New World of Indigenous Resistance (City Lights Open Media)
This enlightening and erudite volume contains three interviews with Noam Chomsky—the well-known linguist, philosopher, and political activist—about indigenous resistance to globalization, followed by the reactions of educators, scholars, and activists from the indigenous Americas. This hemispheric conversation is led by Meyer, also a linguist and professor of bilingual education, and Alvarado, a Mexican anthropologist specializing in indigenous education who has lived in Oaxaca for 30 years. Chomsky introduces the theme of nation-state formation with its suppression of linguistic diversity, and its opposing force of indigenous comunalidad, which embraces diversity and multiculturalism. Some of the contributors' responses center on the attempts of 10 innovative educational projects in rural, indigenous Oaxaca to keep their language and culture alive. Others relate those successes to attempts in their own countries to do the same in the face of globalization. An exhaustive, thought-provoking presentation of timely arguments that will interest readers and students curious about how indigenous communities can continue to survive in sync with the outside world without being smothered by it. --Deborah Donovan