Afromexican organizations: institutional resources, changes and regulation at the dawn of the XXI century

Abstract

In the first decade of the millennium, several Afro-Mexican organizations went through formal registration as institutions of the civil society to access public funds from government programs. This led to an important change in the use of their resources as collectives and the acquisition of knowledge. They faced some challenges such as adapting to the new rules of fund management to operate projects, as well as the professionalization and strengthening of their capacities. The text seeks to understand the processes of institutional change faced by Afro-Mexican civil society organizations that currently persist in the struggle for the recognition of the afro-descendant population in Mexico and development policies in accordance with their cultural specificities. On the one hand, the programs and funds offered by the government were minimal and largely constrained the work of the organizations. On the other hand, the government's commitments before international bodies opened a door for negotiations with State institutions for the ethnic recognition of the Afro-Mexican populations in the country. Currently, these populations are recognized in the second article of the country's Constitution and are about to be considered in the 2020 census. This document exemplifies the journeys of some of the Costa Chica of Oaxaca organizations, their journey from the end of 1990 to the first 15 years of the millennium. The article focuses on one of the organizational experiences. The research tries to reveal the use of the resources at some moments of their history and in certain circumstances, trying to show how the resources vary in their trajectory, in the interactions with certain actors, and the evolution of power relations in organizational mobilization.