Indigenous Mexican Research Articles

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRIMITIVISM AND CIVILIZATION IN KATHERINE ANNE PORTER’S CHARACTERS MARÍA CONCEPCIÓN AND VIOLETA

Modernist writers such as Katherine Anne Porter were preoccupied with primitivism as opposed to the technological achievements of contemporary society. The deep fascination of the modernists with primitivist tendencies relies mainly on the relationship between art and everyday life, as well as on their desire to escape modern civilization and become one with nature. Aesthetic primitivism based on the artistic expression of the Mexican Indians captured Porter’s attention during her literary career. This article explores the idea of primitivism and civilization in the short stories “María Concepción” and “Virgin Violeta” by Porter. It also traces the influence of Mexico on both the author’s artistic development and her comprehension of the concepts of the primitive and the modern. Focusing on two protagonists, María Concepción and Violeta, as the characters who approach the old and the new in different ways, the article argues that the effects that modern civilization exerts on the human mind can be dramatic. Both heroines seek refuge from the problems in their innermost selves, but only María Concepción embraces primitivism as a way of life. Porter’s emphasis on primitivism can be interpreted as either a means of self-distancing from the prescribed standards of behavior or of following natural instincts.

A Critique of Philosophical Shamanism

A Critique of Philosophical Shamanism

Perceptions of the Coronavirus and COVID-19 testing and vaccination in Latinx and Indigenous Mexican immigrant communities in the Eastern Coachella Valley

BackgroundA novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (known as COVID-19), spread rapidly around the world, affecting all and creating an ongoing global pandemic. Across the United States, Latinx and Indigenous populations have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 cases and death rates. An examination of the perceptions and beliefs about the spread of the virus, COVID-19 testing, and vaccination amongst racial-ethnic minority groups, specifically Latinx and Indigenous Latin American immigrant communities, is needed to alleviate the widespread disparity in new cases and deaths.MethodsThis study was carried out from August 2020 to January 2021 and used community-based participatory research to engage community partners and build the capacity of community health workers (i.e., promotores de salud) and pre-medical and medical students in conducting qualitative research. The objective of the study was to examine the structural and social determinants of health on perceptions of the coronavirus, its spread, and decisions around COVID-19 testing and vaccination. Data collection included ethnography involving observations in public settings and focus groups with members of Latinx and Indigenous Mexican farm-working communities in the Eastern Coachella Valley, located in the Inland Southern California desert region. A total of seven focus groups, six in Spanish and one in Purépecha, with a total of 55 participants were conducted. Topics covered include perceptions of the coronavirus and its spread, as well as COVID-19 testing and vaccination.ResultsUsing theme identification techniques, the findings identify structural and social factors that underly perceptions held by Latinx and Indigenous Mexican immigrants about the virus and COVID-19, which, in turn, shape attitudes and behaviors related to COVID-19 testing and vaccination. Common themes that emerged across focus groups include misinformation, lack of trust in institutions, and insecurity around employment and residency.ConclusionsThis immigrant population is structurally vulnerable to historical and present-day inequalities that put them at increased risk of COVID-19 exposure, morbidity, and mortality. Study findings indicate a significant need for interventions that decrease structural vulnerabilities by addressing issues of (dis)trust in government and public health among this population.

Exploring Barriers to Access Prenatal Care Among Indigenous Mexican and Guatemalan Women in Washington State

Migrant and seasonal agricultural workers including indigenous women who are not of Hispanic descent face many barriers to access prenatal care. We conducted a survey in Spanish and three indigenous languages—Mixteco, Triqui, and Awakateko—to explore knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding prenatal care among 82 female agricultural workers residing in the state of Washington. Our findings highlight the importance of collecting disaggregated data from different indigenous communities and of providing indigenous language support. Our study provides new information for developing messages to promote prenatal care that take into account the knowledge and beliefs that are prevalent in these communities.

Transnational Urban and Rural Migrant Governance: The Case of the Indigenous Mexican Migrant Community in Los Angeles

Transnational Urban and Rural Migrant Governance: The Case of the Indigenous Mexican Migrant Community in Los Angeles

Drivers of liking to predict consumers’ acceptance of local coffee from indigenous Mexican regions

Drivers of liking to predict consumers’ acceptance of local coffee from indigenous Mexican regions

Review: Buena Vista Winery; Wine Tools Museum. Sonoma, California

Review: <i>Buena Vista Winery; Wine Tools Museum</i>. Sonoma, California

Language, race, and illegality: indigenous migrants navigating the immigration regime in a new destination

ABSTRACT Immigration scholarship has stressed the importance of language acquisition for immigrant integration. Simultaneously, sociolinguist scholars have shown the connection between language and power within societies. This paper investigates the intersections of race and language in the lives of Indigenous Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants in a new immigrant destination. I argue that Indigenous immigrants utilise language strategically to access information, migrate, get settled, and navigate the immigration regime. However, given the ongoing structures of settler colonialism, anti-Indigenous discrimination persists, leaving Indigenous migrants in vulnerable situations. I rely on Critical Latinx Indigeneities scholarship to better understand Indigenous migrants’ experiences in a geographical location where Latin Americans (Indigenous and mestizos) make up a smaller share of the population. I employ data of interviews with 34 Indigenous immigrants of Mixteco, Tlapaneco, and Chuj and K’iche’ Mayan origins and three years of ethnographic participant observation between 2016 and 2020 in Kansas. I argue that Spanish is a source of capital used to negotiate social institutions, gain access to economic opportunities, and navigate the immigration regime. However, Spanish remains a source of power and exploitation, creating divides among Indigenous and non-Indigenous migrants in the diaspora.

Pachuca Obsidian Blades from the U.S. Southwest: Implications for Mesoamerican Connections and Coronado's Mexican Indian Allies

The connection between people in the prehispanic U.S. Southwest / Northwest Mexico (SW/NW) and Mesoamerica is one of the most debated research topics in American archaeology. SW/NW groups used objects from Mesoamerica, but did they also trade for obsidian? Archaeologists have yet to find Mesoamerican obsidian from confirmed prehispanic SW/NW contexts, but here we discuss four green obsidian prismatic blades from New Mexico and Arizona. Using EDXRF spectrometry, we demonstrate that the blades are from the Pachuca source in Mesoamerica. The blades were found at four sites that the Spanish and their Mexican Indian allies used or potentially visited beginning in AD 1540. Using lithic technological organization and historical narratives, we assess the credibility of the different hypothesized models of prehispanic SW/NW-Mesoamerican interaction and obsidian use by the Mexican Indian allies. We suggest that green Pachuca blades would have been traded into the SW/NW if interaction with Mesoamerica had occurred more frequently. We also offer reasons why archaeologists have found so few Mesoamerican obsidian blades at post-1540 sites. This research is relevant because it expands our knowledge about SW/NW-Mesoamerican connections and the Mexican Indian allies of the Spanish, who are an underrepresented group in the archaeological and historical records.

Social impact investing as a neoliberal construction: ego and altruism in the post-colonial space of Oaxaca, Mexico

PurposeThis paper examines social impact investing (SII), a growing source of investment from the Global North to the Global South celebrated as a new way of doing good in low-income countries, but bearing elements of neoliberalism that can reify post-colonial contexts.Design/methodology/approachA microfoundational, autoethnographic approach is used based on the author’s experiences and emotional epiphanies while engaged in an activist entrepreneurial enterprise. The author’s goal was to effect positive social change with Indigenous Mexican producers of mezcal liquor.FindingsDespite the best of intentions and following best practices for SII, the expected altruistic outcomes were eclipsed by inadvertent post-colonial behaviours. Neoliberal foundations of financialization gave primacy to the perspectives and egos of the investors rather than meaningful impact for the Indigenous beneficiaries.Research limitations/implicationsBased on the findings, three areas are presented for further research. First, how Global North social impact investors balance the ego of their motivations with the altruism of intended outcomes for beneficiaries. Second, what ownership structures of Global North investments allow for social benefits to flow through to intended beneficiaries. Third, how post-colonial power imbalances can be redressed to give an equal position to Global South beneficiaries as people, rather than financial metrics indicating only that they have become less poor.Originality/valueBy using autoethnographic methods that expose the vulnerability of the researcher, unique insights are generated on what happens when good intentions meet with a post-colonial context. The neoliberal underbelly of SII is revealed, and ways to make improvements are considered.

High frequency of the risk allele of rs4132601 and rs11978267 from the IKZF1 gene in indigenous Mexican population

Background IKZF1 is a relevant gene associated with the pathogenesis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and the rs4132601 (T>G) and rs11978267 (A>G) polymorphisms have been associated with the development of this disease in several populations. The aim of this study was to determine the allelic and genotypic frequencies of the rs4132601 and rs11978267 polymorphisms in two indigenous Mexican groups (Cora and Huichol) and Mestizo populations from Nayarit, Mexico, and compare them with the frequencies of both polymorphisms in other populations of the world.MethodsOne hundred, 116, and 100 subjects from the Mestizo, Huichol, and Cora populations, respectively, all of them residents of the state of Nayarit, Mexico, were analyzed. The frequencies of rs4132601 and rs11978267 were determined by allelic discrimination using TaqMan assays.ResultsThe allelic frequencies of rs4132601 were as follows: Mestizo group T = 0.74, G = 0.26; Cora T = 0.745, G = 0.255; and Huichol T = 0.47, G = 0.53. In the case of the rs11978267 polymorphism, the allelic frequencies were Mestizo A = 0.745, G = 0.255; Cora A = 0.735, G = 0.265; and Huichol A = 0.457, G = 0.543. For each population, both polymorphisms were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium.ConclusionThe Huichol population from Nayarit presented the highest frequencies of the risk allele reported to date in the whole world for both rs4132601 and rs11978267 polymorphisms.

The Journal of James A. Brush: The Expedition and Military Operations of General Don Francisco Xavier Mina in Mexico, 1816–1817 ed. by Karen Racine and Graham Lloyd

Reviewed by: The Journal of James A. Brush: The Expedition and Military Operations of General Don Francisco Xavier Mina in Mexico, 1816–1817 ed. by Karen Racine and Graham Lloyd Francis X. Galán The Journal of James A. Brush: The Expedition and Military Operations of General Don Francisco Xavier Mina in Mexico, 1816–1817. Edited by Karen Racine and Graham Lloyd. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2020. Pp. 265. Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index.) Historians of many stripes will be absolutely delighted with this hidden gem from the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Latin American scholar Karen Racine and fellow editor Graham Lloyd transcribed and annotated this action-packed yet even-keeled memoir from the Scottish-born James A. Brush, a British military veteran of the Napoleonic wars who joined the expedition of Francisco Xavier Mina, which launched from Liverpool, England, on May 15, 1816, and landed in Norfolk, Virginia, the following month. Mina, a native of the Spanish kingdom of Navarre in the Basque region of northern Spain, fought against Napoleon’s occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. The editors explain that a Mexican priest encouraged Mina “to fight with the patriots of Mexico, arguing that any blow against Spanish tyranny in one place would advance the cause of liberty everywhere” (7). Although several other unpublished document-memoirs by foreign contemporaries describe the revolutionary events in Mexico that followed, the editors claim Brush’s account is not only the longest and most detailed but “the one written without an immediate personal or political motivation,” which includes many “crossover personnel” in Texas. (15). Racine and Lloyd deftly contextualize this journal with succinct biographies of both Mina and Brush in the introduction before picking up Brush’s insightful descriptions about the richness of the environment, minerals, and people of Mexico. His observations include sympathetic portrayals of ordinary folk such as Privateer Luis Aury’s Black Haitian troops, Indigenous Mexican rebels, and women. Brush unsurprisingly [End Page 205] reveals prejudice toward the Roman Catholic Church, especially the Inquisition, and comments on the general state of war between the viceroy of Mexico and independent Indians. Whereas priests offered civilization, which the Indians viewed “as a state of slavish subjection to the Spaniards,” Brush also notes the success of some missions in Upper California in converting a few natives. Yet he seemed bewildered at “those children of the forest, who disdain to barter their independence for what are called the conveniences of civilized life” (27–28). Paradoxically, Brush also observes syncretic practices of the Indians who carry images of the saints interspersed with representations of the moon and sun while “on solemn occasions they still use the ancient religious dances . . . performed in the churches after Mass is celebrated” (28–30). As for the peasants of Nuevo Santander, where Mina’s expedition landed on April 15, 1817, at the mouth of the Santander River in the Gulf of Mexico, Brush appeared to marvel at their cowboy skills and promise. He noted how these people of the country “are mostly rancheros and excellent horsemen,” whose “heels are equipped with huge iron spurs” and legs “eased in very strong boots,” adding they would “make excellent dragoons if properly disciplined” (53). Joining with their cause for liberty, Brush discusses the roles of various foreigners, such as American colonel Henry Perry and his fifty-man infantry, against Spanish royalists, as well as Commodore Aury, who then left Mina’s expedition to make an establishment at Matagorda in Texas, fearing that Soto la Marina, the small village inland base off the Santander River, was not a suitable port for their purpose. One of the first major engagements occurred at the three-hour Battle of Peotillos, where three hundred insurgents under Mina defeated two thousand royalists under Colonel Benito Armiñán. Brush added that, despite being surrounded by the royalists, rebel infantry under Colonel Guilford Dudley Young let out destructive firepower and then yelled “Hurrah!” (70), which panicked Spanish infantry and cavalry to flee. However, near the end of Mina’s successful expeditionary campaigns in Guanajuato, Brush saved perhaps his greatest disdain for a couple of jealous Mexican rebel officers (General Torres and Colonel Noboa), who withheld promised support...

Aída Hurtado and Norma E. Cantú (eds.), MeXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction

Reviewed by: MeXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction ed. by Aída Hurtado and Norma E. Cantú Karen Mary Davalos (bio) Aída Hurtado and Norma E. Cantú, eds., MeXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction. University of Texas Press, 2020. Pp. 330. I have been waiting years for this book! In 2011 I purchased my first fashion item from the pop-up clothing shop UrbanXic at the annual Summer Institute of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social to express my Chicana sensibilities. The turquoise blue cotton knit sleeveless tunic is decorated with white faux embroidery, making visual quotations of Mexican textiles through a screenprinting process. The "anatomical corazón" (a design that Sandoval et al. take on in chapter 13 of the book) that appears on the lower portion of the dress covers my womb, symbolically referencing another life force (293). A few years later when UrbanXic was announced as one of the vendors at the antimall mercadito at Trópico de Nopal Gallery Art-Space, I traveled across Los Angeles County—from Westside to Eastside—to make several purchases of t-shirts and dresses for family gifts. Eventually, I came to recognize UrbanXic fashions at academic conferences, proclaiming to the wearer that we were creators of a "Chicana feminist uniform," a term I used to affectionately announce the shared symbolic meaning and subjectivity. The anthology takes up the same charge, and in its multiple chapters announcing the self-adornment of Chicana feminists in the academy (1, 3, 4, and 12) and one (13) specifically about UrbanXic fashions, the collection shows clearly that I was not the only person to take note of the trend and its meaning. The thirteen chapters plus an introduction push beyond my expectations, however. While I anticipated and enjoyed the chapters that employ personal narrative, I did not expect fashion analysis through literary criticism (chapter 10), media studies (chapters 7 and 8), consumption (chapters 6 and 12), visual and performing arts (chapters 9 and 13), and new media platforms about body positivity among women [End Page 146] of color (chapter 8). More significantly for the fields of Chicana/o/x and Latinx studies, I did not previously connect "Chicana" self-adornment to "meXicanas." The editors employ this term to mark inclusive, translingual, transnational, and blended structures that generate interdependence and unequal relations among Mexican women, Chicanas, Indigenous Mexican women, who often have their Asian and African roots, a point not always recognized; this complexity of style is at the heart of the book. They also use this term to declare homage to Rosa-Linda Fregoso, the scholar who coined the hybrid word. Their transnational and cross-cultural framing of fashion is more than I had imagined for a discussion of the politics of self-adornment, dress, and entrepreneurship, the topics of the book's three sections. Furthermore, as the editors observe, these transnational connections are discussed as appropriations of and as empowerment for meXicana indigeneity. Fashion and style provide the cultural texts through and on which the book's varied subjects create an "aesthetic of the self" both intimately personal and deeply social. One stand-out aspect of the book is its accessibility. The contributors employ a range of methods of Chicana feminist thought, from the intimacy of autobiography and personal narrative to quantitative social sciences and their reserved voice. As such, the book has something for every type of reader: undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and popular audiences. Its intersectional analysis and interdisciplinary approach will be familiar to Chicana/x and women of color feminist scholars. But if the book's organization appears linear, do not be misled; it offers a wide array of methodological and critical voices. Although the authors in the first section (Cantú, Méndez-Negrete, Díaz-Sánchez, Gutiérrez y Muhs, and D. Perez) center the personal narrative afforded by fashion and style, Petermon, Macías, and coauthors Sandoval, González, and Montes directly employ the autobiographical voice, a reminder of the embodied experience frequently edited out of academic writing. The final chapter is utterly inventive in its collaboration and in how the essay structures its critique as performance, and I expect it...

Восстание сапатистов: нищие мексиканские индейцы против мирового неолиберального капитализма

Восстание сапатистов: нищие мексиканские индейцы против мирового неолиберального капитализма

Lost in translation “en el Fil”: Actualizing structural humility for Indigenous Mexican farmworkers in California

This study demonstrates how we espoused a structural competent point of reference and operationalized the concept of structural humility for the purposes of conducting a communication evaluation strategy in support of California farmworkers. Strengthened by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the principles of critical race theory, a two-phase qualitative research process was developed to understand whether state agency resources were adequately addressing workplace vulnerabilities in the agricultural fields. We conducted, first, a comprehensive content analysis of labor educational resources and, second, a series of focus groups with California Labor Agency staff, community advocacy organizations, and farmworkers of Mestizo and Indigenous Mexican origin. This study makes a significant contribution to structural humility scholarship, addressing the structural systems of power that perpetuate the marginalization of immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers. The methodology and findings advance support for organizations that work with immigrant and Indigenous populations and seek to interrogate sociopolitical inequities.

Association of the5HTTLPRPolymorphism with Obesity in Mexican Women with High Native American Ancestry

Aims: The 5HTT gene has been associated with obesity; this study aimed to determine the association between L- and S-alleles at the 5HTTLPR polymorphism with obesity in indigenous Mexican populations. Materials and Methods: A total of 362 individuals, 289 belonging to eight Native American (NA) groups; 40 Mexican mestizos; and 33 Caucasian Mennonites were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. High (≥90%) and low (<90%) NA ancestry was molecularly determined. A body mass index >30 kg/m2 was considered as obese. The L- and S-alleles of the 5HTTLPR locus were identified by PCR; the association between alleles and obesity was performed by logistic regression analysis. Results: A significantly lower prevalence of obesity (35%) was observed in participants from communities with high NA ancestry (p < 0.005). Under a dominant heritance model the L-allele was associated with obesity in women with high NA ancestry (odds ratio [OR] 7.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6-32.5; p = 0.009) but not in women with low NA ancestry (OR 0.83; 95% CI 0.3-2.2; p = 0.71); no association was observed in men. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the 5HTTLPR L-allele is a risk factor for developing obesity in Mexican women with high NA ancestry (≥90%).

Leptin G-2548A and Leptin Receptor Q223R Gene Polymorphisms are Differently Associated with Oxidative Process in Mexican Mestizo and Indigenous with Obesity.

The aim of this study was to examine whether plasma lipid peroxidation, antioxidant capability, leptin levels are associate selected LEP -2548 A/G and LEPR Q223R polymorphisms in mestizo and indigenous obesity Mexican population. We identified and characterized 50 overweight or obese subjects and 50 healthy, normal- weight volunteers with indigenous Tepehuana or Mexican mestizo ethnicity from Durango, Mexico. LEP -2548 A/G and LEPR Q223R polymorphisms were determined by genotyping. Concentrations of leptin, antioxidant capacity (CA) and lipoperoxidation (LIPX) were determined in fast conditions on plasma with Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) in all participants. The highest genotype frequency was the heterozygous LEPR, which was associated with lipid peroxidation levels in normal-weight Tepehuan populations. A positive correlation was observed (r = 0.5; p <0.01) between LEP polymorphism and lipoperoxidation in normal weight Tepehuan subjects. On the other hand, the LEPR polymorphism was associated with the level of lipoperoxidation (r = 0.13; P <0.05) in mestizo populations of normal weight. It is probable that there is a synergistic effect for obesity, where the presence of oxidative stress and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of leptin and its receptor contributes to the generation of pathological subcutaneous fat of obesity, together with the environmental conditions of the populations.

Variation in xylem characteristics of botanical races of Persea americana and their potential influence on susceptibility to the pathogen Raffaelea lauricola

Avocado (Persea americana), an important fruit crop, is under threat from an invasive disease, laurel wilt. The pathogen, Raffaelea lauricola, spreads rapidly in the xylem of infected trees and causes a lethal vascular wilt. A previous study showed that variation in susceptibility to the disease exists among different races of avocado, with the West Indian race being most susceptible. To help elucidate potential explanations for differences in susceptibility, xylem characteristics were examined for fourteen avocado cultivars from the Guatemalan, Mexican, and West Indian botanical races. Samples of each cultivar were assessed for vessel size, vessel density, vessel aggregation, and xylem-specific potential hydraulic conductivity. The West Indian race had significantly greater mean vessel diameters, mean maximum vessel diameters, and xylem-specific potential hydraulic conductivities than the Guatemalan and Mexican races (p < 0.05), which in turn did not differ for any of these variables (p > 0.05). There were no significant differences among the races for vessel aggregation or vessel density. Cultivars of the Mexican and Guatemalan races generally had smaller mean vessel diameters, mean maximum vessel diameters, and mean xylem-specific potential hydraulic conductivities than the West Indian race; however, there was considerable variation among cultivars of the Mexican race. Statistically significant differences in vessel grouping indices and vessel solitary fractions were evident among some cultivars but to lesser extents than were found for vessel size. This study indicates that larger vessel diameters and greater potential hydraulic conductivities exist in the West Indian, compared with the Guatemalan and Mexican races. We suggest that these attributes may be contributing factors in the greater susceptibility to laurel wilt that is evident in the West Indian race.

Seven Poems on Migration

Seven Poems on Migration Wendy Call (bio) and Irma Pineda (bio) Translator’s Introduction IRMA PINEDA (BINNIZÁ) has published nine books of poetry. Naxiña’ rului’ladxe’ / Rojo deseo (Red desire), published by Pluralia Ediciones in 2018, won Mexico’s Caballo Verde prize for best book of poetry. She currently serves as senior advisor for science, education, and culture for the MORENA Party in the Mexican National Congress. She is the only woman to have been president of Mexico’s National Association of Writers in Indigenous Languages (ELIAC) and was a 2013–15 member of Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. In January 2020, she began a three-year term as one of two representatives of Latin American Indigenous peoples at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Pineda writes bilingual poems in Spanish and in Diidxazá (also known as Isthmus Zapotec). Diidxazá has probably 75,000 speakers and is part of the family of languages known collectively as Zapotec, which has approximately 460,000 speakers (Sistema de Información Cultural [SIC] Mexico 2020). Pineda creates what she calls “parallel poems,” one version in Diidxazá and another in Spanish, reflecting her lived experience: a constant flow between two languages, two cultures, two cosmovisions. Educated in Spanish-only public schools in her hometown of Juchitán, Pineda learned to write in Isthmus Zapotec by looking up words one by one in books she borrowed from her neighbors’ bookshelves. At that time, there was no proper Isthmus Zapotec dictionary. Years later, Pineda’s mother, Cándida Santiago Pineda, founded the first (and still the only) library in her family’s neighborhood in Juchitán, in Mexico’s southeastern state of Oaxaca (Pineda 2012). Fewer and fewer children in Juchitán grow up speaking fluent Diidxazá. [End Page 145] Meanwhile, Diidxazá vocabulary shrinks under the relentless pressure of Spanish. Irma Pineda and other bilingual Indigenous writers in Mexico describe their literary work as “language rescue,” as well as artistic expression. That dual intent is often unappreciated by Mexico’s wider literary community, which long excluded them. Until recently, Mexican bookstores would shelve Indigenous writers’ fiction, poetry, essays, and drama under “Anthropology” rather than “Mexican Literature.” In a 2008 essay, Irma Pineda explained, “Indigenous Mexican cultures are developing a literature that recovers the cosmovisions and aesthetic values of our own cultures, strengthens our languages by reincorporating archaic words and creating neologisms, and also integrates the concerns of a globalized world with local community reflection” (Pineda 2008, 1). The poems published here are drawn from Pineda’s 2007 poetry collection, Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ / La nostalgia no se marcha como el agua de los ríos (Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like River Water), published by Escritores en Lenguas Indígenas (ELIAC), a national Mexican association of Indigenous-language authors. ELIAC began its own publishing house because traditional Mexican publishing houses did not take their members’ literatures seriously (Pineda 2012). Like many of Pineda’s poetry collections, Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ has a strong narrative arc; each poem serves as a microchapter in a highly compressed story in poems. It is a collection of persona poems told in two fictional voices from Pineda’s hometown: a person who has immigrated to the United States as an undocumented worker and that person’s partner, who has stayed at home. Pineda’s home community, Juchitán, has experienced heavy outmigration as people leave for jobs in Mexican cities, along the U.S.-Mexico border region, or in the United States. The current migration crisis in the United States—government officials separating families; government officials refusing to allow political, economic, and ecological refugees to apply for asylum; and children housed in cages—makes the poems of Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ urgently important. These persona poems weave a narrative about the physical and emotional challenges of migration under less dire conditions than those we are currently seeing. In the dozen years since these poems were first published in Mexico City, the situation for Pineda’s friends and neighbors who migrate to the United States has grown more awful than we could have imagined. Pineda...

Parthenolide Has Negative Effects on In Vitro Enhanced Osteogenic Phenotypes by Inflammatory Cytokine TNF-α via Inhibiting JNK Signaling.

Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) regulates inflammatory gene expression and represents a likely target for novel disease treatment approaches, including skeletal disorders. Several plant-derived sesquiterpene lactones can inhibit the activation of NF-κB. Parthenolide (PTL) is an abundant sesquiterpene lactone, found in Mexican Indian Asteraceae family plants, with reported anti-inflammatory activity, through the inhibition of a common step in the NF-κB activation pathway. This study examined the effects of PTL on the enhanced, in vitro, osteogenic phenotypes of human periosteum-derived cells (hPDCs), mediated by the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. PTL had no significant effects on hPDC viability or osteoblastic activities, whereas TNF-α had positive effects on the in vitro osteoblastic differentiation of hPDCs. c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling played an important role in the enhanced osteoblastic differentiation of TNF-α-treated hPDCs. Treatment with 1 µM PTL did not affect TNF-α-treated hPDCs; however, 5 and 10 µM PTL treatment decreased the histochemical detection and activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alizarin red-positive mineralization, and the expression of ALP and osteocalcin mRNA. JNK phosphorylation decreased significantly in TNF-α-treated hPDCs pretreated with PTL. These results suggested that PTL exerts negative effects on the increased osteoblastic differentiation of TNF-α-treated hPDCs by inhibiting JNK signaling.