I found that Nahuatl is important to the youth of Amatlán for two reasons: its cultural relevance and its practical relevance when speaking with elders. But the practical relevance of Nahuatl is quickly fading due to a post-Revolution push across Mexico to modernize all aspects of life and incorporate indigenous populations into the mestizo mainstream (Smith-Oka 2013:30). Nahuatl is stigmatized and associated with being backwards, poor, and unintelligent, according to many Amatlán teenagers. Spanish speakers, on the other hand, are seen as smart, normal, and modern.
The use of the word “traditional” brands indigenous culture as backwards in Mexico and across the globe. Anthropologist Peter Wolf argues that the terminology used in discussions about modernization can easily create “false models of reality” (Wolf 2010:6). Using “traditional” as the opposite of “modern”, with all the connotations that go along with those words, creates a false division between indigenous and mestizo life. This false separation ignores the centuries of complex history linking indigenous, European, and mesizo people, as well as the larger processes responsible for the marginalization of indigenous populations. It is not as if Amatlán has been nestled safely in its valley in total isolation as the rest of the world modernized and industrialized. Though they may not have running water, every house in Amatlán has a television, and during the last week of my stay, the village school officially gained internet access. Although the village is indigenous and agricultural, it is every bit as “modern” as the urban centers that have also survived to see 2013. In reality, Amatlán is part of a complex network of concentric core-periphery economic systems. The reason for the village’s economic disadvantage is not because it is “traditional”, “backwards”, or “indigenous”; it is the result of years of unequal economic exchange.
In a core-periphery economy, resources like goods and labor flow into the dominant core from the weaker periphery, creating a continuous cycle of dependence on the core for survival while draining the periphery of its resources (Wolf 2010:22). On a national level, Mexico is rapidly urbanizing and industrializing. Large landowners control much of the farmland, and international corporations build their factories in the north in search of cheap labor (Portes 1978:472). Because of this, many citizens of Amatlán like Isaias leave the village in search of more lucrative work in big cities like Veracruz or Mexico City. Urban, mestizo Mexico is the core, and rural, indigenous Amatlán is the periphery. This pattern repeats itself on an international level. Mexicans migrate to the US in search of work, draining the country of its most daring and innovative workers.
Atolinga, a small municipality in Zacatecas, contains about fifteen “hamlets” similar to Amatlán. Immigrating to the US has become part of the culture of Atolinga: around thirty two hundred Atolingans live in the municipality while almost ten thousand live in the United States (Quinones 2007:205). On this level, the United States is the core and Mexico is the periphery. I wonder if this is the next step in Amatlán’s life as fewer people remain in the village as subsistence farmers: another story of near-empty villages scattered across Mexico.
Labeling different locales or cultures as modern, transitional, and traditional makes it difficult to see the complex relationships linking all cultures and locales globally (Wolf 2010:13). The stigmatization connected to “traditional”, “indigenous” culture combined with a rapidly changing economy plays a large role in young Nahuas’ disinterest in Nahuatl. The next generation of Amatlán must balance the family ties connecting them to village life with new global definitions of modernity, migration, prosperity, and success. Isaias has joined his sisters in Mexico City in search of work. He dreams of one day being a teacher. The next few decades will be a time of uncertainty for Amatlán as the current generation grows up and adapts to new ways of life and changing economic systems.