Jorge Alejandro Rodriguez Solorzano

This dissertation examines the politics and practices of Indigenous governance in the Costa-Montaña (Guerrero, Mexico) through ethnographic research of the jurisdictional practices of the Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias y Policía Comunitaria (CRAC-PC). This Indigenous corps has been at the forefront of mitigating resource extraction and violence in the region. For decades, state, private, and criminal entities have coveted resource-rich lands in the Costa-Montaña to which Me’phaa (Tlapanec) and Ñuu savi (Mixtec) communities lay claim. While Indigenous Mexicans have largely succeeded in stopping these processes, they face renewed challenges due to escalating violence and resource extraction under Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidential tenure. The CRAC-PC offers a window into Indigenous governance in Mexico. My research asks: What is the role of law, authority, and tradition in the exercise of Indigenous governance in contemporary Mexico? What are the spatial imaginaries that underpin the CRAC-PC’s exercise of jurisdiction, and what do these tell us about the ways in which communal boundaries are extended or find limits? How does mistrust of the Mexican state and the threat of violence affect the ways by which Indigenous governance is conducted? Finally, how do Indigenous Mexicans negotiate with and push against state and non-state extractivist ventures?