The Self-Making, Worlding Processes of Contemporary Zapotec Literature

Anna M. Brígido-Corachán

University of Valencia

Page 039-057

Abstract: This essay considers the main features and status of contemporary Zapotec literature, an “ultraminor” Indigenous literature in southern Mexico. Tracing its modern emergence through 20th century literary circuits that were preeminently local and politically-rooted, Zapotec literature has taken what Laachir et al. describe as a “ground-up and located approach” to literary production and circulation—one that clashes against the globalizing, capitalist, Western-centric relations prevalent in the field of World Literature. Shaping g/local readers and raising cultural and linguistic awareness, Zapotec authors write in their linguistic variant and self-translate their work and worldviews into Spanish—a major Western language with a strong colonialist legacy and presence in the field of World Literature. Although they translate their work as a form of authorial validation within the nation, they primarily seek to nurture autochthonous forms of expression and circulation that are key in Indigenous-led cultural revitalization processes in their territory. As examples of literary worlding, I engage two contemporary Zapotec texts: Víctor de la Cruz’s seminal anthology of Zapotec literature Guie’ sti’ diidxazá/La flor de la palabra and Natalia Toledo’s poem “Ni guicaa T. S. Eliot / A T. S. Eliot,” published in her bilingual collection Guie’ yaase’/Olivo negro.

Keywords: Zapotec Literature, Indigenous literatures, World Literature, Víctor de la Cruz, Natalia Toledo, readership, cultural revitalization

DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202302004

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