Indigenous rights | Mexico

“We need to be loud every day”

Born into a rural Indigenous community, Eufrosina Mendoza Cruz was hardly destined to pursue a political career. Yet, she championed the rights of Mexican Indigenous women, becoming both an activist and a member of parliament. A conversation about self-determination and perseverance
The indigenous politician and activist Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza in a seated position. She is wearing a light traditional zapotec gown with a darker pattern.

Interview by Xochitl Zepeda

Mrs Cruz Mendoza, you are an indigenous woman in politics - what were the biggest challenges you faced along the way?

As an indigenous woman from a modest background, I was fundamentally denied the chance of a career in politics. In 2007, I wanted to become mayor of my community to bring about structural changes to women’s living conditions. But it was men who stopped me. Thanks to certain forms of indigenous self-government, we have been able to preserve our identity and our traditions.

But at the same time, our men maintain a machismo and patriarchal positions. For them, we women are only there to give birth, raise the children and prepare food. Always passive, confined to the domestic sphere, with no say over our bodies or our lives, which are characterised by violence. At the age of 26, I stood in front of the men at the community meeting, completely alone, in the middle of the mountains. I confronted them with a fundamental question: who established these customs and traditions?

“I realised that I had to go into politics if I wanted to improve the situation of women.”

How did the men in your community react?

They put pressure on us. My parents said we would be thrown out of the community because of my behaviour. My brothers were ostracised and blamed me. I realised that I had to go into politics if I wanted to improve the situation of women. A few years later, I was President of the Congress of Oaxaca. There, I managed to push through a constitutional amendment in 2011 that granted indigenous women in our state their full political rights. In 2014, as Coordinator for Indigenous Affairs, I managed to amend Article 2 of the constitution. This gave the indigenous women of our country the right to vote and stand for election.

So you didn’t get support from anyone in your community?

Only from my teacher Joaquín - thanks to him I discovered the freedom to dream at a very young age. My father, who couldn’t write, read or speak Spanish, took me to Salina Cruz when I was twelve so that I could continue going to school. And my mother gave me a hundred pesos (about five euros) when I went away to study. That was all the support I got. I hated being a woman in this country. I saw my sister give birth to nine children, crying in silence and begging her husband to stop having sex with her. My grandmother said she was also raped by her husband and never knew love. That situation was normal and widely accepted.

What has changed for indigenous women since you were elected MP in 2010?

A lot has changed, and not just thanks to me, but also to many other indigenous women. Women from my community can now vote and complete a higher education without having to move away, because we have secondary schools in indigenous communities throughout the country. These schools also prepare them for university. In Oaxaca, 27 indigenous women have already been elected mayor. I paved the way for this, not only in Oaxaca, but throughout Mexico. In 2023, I succeeded in making Mexico the first country in Latin America to include the marriage of underage indigenous girls as a crime in the penal code.

My goal now is to ensure that the law is enforced and that no more girls are forced into marriage. That women in our communities have more opportunities to further their education. Many young women now play football or basketball. This is a big step forward for us and is a sign of emancipation. We fight for the freedom to speak out on any topic, to laugh, to say yes or no.

Despite this, indigenous women are still underrepresented in politics and, although we have achieved a lot, the fight is far from over. In the local indigenous elections in 2022, we did not achieve parity, i.e. there was no equal distribution of offices by gender. But many indigenous women's collectives have raised objections, and by 2025, indigenous communities will have to put equal representation into practice. We need to be loud every day.

“It is not our origins that are decisive for our future, but our education.”

How different is the situation of indigenous women in different regions of Mexico? Where there is still a lot to be done?

In the state of Guerrero, for example, girls are still being sold into marriage because it is economically profitable for their parents. But the good thing is that people are now talking about it. We are encouraged by many developments, for example the community of Santa Inés Yatzeche in Oaxaca, where indigenous women were elected for the first time a few years ago. They now make up seventy percent of the cabildo, our council.

Do you think that the way indigenous minorities are seen in Mexico has changed overall in recent years?

Things have changed, but the Mexican state and politicians still see the communities as poor victims. When that changes, when we are truly recognised and believe that we can move forward with our own resources, that is the day when indigenous communities will see a profound change. We are not mere victims or second-class citizens.

In my community, I was the first to go to university. In the meantime, my sisters are also pursuing careers as doctors, architects and managers. We are responsible for our own history. It is not our origins that are decisive for our future, but our education.

“Mexico is a very unequal and racist country.”

The politician Marichuy, a doctor from the Nahua community in Jalisco, ran for the Mexican presidency in 2018, and you also gave it a try. Now another indigenous woman has run unsuccessfully against the victorious presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum. Do you think Mexicans are ready for a woman president, but not for an indigenous woman?

This year’s elections were painful for me. The opposition candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, was part of my party’s coalition. She was vilified because of her appearance, for example because of her teeth or the way she speaks, and although her parents belong to the Otomí people, her indigenous origins were questioned. At the same time, she faced discrimination and many did not want to entrust the highest office in the state to an indigenous woman.

Mexico is a very unequal and racist country. We have not learnt to treat each other fairly. The candidate who has now been elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is a woman, but she is white and of European descent. And the fact that she is a woman does not necessarily mean that she is a feminist politician. I will demand that the newly elected government allow indigenous women in Mexico to fully exercise their rights. It is not easy to break through the prevailing paradigms in this discriminatory society. Only we, the indigenous women, can guarantee this.

Translated by Jess Smee