The Fight for Education: The Rise of Indigenous Oaxacan Teachers and Their Role in the 1980s Mexican Teacher’s Movement

This thesis investigates the pivotal role of Indigenous Oaxacan teachers in the 1980s Mexican Teacher’s Movement, addressing a significant gap in scholarship that has often overlooked Indigenous political activism in Mexico prior to the 1990s. It argues that these teachers were critical actors whose prior organizing experience, cultivated throughout the 1970s in response to state assimilationist policies (via INI, IIISEO) and discriminatory practices (from SEP, SNTE), enabled them to significantly shape the 1980s movement. Drawing on theories of political identity (Yashar 2006), repertoires of strategies (Rossi 2023), and identity salience (Hunt & Benford), this study traces the development of their political consciousness and organizational structures like the Coalición de Maestros y Promotores Indígenas de Oaxaca (CMPIO). Key findings reveal that Indigenous teachers transformed the movement’s recruitment by fostering solidarity through their shared Indigenous and educator identities, particularly mobilizing rural teachers. Furthermore, their historical legacy of resistance informed the adoption of effective counter-hegemonic strategies against the PRI. These contributions were crucial in achieving significant victories, such as the democratization of the local union, Sección 22, in 1982, demonstrating the profound impact of Indigenous agency and political identity on broader social struggles and institutional change in Mexico.