On September 28, 2021, in Vícam, Sonora, the Mexican government carried out an act of "Appeal for forgiveness to the Yaqui people" within the framework of of the so-called Justice Plan for the Yaqui Peoples, which according to official statements seeks, among other things, "to redress the injustices committed against this people," including the persecution led by the Porfirio Díaz government. In recent months, this attempted genocide against the Yaqui Tribe has once again become relevant. Hundreds of Yaqui boys, girls, men and women were captured and sent to work as enslaved people on henequen (agave) estates in southeastern Mexico, as was reported by the American journalist John Kenneth Turner in Barbarian, Mexico. Faced with this call to invade territories that since ancient times belonged to the Tribe, the Yaqui Peoples took up arms in 1882 and for several years they faced federal troops who tried to do away with them. The persecution weakened the Yaqui community. With Porfirio Díaz in command, the Mexican State issued an open call to “colonize” the Yaqui and Mayo Valleys, and based on the Lerdo Law, it ignored the titles that protected the possession of the Yaqui Peoples over their territories. Luna Romero made it clear that for the Tribe “the mandate is to take care of the territory, conserve it together with everything that lives and coexists in it, that is, the fauna and flora, what is seen, and what it is not seen.”Īt the end of the 19th Century, the Yaqui Tribe faced one of the most intense extermination efforts by the Mexican State. The looting of their resources and the harassment of their members was not by choice, on the contrary, the Yaqui Peoples are experiencing a new wave of violence that has left many imprisoned and their leaders assassinated.Ĭultural Survival recently spoke with Mario Luna Romero (Yaqui), spokesperson and second secretary of the town of Vícam, as well as coordinator of the Namakasia community radio. Today, the Yaqui Tribe continues to fight and defend the continuity of their lifeways for its present and future generations. Also, a long history of struggle and resistance unites them, first against the colonial government and later against the Mexican State which led to attempts at dispossession and extermination. Located in the state of Sonora, Mexico, the Yaqui Tribe is an Indigenous Nation made up of eight Peoples who share the same territory, language, and culture.
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