Faced with the government’s failure to provide medical care to indigenous peoples, the Wixárika and Tepehuana Autonomous Community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, in Villa Guerrero, Jalisco, announced the inauguration of an autonomous community clinic.

“We have seen how health is not a right that we indigenous peoples can have; medical attention is always a privilege”, said the members of the community, who in response to the omission of the authorities will open the autonomous clinic and will be trained to provide medical attention.

On 27 August, the community will begin a three-day journey around the inauguration of the clinic, which will include workshops, training and medical consultations on various areas of community health for members of the community, a traditional spiritual ceremony, and cultural and artistic exchange with traditional music and handicrafts.

“We have appointed health promoters who will be trained to save lives, attend to medical emergencies and learn about the use of white coat medicine, traditional medicine and herbal medicine,” explained the community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán.

The villagers invited those attending the inauguration to donate medicines in good condition.

“We will never again allow capitalist disease, which makes a commodity out of health, territory, culture and everything it can, to invade our mother earth, our own organisation, our dreams and our bodies,” assured the inhabitants of the community.

The opening day will serve as the closing event of the National and International Campaign for Justice and Territory in Azqueltán. To register, send an email to azqueltan@gmail.com, with your full name, place of origin, and whether you belong to a village, community, collective, movement, organisation or media outlet.

Below is the full communiqué:

  • To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
  • To the National Indigenous Congress – Indigenous Council of Government
  • To the Civil Human Rights Observation Network of the TdT Network
  • To the peoples of Mexico and the world
  • To the media

Sisters, brothers and sisters, receive respectful greetings from the lands at the bottom of the Bolaños canyon, in our autonomous Wixárika and Tepehuana community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico. Where we continue to resist the invasion of our territory, fighting for justice and for life as we have for 500 years; and recognizing ourselves in our roots, we launch this word to the world to say that:

With the repression after decades of struggle, in which our parents and grandparents have been threatened, persecuted, beaten or killed by rich land thieves, whom we call caciques, we have understood that to be alive as Tepehuano and Wixárika people, but also as every person, we must take care of ourselves and be able to dream collectively. For that we need our land, for which we fight and which we will defend with our working hands, even if another five centuries go by, in which we must be alive and strong.

We have seen how health is not a right that we, the original peoples, can have; medical attention is always a privilege and preventable or treatable illnesses would be lethal without the knowledge of the traditional medicine of the elders; because for the governments and the rich, it would be better if we had already disappeared since centuries ago when we were invaded by their ambition and violence. This is the only way they can continue to enrich themselves by exploiting the land and the people.

We need life and health for our entire community and our authorities who were on the verge of death after the attack by the cacique Fabio Flores, our grandparents who were hanged or dragged away to take their land, and also for our people who go out to work in the fields every day, with the fear that their land will be violently reclaimed by the rich who claim to have bought a title deed from the government. We need life and health for the children whose care is conditional on having money to pay for it.

Never again will we allow capitalist disease, which makes a commodity out of health, territory, culture and whatever else it can, to invade our mother earth, our own organisation, our dreams and our bodies. Today more than ever, we know that only with autonomy and organisation can we achieve this. Just as the autonomous health systems of our sisters and brothers of the Zapatista peoples in Chiapas have taught us, with their dignified example.

That is why we have decided to heal the collective heart, to grow together with the life and autonomy of our community; that is why in the framework of the Campaign for Justice and Territory in Azqueltán, which we started on the 25th of April 2021, we are calling on the solidarity of the world through the internet, obtaining the extended hand and support necessary for the construction and equipment of a sacred dream made autonomous clinic. For this we have appointed health promoters who will be trained to save lives, attend to medical emergencies and learn about the use of white coat medicine as well as traditional and herbal medicine.

We send a fraternal embrace to all of them who have made this journey in defense of life possible, and soon we will have the opportunity to thank them in particular.

Thus, a health brigade was formed, made up of sisters and brothers in solidarity from diverse and distant geographies, who share the conviction that their ancestral roots are alive and that it is time to rebuild community health systems from them; it is time for those roots to meet and share to become hope for this sick world. We salute the health brigade made up of women healers, nurses, midwives, herbalists, Cuban and other doctors, members of the Sexta Grietas Del Norte network in the USA, the Seeds Collective in N.Y. C, food healers, artists who use art to heal and amplify the voice of the people, from diverse expressions of resistance such as other sister communities of the National Indigenous Congress and from different parts of the world; Iran, Cuba, Los Angeles-California, New York, Chicago-Illinois, Seattle-Washington, Oakland-California, Tucson-Arizona, El Istmo de Tehuantepec (Oaxaca), Mexicali, Guerrero, Yucatan, Mexico City, Ecatepec-Edo. Mex and Puebla. From the Afro-descendant languages, Maya, P’urhepecha, Mixteca, Huasteca, Binniza, Persian of Shiraz, Nahua, Japanese, English, Arabic, Yoreme, Wixarika and Tepehuano, and therefore, in the framework of the Closing of the National and International Campaign for Justice and Territory in Azqueltán

WE CALL UP

To the original peoples of Mexico and the world, to the solidarity and conscious collectives, artists, creators, human rights organisations and the media, to the:

INAUGURATION OF THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY CLINIC

To be held in our community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco.

From 27 to 30 August 2021

Under the following theme that will be developed during these days.

  • Workshops, training and medical consultations on various areas of community health for members of the community.
  • Inauguration of the health promoters and inauguration of the autonomous community clinic.
  • Traditional spiritual ceremony.
  • Cultural and artistic exchange (the community will have traditional music and handicrafts).
  • Report of the Civil Human Rights Observation Mission.
  • Public statement at the closing of the National and International Campaign for Justice and Territory in Azqueltán.

Those who are able to attend are invited to donate medicines in good condition, to the extent of their possibilities.

Access to our community, considering the necessary measures in the face of the COVID 19 contingency, will be with strict adherence to sanitary measures, with the obligatory use of masks at all times, maintaining an adequate social distance and under a previous registration, which will be done at the email address azqueltan@gmail.com, where we ask you to send your full name, place of origin, as well as if you belong to any village, community, collective, movement, organisation or media, while the official information for this event will be disseminated through our website https://www. comunidadazqueltan.org/ as well as social networks and digital sites in solidarity with our struggle. Please bring a blanket or sleeping bag, toiletries, your own glass and plate.

Sincerely

August 2021

Never Again a Mexico Without Us ¡Que Viva la Madre Tierra!

Wixárika and Tepehuana Autonomous Community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco.