Researched by Albert Wahrhaftig
(35 minutes)
Spanish & Totonac with English subtitles
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Democracia Indígena examines the rights revolution of Indian Mexico through the municipal elections in Huehuetla, Puebla—the same Totonac Indian community featured in "The Tree of Life" and "The Tree of Knowledge" . In 1989, the Huehuetla Totonacs formed the Organizacion Independiente Totonaca (OIT), and joined in an electoral alliance with the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica to sweep the municipal elections. During the following nine years, the OIT and PRD carried out a non-violent revolution. The visible signs of this Totonac renaissance are the health posts, schools, drinking water, and electricity available to everyone for the first time. But the real change is in the new self-confidence and pride of the Totonacs themselves.
Democracia Indígena
follows Cruz Garcia, an "expatriate" Totonac, as
he examines the changes in his homeland. Opening with the PRD electoral campaign,
Cruz meets with the Totonac mayor and council, visits rural projects, talks
with his Totonac family and neighbors, as well as the parish priest and the
mestizo mayoral candidate of the opposition PRI. With Cruz, we watch the voting,
the vote counting, and the stunning 3 am victory celebration. The film concludes
with an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of this powerful example
of democracy in action.
UPC: 736899855932
English text for "Democracia
Indígena"
American Anthropologist Review by Erica Wortham, UCSD Co-authored by Albert Wahrhaftig and Pacho Lane, this illustrated essay discusses how the Totonac of Huehuetla have organized around the ideas of Teologia India, and have made surprising, rapid, and drastic changes in their community as a result. "Un Voto Vale Mas
Que Mil Palabras" (In Spanish) Observations on the Huehuetla elections,
by Spanish anthropologist Jaume Valverdu Valverdu, PhD Tensions between totonacos and mestizos since the elections, by journalist Karina Ioffee.
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