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The Mixe Community

While indigenous activists have been doing grassroots work advocating for their communities for decades, this year social media helped them amplify their voices like perhaps never before. And no one had more social media savvy than Oaxaca’s Mixe community, who twice used the power of the internet to help snag worldwide headlines and attention in support of their causes.
First, there was the incident with Isabel Marant, the French label that copied the Mixe’s traditional huipil design and tried to pass it as their own (at six times the price.)
Activists on Twitter called out Marant for the plagiarism, and the story began garnering attention from media outlets, including Vogue, the Guardian, Racked, and our own site. Things got more complicated from there, when another French brand, Antik Batik, jumped in the fray and sued Marant for the pattern, claiming copyright of the textile design.
In response, Regino Montes, Secretary of Indigenous Matters in Oaxaca, announced his intention to bring a lawsuit against Antik Batik, stating “We are facing an obvious transgression of the Mixe people by companies who seek to rob them of their cultural heritage and intellectual property rights, recognized even by the United Nations.”
Eventually, in the swirl of bad press and lawsuits, Marant representatives admitted to the court that “after tracing the true origin of these clothes, [Marant] does not claim to be the author of this tunic and these designs.” Moreover, the court ruled that Antik Batik couldn’t claim any property rights on the designs either – making it a victory for the Mixe community in defending their cultural heritage.
Their second victory came against Coca-Cola. The soft drink brand’s Christmas commercial “Abre Tu Corazón” caused a firestorm for what many characterized as a “white savior” narrative told from a colonialist viewpoint. In it, young, attractive, white people traveled to a remote community in Oaxaca, ostensibly to spread Christmas cheer.But many – including The Alliance for Food Health, a coalition of consumer rights and health groups – didn’t see it that way.
After an outpouring of online criticism, Coca-Cola was forced to apologize and take down the ad. But really, the best response came from the Mixe community, who shot their own Coke-style ad and who held their own press conference to denounce the company.
“I believe this type of ad encourages acts of discrimination and racism and also encourages the breakdown of the social fabric by trying to impose a culture of consumption unfamiliar to these communities,” said Elvira Pablo, a Mixe lawyer at a press conference on December 2.
In both instances, the Mixe community proved its ability to hold multinational companies accountable, and garnered international media conversation about the rights of native communities.