacan village and another was, and frequently still is, a great divide between ecological niches, ethnic identities and customs. Oaxacans themselves, children of his corrugated geography and history, often joke about their stubborn pride, overly complicated psychology, and political combativeness.
Growing up in Zapotec family, Toledo inherited the fruits of the diverse Oaxacan civilization, including its artisan and art traditions, evocative and indigenous languages, productive farming techniques, quasimatriarchal extended families, and local autonomy. Most of Toledo’s family originated in Juchitán, the largest Zapotec town on the hot, semiarid Isthmus of Tehuantepec, adjacent to the coastal mountains and the Pacific lagoons. Since pre-Hispanic times, Zapotec immigrants from the Oaxaca Valley have dominated Isthmus indigenous groups, including the Huave, Mixe and Zoque, though Zapotec too have been overrun by or mixed with immigrant Spanish, French, Africans, Asians and others. The Narrow lowland Isthmus, dividing the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as northern and southern Mexico, is a natural crossroads, which Zapotecs exploited as middlemen (actually “middlewomen” since Juchitán women run the markets) in commerce and as cattle ranchers, farmers of corn and tropical fruits, and fishermen in the oceans and lagoons. The Isthmus was also the site of military battles and political confrontations, beginning with Aztec-Zapotec conflicts, followed by the Spanish invasion and conquest and French intervention, and continuing through internecine 19 th-century regional and national struggles and the decade long (1910-1920) Mexican Revolution. |
