Hätsi, hola, hello…
I acknowledge that identifying ourselves is a common practice among Indigenous Peoples, I won’t do it. Due to colonization, assimilation, forcing western names on us, displacement, and the attempt of erasure from all Indigenous Life most people in what is now called Mexico can’t trace their lineage, yet this should not be a reason to question Indigeneity, nor identifying our ancestry should be the only way to introduce ourselves as Indigenous.
My name is Devora and I am an Indigenous woman born in what is now the metropolitan area of guadalajara, mexico.
guadalajara was the capital when Mexico was a spanish colony, and it’s a space deeply scarred by colonization. guadalajara inherited white, rich, settler colonizer families that never left, therefore it is a catholic, conservative, corrupt, racist, and elitist place; nowadays a key part of Narcotraffic, adding an extra layer of violence to this place.
The city was designed and built to racially segregate people since its colonial inception, using a river as delimitator that placed Indigenous Peoples on it’s east side and white settlers at west. This segregation was made a politic public and legalized by the spaniards who mandated Indigenous Peoples to live in designated concentrated areas far from the city center. These concentrated areas called “Indians Republics” were isolated, disconnected and not part of guadalajara, guadalajara was just where the settlers lived. Analco was the first Indigenous Peoples neighborhood in colonial guadalajara. Transportation from the Indians Republics to guadalajara was incredibly hard and long making it inaccessible (see map below).
In the pursuit of urbanizing the city, the river was replaced by a six-lane-wide artery where vehicles now transit, the nature of the delimitator changed, but the segregation remains to this day.
House in guadalajara, neighborhood "Santa Tere"
Cathedral of guadalajara, located at the city center
Ojos de Dios sun shade installation in guadalajara's city center pedestrian area
Rooftop view of the neighborhood "Colonia Americana/American Colony"
River Santiago at the nort east side of the city. The river San Juan de Dios, used as segregator would run and join this river.
view under the bridge "Matute Remus" a modern emblem of the city created just for vehicles to transit
Graffitti on an abandoned building in "Colonia Americana/American Colony"
Barranca de Huentitan, located at the north east of the city, you can see the River Santiago running at the bottom
I was born in the lands of the Totonaca and Tecos peoples, in Tlaquepaque, located on the south east side of guadalajara and very close to the Indigenous neighborhood Analco. Tlaquepaque is located 1570 meters above sea level with hot weather.
I am a relative of two dogs, the family I live with, and mutually care for each other, the forever demon called Chuleta and the sweet Facundo. I am a sister, a daughter, a friend, a lawyer, a constant learner. I am lucky to know about my lineage despite my parents, grandparents, and great grant parents passing to the spiritual world.
My household aspired to be white, and western education was forced upon me since little, starting school at only two; by the age of 4, I could read and write. I have a bachelor’s in law and was a practicing student for all the years the degree lasted. I worked in a private firm on labor-related cases first, then got a job in a fancy Agrarian firm. These experiences broke my soul: at the agrarian firm, all our cases involved defending big companies dispossessing Indigenous communities from their land.
After that, I never practiced as a lawyer again. After this, I learned to ride a bicycle and became an active transportation activist, doing legislative work and then hopping onto the government offices to design and build transportation infrastructure.
In 2018, I migrated to the united states due to gender violence in mexico. I had many random jobs in california and seattle, like serving burgers, creating power point presentations for webinars, landscaping work, and being a food stylist assistant (that last one was awesome). I moved to alaska before the COVID pandemic hit and I went back to working for safe infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians, getting involved in affordable housing legislation work as well. I have been in the orbit of the urban planning profession for over a decade.
I did a Masters Degree in City Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a.k.a MIT. Here, I spent two years attempting to unveil the hidden history of MIT as a Land Grant University that benefit off the theft and sale of Indigenous Land through the Morrill Act.
My time living in the land of the Dena’ina peoples helped me reconnect with my Indigeneity and by learning local traditional knowledge I consciously entered in a circle of reciprocity with the land and all the other living relatives.
