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This form of contribution or contribution of work for the community also receives the names of tequil, mano vuelta (hand turned), fajina, task, corima (from the Rarámuri language, to give away or share) or trabajo de en medio (work in the middle). Due to the fact that the Nahuatl language was used as the lingua franca during the colonial era in New Spain, tequio is the term that has been generalized in various areas to refer to this activity.
The expression in Spanish prestar el servicio ( to provide the service) means "providing tequio". Providing the service is honorable for members of the indigenous community and is understood as a moral obligation that they cannot refuse. It is one an occasion to meet, partake in collective work, and identify as a community. Members of communities that practice tequio will periodically take a day off of work to provide service in a task required by the community. Tasks accomplished during tequio usually fall under a category of honorable and prestigious work that, according to the ancient purely indigenous custom, should not be charged for or compensated. The indigenous person is called to carry the topilli, the baton of command, to preserve and resolve common affairs according to custom, she is appointed by her community to direct it and represent it as an indigenous council supported by the topiles,Indigenas con funciones de alguaciles, mensajeros con autoridad y policías comunitarios, v. García Escamilla, Enrique et. al. Diccionario del Nahuatl en el Español de México, México, ed. CDMX-UNAM, 2009, p. 137 even at the cost of the personal sacrifice that it meant in all of them and still means in various indigenous communities, especially in some of the Oaxacan ones where they survive.
In some communities, members who have since moved elsewhere in Mexico or the United States of America are appointed in absentia to provide community service. No matter where they now reside, they will receive notice of their appointment asking them to return to perform community services. The custom is so respected that people will leave jobs and places of residence to return to the community to provide the service.
In the Triqui community, although tequio is obligatory and unpaid, participating in these collective works gives one prestige in the eyes of the community. History of performing tequio is an element that is considered for those who aspire to have a position as an authority in it.Zolla, 2004; 78 The Mixe people communities have created infrastructure for the supply of drinking water, electricity, roads, and other needs through tequio.Zolla, 2004; 79
The required number of days that men must contribute to collective municipal works through tequio varies greatly from one municipality to another.Kraemer, 2003; 47 The state government of Oaxaca sends more resources to the municipalities to try to carry out the works without resorting to the free work that tequio represents, however the communities defend this tradition because they consider not only the material results of these works to be important, but also their social value in strengthening the coexistence and integration of the members of the communities.Kraemer, 2003; 88-89 Tequio is also used as a form of annual cooperation to carry out the festivities of the patron saint of the communities.Kraemer, 2003; 106
Due to the fact that a some members of indigenous communities have abandoned the Catholic religion in favor of other Christianity, these members refuse to cooperate in tequio, giving rise to tension and confrontations.
For example, in Santa María Yosocuno, Teposcolula, five families from the religious organization Jehovah's Witness were forced to abandon their homes and their lands for refusing to comply with the community tequio and sing the National Anthem during the patriotic celebrations from September 15-16, 2005. The provisions stated that their return would not be accepted as long as they did not renounce their religious beliefs. Since the 19th century Mexican law guarantees and protects every person's Human rights to freedom of ethical convictions, conscience, and religion.Artículo 24 de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanosv. Artículo 18 del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos ratificado por México en vigor desde 1981. Igualmente la Convención Americana de Derechos Humanos, establece que toda persona tiene derecho a la libertad de conciencia y de religión y a conservar o cambiar las mismas, y que nadie puede ser objeto de medidas restrictivas que puedan menoscabar la libertad de conservar o cambiar de religión o creencias, conforme a las fracciones 1 y 2 del artículo 12 de dicha Convención, de la cual es parte México, y por lo tanto, todo mexicano goza de esos derechos However communities and individuals must consider that tequio, work for the indigenous community for their own well-being, does not have any content that harms, questions or confronts the faith of any person because it is not an ideology or a religious manifestation or anti-religious. As organized work, the custom of tequio faces various dilemmas, both for the communities that persevere in their uses and customs, and for those who freely adopt other ethical, cultural, or religious traditions.no
In the municipalities of Oaxaca, the Communal Assets Commissariat organizes tequio of the same name, communal assets tequio works in which, for example, lanes are cleaned along the borders of neighboring municipalities to keep clear their boundaries, avoid conflicts, and maintain good and friendly coexistence. It also organizes reforestation.
Tequio organized by the municipality organizes it is usually cleaning and maintenance of streets, squares, markets, irrigation pipes, drainage, schools or patching and laying gravel on unpaved neighborhood roads to keep them passable, or removal of materials such as stones, and trees dragged by stormwater avenues that have invaded public roads or properties.
Tequio can also be community-organized in response to natural disasters. Some examples include the earthquakes in Asunción Ixtaltepec,http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/comienza-demolicion-del-palacio-municipal-de-asuncion-ixtaltepec última visita 20 de julio de 2018 Unión Hidalgo,Tequio en Unión Hidalgo Oaxaca para ayudar a damnificados del sismo del 7/09/2017 http://www.jornada.com.mx/2017/10/16/estados/031n3est última visita 20 de julio de 2018 and Juchitán de Zaragoza, where, summoned by Francisco Toledo, the community created around 100 tequio-based kitchens to feed those affected by the earthquake of 2017.http://www.jornada.com.mx/2018/01/16/estados/027n1est última visita 21/julio/2018 In San Marcial Ozoltepec when Hurricane Pauline completely destroyed a local road (which had originally been built through tequio) in 1997 the community came together to rebuild despite the difficult conditions.http://www.jornada.com.mx/1997/11/06/luz.html última visita 20 de julio de 2018
In Yalalag, Sierra Norte de Oaxaca (and other municipalities in that region), as of the year 2000 the work of assistant to the municipality or "topil", that of alderman, trustee or municipal president was considered community service, unpaid volunteer work, or tequio. Although this represented economic difficulties for those who took the position, they knowingly assumed it to act and comply according to custom, considering it an act of dignity to accept and serve, receiving in return the respect of the community. Paying a salary to perform these positions is culturally considered a form of corruption. Thus, conflict arose among members of that community who were in favor of exercising the budget items destined to pay the salaries of the members of the city council.http://www.jornada.com.mx/2000/03/14/tradicion.html última visita 20 de julio de 2018Qué pasa en Yalalag. El consejo de ancianos tras las rejas. Hernández, Olga y Bermejillo, Eugenio http://www.jornada.com.mx/2000/04/12/oja36-yalalag.html última visita 20 de julio de 2018
The conservation of cooperative systems such as tequio
última visita 8 de agosto de 2018
For example, there have been cases in which a citizen of a municipality where tequio is preserved, who had emigrated to another part of Mexico or outside the country to have a better job or way of life, are either denied care by the municipality or pressured to return years or decades of owed tequio upon returning. In other cases, when they return, they are asked to make a "donation" for the unrealized tequios, which slows down the progress of their personal and family financial development to which they are also entitled.
Fortunately, this type of abuse and arbitrariness is not frequent, and, as in the case of the women of San Juan Achiutla, the indigenous citizens exercised legal resources to combat them and to put a stop to the abuses and injustices with tequio. Tequio is sacred and must not be used for political or other purposes that are not for the common benefit.
The internal normative systems, or uses and customs, of the indigenous communities are not and cannot be above the Constitution or the law. The indigenous communities are not a separate republic, but rather a component part of the multiculturalism of the Mexican Nation, unique and indivisible. Article 2 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States says: "The Nation has a multicultural composition originally based on its indigenous peoples, which are those that descend from populations that inhabited the current territory of the country when colonization began," and more hereinafter, "The right of indigenous peoples to self-determination shall be exercised within a constitutional framework of autonomy that ensures national unity" also recognizing their autonomy to "Apply their own normative systems in the regulation and resolution of their internal conflicts, subject to the general principles of this Constitution, respecting individual guarantees, human rights and, in a relevant way, the dignity of women".Articulo 2o de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Today, the Political Constitution of the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, in the fourth paragraph of its article 12, establishes the preservation of tequio as an indigenous use. It reads as follows: "The authorities of the municipalities and communities will preserve tequio as an expression of solidarity according to the uses of each indigenous people and community. The tequios aimed at carrying out works of common benefit, derived from the agreements of the assemblies, of the municipal and community authorities of each indigenous people and community, may be considered by law as payment of municipal contributions; the law will determine the authorities and procedures tending to resolve the controversies that arise due to the provision of tequio."Constitución Política del Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca, artículo 12, cuarto párrafo Provision that appears practically with the same legal text in article 43 of the Law on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Communities of the State of Oaxaca. Ley de Derechos de los Pueblos y Comunidades Indígenas del Estado de Oaxaca, artículo 43
Likewise, in accordance with section III of article 28 of the Municipal Organic Law of the State of Oaxaca, it is the obligation of the citizens of the municipality to "Collaborate when appropriate with their tequio in collective work for the benefit of the community to which they belong." Ley Orgánica Municipal del Estado de Oaxaca, artículo 28, fracción III With this, as it is codified in the Constitution and in the Oaxacan laws, and as it is fulfilled in the facts by the indigenous communities; the use, the custom, the indigenous customary law of tequio, has become positive law in the State of Oaxaca, pending its regulation by means of a general rule.
One of the main provisions that the tequio regulatory law must contain, or be added to the Municipal Organic Law referred to above, and in the meantime be assumed and observed by the communities, is that no one can be deprived of their political rights (to vote and be elected) or of another nature, as a sanction for what is considered non-compliance with the provision of tequio, which must be treated in accordance with local uses and customs without affecting and respecting the enjoyment of constitutional rights and guarantees. Well, no one can be deprived of their rights without a trial followed before courts that comply with the formalities of the procedure and in accordance with the law, specifies article 14 of the Mexican Constitution, Nadie podrá ser privado de la libertad o de sus propiedades, posesiones o derechos, sino mediante juicio seguido ante los tribunales previamente establecidos, en el que se cumplan las formalidades esenciales del procedimiento y conforme a las leyes expedidas con anterioridad al hecho. (Párrafo segundo, artículo 14 de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos) which also in subsection III section A of its 2nd article recognizes indigenous peoples' right to self-determination: “guaranteeing that indigenous women and men shall enjoy and exercise their right to vote and be voted for in conditions of equality; as well as access and hold public and popularly elected positions for which they have been elected or appointed ... In no case may community practices such limit the political-electoral rights of citizens in the election of their municipal authorities." However, in practice, as shown above, in some communities people have been prevented from exercising or enjoying their rights in violation of the Constitution and the law, so it is considered convenient to reiterate it. What abounds does not harm, says the general principle of law.
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