Current indigenous peoples' resistance movements in Mexico, as well as in the rest of Latin America, can be understood as an emancipatory expression against 500 years of domination. The clash of civilizations of the early 16th century was followed by 300 years of Spanish colonization. When Mexico won its independence from Spain (1821), the creole elite (European descendants born in the new world) became the new dominant class. They positioned themselves in power and kept the colonial structures in place, thus establishing a de facto internal colonialism or neocolonialism for the next 200 years. A major grievance against the indigenous populations has been the encroachment of their territories, which has occurred to different degrees throughout time in Mexico. Hence, the defense of territories has been at the center of the five-centuries-long indigenous resistance. Mexico's current indigenous movement -- led by the Zapatistas and the Indigenous National Congress -- places its members' claims of identity and self-determination in the forefront, while demanding the right that they collectively own their ancestral territories. One such effort is presented in this thesis: the case study of San José de la Zorra, a Kumiai community in northern Baja California whose demand for legal recognition of its ancestral territory started in 1940 and remains unresolved.
