In 2011, the women of Cherán led an uprising against illegal logging. Now, the Indigenous community is thriving.
Before dawn on April 15, 2011, as loggers arrived to begin the day’s destructive work, the women took them hostage, locking them in the church and then setting off fireworks to signal to the rest of the town that the uprising had started. The loggers’ vehicles were seized and burned. It was the start of a war that lasted for more than a year, with locals using dozens of fogatas, or bonfires, through the mountainous forest to relay information about their enemy’s activities.
Such fierce and resourceful resistance runs deep in these lands: The Purépecha are one of the few Indigenous groups never conquered by the Aztecs. Local legends, not confirmed by historical sources, also tell of a woman named Eréndira, who stole the horses of Spanish invaders and led a rebellion against the Europeans.
By 2012, true to their reputation for repelling outsiders, the people of Cherán had kicked out the logging cartel and established their legal autonomy. They reverted to usos y costumbres, an Indigenous form of government by a 12-member council that is chosen by the community, and replaced the feared and corrupt police with the local ronda comunitaria. The high crime rate tumbled. The once-decimated forest began to make a comeback, thanks in part to a local vivero, or tree nursery, established as part of a community-led replanting effort and staffed mostly by women. Locals say the climate has nearly returned to normal, native plants are thriving once more, and wildlife populations, including deer and coyote, are rebounding.
