INSISTING ON LIFE: UNFOLDING ZAPOTEC MULTIPLICITY THROUGH BENE XHON, BENZA, AND BINNIZÁ ARTISTIC CREATION

Abstract

‘Insisting on Life: Unfolding Zapotec Multiplicity Multiplicity Through Bene Xhon, Benza,Binnizá Artistic Creation’ focuses on Zapotec artistic production committed to issues of Indigenous language vitality and the revitalization of environmentally devastated sites, engaging artists Javier Castellanos and the collective Tlacolulokos, among others working from the last decade of the 20th century to the present day; it offers a methodology to approach issues of Indigenous language loss and the devastation of the environment as intertwined processes, while highlighting articulations and modes of life present in the language and physical spaces that have been deemed dead. The dissertation includes four chapters: 1) “Language as Territory: Emergent Language and Environmental Vitalities”, introducing Pineda’s transindigenous framework, along with a theorization of community-based projects, 2) “Embodied Pluritemporality: Monolingualism and monocropping in Cantares de los vientos primerizos/ Wila che be ze lhao” centering on the Bene Xhon in the highlands of Oaxaca through the analysis of a Zapotec novel; 3) “Arriving at the River of Otters: Guigu Bi’cu’nisa and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec” discussing extinction and pollution in the Isthmus through the lens of photography focusing on the River of Otters; and 4) “Traveling Indigenous Textualities: Zapotec Diaspora through Street Art” exploring displaced populations’ connection to language and land (as guests on Native American territory) focusing on urban art found in the streets of Los Angeles.