Participatory mapping empowers patrimony: a team of geographers and archaeologists are collaborating with indigenous communities in Tiltepec, Mexico to put their lands and languages on the map.

• Author: Brady, Scott

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In his account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Bernal Diaz del Castillo tells us that in 1521 Hernan Cortes dispatched him and Gonzalo de Sandoval from Tenochtitlan south to the Provincia de los Zapoteccas. Cortes instructed the conquistadors to investigate Moctezuma's claim that he received tributes of gold from that region's inhabitants. Sandoval and Diaz del Castillo's party marched eastward out of the Valley of Mexico and southward down the Gulf coastal plain to Tustepeque, now know as Tuxtepec, a journey of 250 miles. After gaining control of Tustepeque, Sandoval sent a party of 100 Spaniards and 100 Indians to pacify Zapotec communities in the mountains to the southwest and to search for gold. Led by Captain Briones, the party marched ten leagues, approximately 35 miles, into the rugged mountainous region today known as the Rincon of Oaxaca's Sierra de Juarez. There, on the steep slopes of Cerro Negro, the Zapotecs of Tiltepec ambushed the Spaniards and drove them over a cliff. One third of the party was wounded and they retreated. Back in Tustepeque, Briones recounted a fierce battle waged on tortuous terrain that rendered their horses useless. The captain claimed that his previous battles against Turks and Moors were preferable to warfare with the savage Tiltepecanos. Tiltepec's remoteness and its people's martial skills prevented them from being pacified for another decade.

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In the summer of 2006 a team of Mexican and US geographers traveled four hours of rough road from Ixtlan de Juarez to the still isolated community of Tiltepec. Rather than gold, they sought cooperation. They hoped to persuade the Tiltepecanos to join an innovative project, Mexico Indigena, which would enhance the community's management of its natural resources and help it to preserve its cultural patrimony. After much debate within the community and several more visits by the geographers, in July 2007 Tiltepec elected to participate in the project. By joining the Mexico Indigena project, Tiltepecanos agreed to become geographers of their own lands. This article describes the work of Mexico Indigena and its experiences working with the community of Tiltepec.

Mexico Indigena is a participatory mapping project. The research team includes geographers and archaeologists from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, the University of Kansas, and the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosf, Mexico. Peter Herlihy of the University of Kansas and Derek Smith of Carleton University head the team and direct the research of both the undergraduate and graduate students from San Lnis Potosf and Kansas and the local investigators in indigenous communities in San Luis Potosi and Oaxaca. Mexico Indigena has focused its work on indigenous committees which have maintained their traditions of communal land management within the ejido system of land tenure established after the Mexican Revolution. Mexico Indigena is investigating the effects of a government land titling project on indigenous ejidos. The project, known by the acronym PROCEDE which stands for Programa de Certificacion de Derechos Ejidales y Titulacion de Solares, has the potential to lead to the privatization of indigenous peoples' ancestral lands. Researchers worry that this...