Revealing Rebellion in Abiayala: The Insurgent Poetics of Contemporary Indigenous Literature

305 Pages·2019·1.516 MB·English

by  Hannah Burdette

REVEALING REBELLION IN ABIAYALA
The Insurgent Poetics of Contemporary Indigenous Literature
HANNAH BURDETTE
REVEALING REBELLION IN ABIAYALA

R E V E A L I N G
R E B E L L I O N
I N A B I AYA L A
The Insurgent Poetics of
Contemporary Indigenous Literature
HANNAH BURDETTE
The University of Arizona Press
www .uapress .arizona .edu
© 2019 by The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved. Published 2019
ISBN-13: 978-0-8165-3865-2 (cloth)
Cover design by Leigh McDonald
Cover art by Votan, in collaboration with NSRGNTS /Insrgnts .com, Honor the Earth/
www.honorearth.org, and AICHO/www .aicho .org
Publication of this book is made possible in part by the proceeds of a permanent endowment
created with the assistance of a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities, a federal agency.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Burdette, Hannah, author.
Title: Revealing rebellion in Abiayala : the insurgent poetics of contemporary indigenous literatures /
Hannah Burdette.
Description: Tucson : The University of Arizona Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038891 | ISBN 9780816538652 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Literature—Indian authors. | Indian literature—History and criticism. | Social
movements in literature. | Indigenous authors—America. | America—Literatures—History and
criticism.
Classification: LCC PM157 .B87 2019 | DDC 898—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038891
Printed in the United States of America
♾
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Note to the Reader xi
Introduction: From Political Protest to Poetic Awakening 3
PART I. VISIBILIZAR
1. Native (In)visibility and the Narrative Refusal to Write 27
2. Verbal Art and the Insurrection of Maya Knowledge 63
PART II. VISUALIZAR
3. Warrior Words, from Mapuchemas to Hip- Hop Peñas 101
4. Literary Contraband and the Spatial Politics of Resistance 140
5. Visions of the Future Present: Reprogramming Indigenismo 174
Conclusion: Addicted to the Indigenous? 211
Notes 223
Works Cited 251
Index 275

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A project as ambitious as this one requires the support of many individuals and
institutions to come to fruition. First and foremost, I would like to thank the
Mechoopda people, on whose traditional lands I live and work, as well as the
indigenous authors and activists I have had an opportunity to interview and
dialogue with over the years. I am particularly grateful to Miguel Ángel López
Hernández, Xun Betan, Una Isu, Tzutu Kan, Julieta Paredes, Simón Yam-
para, Pablo García, Estercilia Simanca Pushaina, Antonio Guzmán Gómez,
Abraham Gómez, and Margarita Martínez Pérez, who helped me gain a much
deeper understanding of the intersection between poetics and politics. Addi-
tionally, Juan de Dios Yapita tutored me daily on the Aymara language during
my time in Bolivia.
Institutional support from the University of Pittsburgh, Lycoming College,
and California State University, Chico, allowed me to travel at various points
to conduct research abroad. A Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship from
Pitt funded my study of Maya K’iche’ for six weeks in Guatemala during the
summer of 2010, and additional research funding from the Center for Latin
American Studies at Pitt supported my fieldwork in Bolivia in 2011. A Research
Fellows grant from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Chico State
funded my travel to Chiapas, Mexico, in March 2017 to conduct the research
necessary to complete my revisions for chapter 1. I would also like to thank
Kristen Buckles, Maya Allen-Gallegos, and all the staff at the University of
viii Acknowledgments
Arizona Press who guided me through the process of preparing my manuscript
for publication.
I am deeply indebted to my dissertation committee chair, Elizabeth Mon-
asterios, who offered wise counsel on both the intellectual and practical dimen-
sions of a large-scale research project. My other committee members, John
Beverley, Juan Duchesne Winter, Gonzalo Lamana, and Paul Eiss, provided
valuable input as well and asked challenging questions to keep me on my toes.
Thanks also to Carlos Jáuregui, John Markoff, and Olga Kuchinskaya, who read
and commented on my work in the early stages of this project. Ximena Postigo,
Allison Ramay, Denise Minor, and Rusty Barrett also provided feedback and
consultation along the way. Rusty was a patient K’iche’ teacher and valuable
resource, and Jan and Diane Rus, Rosario Rodríguez Márquez, and Denise
Arnold helped to show me the ropes during my fieldwork.
I am grateful for the numerous friends and colleagues who supported my
research in many different ways, including but not limited to my host family in
Nahualá, Elizabeth Bell, Tiffany Creegan Miller, Carlos Abreu Mendoza, Juan
Guillermo Sánchez, Miguel Rocha Vivas, Adam Coon, Kelly McDonough,
Gloria Chacón, Arturo Arias, Sara Trechter, Steve Lewis, Sarah Anderson, Sara
Cooper, Chiara Ferrari, Kate McCarthy, Joshua Lund, Emma Freeman, Erin
Kelly, Danielle Hidalgo, and fellow members of Friends of the Mechoopda.
Without the valuable friendship and support of many of these people, I would
never have been able to complete this book. Additionally, my students and
colleagues in the Department of International Languages, Literatures, and
Cultures at Chico State are a continuous source of inspiration, strength,
and courage, particularly my queer, undocumented, and first-generation stu-
dents who keep me honest and engaged.
I am eternally grateful to my parents, Ricky and Karen Burdette, for their
unwavering support and encouragement over the years, and especially to my
mother for taking me to Ecuador for two months when I was thirteen and
inspiring me to follow in her footsteps to become a Spanish professor. My
siblings, Sarah (Finn), Todd, Paul, and Brian, taught me from a young age
to ask questions and to value antiestablishment, punk, and queer perspec-
tives. Brian, who suffered from epilepsy and bipolar disorder, died from a
seizure in October 2015, during my first semester at Chico State. This book
is dedicated to his memory and his own fierce struggle against the world’s
injustice.
Acknowledgments ix
Last, but not least, I owe the greatest thanks to my husband, intellectual part-
ner, and best friend, Nathan Heggins Bryant, who accompanied me throughout
the process, talked me through ideas when I got stuck, provided feedback on
multiple drafts, washed the dishes, helped to shoulder the burden of my stress,
gave many much-needed pep talks, and has generally kept me grounded over
the past sixteen years. I couldn’t have done it without you.