Country: Mexico

Group: Otomi

Finalized: 3/25/2020

Team: Leilani Alva & Arisha Khan (leads), Giselle Chavez Lopez, Johanna McCombs

Content Warning: homicide, ethnocide

Approximate Time Period: 1395, 1619, 2000-present

The Otomi have experienced a long history of abuse from colonizing powers, including displacement by Aztecs (Mata‐Míguez 2012), and violence and killings from invading Spanish forces under Cortes in the 16th century.  Natives recalled that Cortes “destroyed completely” the Otomi (Naimark, 2017, p. 41). More recently, the Otomi people have gone to the United Nations to complain about ethnocide and ecocide committed by the Mexican government in an effort to gain control of the Otomi land (Otomi Nation, n.d.). There also have been multiple uprisings by Mexican indigenous groups including the Otomi, where people have demanded better living conditions (Minority Rights, n.d.). Due to ongoing conflicts with the government, indigenous groups including the Otomi formed the National Zapatista Liberation Army (EZLN) which aimed to be the voice of the indigenous groups (Minority Rights, n.d.). At the height of the uprising, government forces shot dozens of suspected members of EZLN (Minority Rights, n.d.). Indigenous farmers have been harassed while working their lands, and police brutality and mistreatment by the justice system are commonly reported (Minority Rights, n.d.). Due to these specific attacks towards the Otomi people, this would be considered ethnically-targeted lethal violence.  The data quality was 2 because there was reliable information, but there wasn’t a lot of information provided from scholarly sources. 

Sources

  1. Naimark, N. M. (2017). Genocide: A World History. Oxford University Press
  2. Mata‐Míguez, J., Overholtzer, L., Rodríguez‐Alegría, E., Kemp, B. M., & Bolnick, D. A. (2012). The genetic impact of Aztec imperialism: ancient mitochondrial DNA evidence from Xaltocan, Mexico. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 149(4), 504-516.
  3. Minority Rights (n.d.). Indigenous peoples. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2020, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/indigenous-peoples-4/
  4. Otomi Nation. (n.d.). THE OTOMI TOLTEC PEOPLE VOICE AT THE UNITED NATIONS | Retrieved February 16, 2020, from http://otomi.org/uncategorized/the-otomi-toltec-people-voice-at-the-united-nations/