Voces desde los territorios: “Carretera de las culturas” San Cristóbal de Las Casas-Palenque y el sentipensar de los pueblos originarios en Chiapas

Abstract

The objective of this article is to understand the sentipensar of the original towns in Chiapas about the megaproject of the infrastructure known as “Carretera de las Culturas” San Cristóbal de Las Casas-Palenque, which has been in an intermittent process since 2009, product of communal and indigenous struggle and resistence. The reflections are based on the theoretical-legal approach of the territory, the right to information, environmental affectivity and neo-extractivism, to understand the sociocultural and symbolic dimensions that the life-earth-territory acquire in the towns. From an ethnographic fieldwork done between February 2020 and March 2022, we share an approximation of the sentipensar of the women and men, which allows us to have a glimpse of the diversity of voices that contrast in the megaproject discussion. The investigation helps comprehend that the territory ––ña lum, me’tik kaxeltik–– in the towns, has other meanings, beyond their material and economic condition, which is not a negotiable issue. Therefore, in order to achieve the implementation of any project, it is important to understand the cultural value that the territories represent, beyond any political, commercial and extractive purpose. Only through the circulation of the k’op ––Word and dialogue–– can any vision and proposal be put into practice.