The Colombian activist Juan Gregorio Palechor (1923–1992) dedicated his life to championing indigenous rights in Cauca, a department in the southwest of Colombia, where he helped found the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca. Recounting his life story in collaboration with the Colombian anthropologist Myriam Jimeno, Palechor traces his political awakening, his experiences in national politics, the disillusionment that resulted, and his turn to a more radical activism aimed at confronting ethnic discrimination and fighting for indigenous territorial and political sovereignty.
Palechor's lively memoir is complemented by Jimeno's reflections on autobiography as an anthropological tool and on the oppressive social and political conditions faced by Colombia's indigenous peoples. A faithful and fluent transcription of Palechor's life story, this work is a uniquely valuable resource for understanding the contemporary indigenous rights movements in Colombia.
Foreword / Joanne Rappaport ix
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
Part 1. Narrations, Life Stories, and Autobiographies
For Those Who Come After 10
The Anthropological Narrative as Dialogue 12
Life Stories, Biographies, and Autobiographies 14
Recovering the Subaltern Vision 17
Reality, Experience, and Expression: The Authorship of Oral Histories 19
Debates on Techniques in Life Stories 22
Part 2. Juan Gregorio Palechor: Between the Community and the Nation
Identity and Ethnic Re-Creation 28
Ethnicity as Social Relation 35
The Limits of Diversity and Ethnic Recognition 37
Juan Gregorio Palechor: Between the Community and the Nation 44
Cauca, the Guachicono Resguardo, and Indigenous Movements 54
Identity and the Struggle for the Resguardo 60
A Politics of Our Own and the Reinvention of Identity 65
Part 3. Juan Gregorio Palechor: The Story of My Life
Where I Come From: Five Generations of the Macizo Colombiano and Guachicono 76
Recognizing the Way of the World and Observing the Weather 78
Life on the Resguardo 80
Our Nervousness about School and What We Were Taught 88
The Harshness of Family Life and the Art of Agriculture 92
When I Was Conscripted 96
Learning New Things 102
Public Life and Political Violence 104
During the Violence, I Was Forced by Necessity to Work as a Tinterillo 110
The Formation of Community Action Committees: The Liberal Revolutionary Movement and the National Front 119
Religion, Money, and Politics 124
Working with the MRL and the Political Parties 131
The Management Class of the Catholic Religion 135
Looking for an Organization: The Campesino Association and the Indigenous Organization 138
My Work in the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) 143
The Struggles of CRIC and Indigenous Traditions 148
Politiqueros and Their Empty Words 156
Why an Organization of Indigenous People? 158
Appendix: CRIC Documents 163
Glossary 191
Notes 195
References 215
Index 225
