"Within the context of the enduring afterlife of the renowned 2006 Oaxaca teacher's strike, Magan~a (Univ. of Arizona) presents an extraordinarily well-informed ethnographic account . . .Magan~a portrays and corroborates Oaxacan youth as "agents of change" and "dreamers of liberatory and dignified futures," offering a counter-reality to the prevalent negative stereotypes of the Mexican underclass. This is an excellent book for both its methodology and content."—CHOICE
“No doubt that Cartographies of Youth Resistance: Hip Hop, Punk, and Urban Autonomy in Mexico is a book that expands our understanding of 2006 Oaxaca and especially of the contemporary social movements there that continue to be led by the youth, echoing the struggles of the 2006 Generation. The book also provides a great contribution to the area of hip hop and punk studies within Latin America, and can be placed as an excellent addition to current scholarship in anthropology of the arts and youth studies.”
—Latin American Literary Review
"The book’s wealth of ethnographic data on a too-little studied corner of the world opens the door for others to join and extend the valuable dialogues that Magan~a and his collaborators in Oaxaca established."—Anthropological Forum
"Cartographies of Youth Resistance wraps trenchant analysis of how contemporary social movements keep energized and live through time, space, and repression with activist ethnography that keeps you turning the pages. Revealing the aesthetics, horizontal organizational strategies, and epistemologies behind one of the twenty-first century’s most creative social movements, Magaña vividly paints urban Indigenous and migrant youth as creators of new models of politics and culture that are crucial for our time."––Lynn Stephen, Philip H. Knight Chair and Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon and author of
We are the Face of Oaxaca: Testimony and Social Movements "This is a beautifully written book that analyzes the life and transformation of one social movement: youth activists in Oaxaca, Mexico, who cohered into a movement after the 2006 civil uprising in that city. Magaña's ethnography shows how this sector created a counter-space of resistance and autonomy in militarized neoliberal Mexico by drawing on a diverse repertoire, including punk and hip hop as well as indigenous customs, and then diminished in the following decade. An important contribution to the literature on social movements, indigeneity, art, urban politics, and neoliberalism."––Nancy Postero, author of
The Indigenous State: Race, Politics, and Performance in Plurinational Bolivia "With deep ethnographic research, keen political analysis, and fine aesthetic sensibilities, Magaña brings into sharp focus one of the most creative youth movements of recent times. Scholars and activists alike will be engaged by his compelling portrayal of the hybrid social movement expressions that have emerged in urban Oaxaca."––Edward J. McCaughan, author of
Art and Social Movements: Cultural Politics in Mexico and Aztlán "An extraordinary ethnographic window into the enduring afterlife of the 2006 Oaxacan social movement. Urban indigenous and migrant youth decolonized political and cultural space from below, with horizontal practices of 'comunalidad' and consensus, and a rebel aesthetics of music, murals, graffiti, and dance. These marginalized youth claimed Oaxaca back from picturesque 'heritage tourism,' enacting an inclusive, indigenous-based citizenship in the process. In Magaña's capable hands, we rightfully see these youths as transformative agents of urban geographies, the political future of a decolonized continent."––María Josefina Saldaña-Portillo, author of
Indian Given: Racial Geographies across Mexico and the United States "
Cartographies of Youth Resistance a provides an intense and informed analysis of how youth in Oaxaca utilize performance venues and networks of associations to organize and carry out continuous revolutionary actions that burst through artistic expressions. The seeming quiet resulting from repression is constantly challenged by performative discontent, and we can begin to fully understand how this activism will never cease nor be defeated."––Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez, author of
Reflections of a Transborder Anthropologist: From Netzahualcóyotl to Aztlán
