Indigenous cultural development
In 2014, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved a constitutional reform establishing state recognition of Indigenous peoples as culturally distinctive Salvadoran citizens with a spiritual relationship to land, territory, and natural resources. This emerging regime of national multiculturalism centered on the state development of Indigenous identity and culture within the Salvadoran nation and across the national territory. Hector's current project examines how the state developed Indigenous identity and culture through national Indigenous policymaking during the 2010s. He shows how national and local authorities used "Indigenous cultural development" as a new and important discourse for governing mestizo, or mixed race, communities with internal racialized class divisions. He traces the diverse articulations, practices, and effects of Indigenous cultural development between state institutions, Indigenous organizations, and ordinary people in the capital city of San Salvador and the neighboring municipalities of Izalco and Nahuizalco in the western highlands. He entered these distinct social worlds through the Red Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas, "El Jaguar Sonriente," an influential network of Indigenous organizations within the Salvadoran Indigenous movement organized by the state institution responsible for national culture, the Ministerio de Cultura. He accessed the network through the Consejo de Pueblos Originarios Náhuat Pipil de Nahuizalco, a grassroots Indigenous organization. Hector conducted ethnographic research between January of 2019 and March of 2020, during the transition period in national politics between the outgoing FMLN and incoming Bukele administrations.
In 2014, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved a constitutional reform establishing state recognition of Indigenous peoples as culturally distinctive Salvadoran citizens with a spiritual relationship to land, territory, and natural resources. This emerging regime of national multiculturalism centered on the state development of Indigenous identity and culture within the Salvadoran nation and across the national territory. Hector's current project examines how the state developed Indigenous identity and culture through national Indigenous policymaking during the 2010s. He shows how national and local authorities used "Indigenous cultural development" as a new and important discourse for governing mestizo, or mixed race, communities with internal racialized class divisions. He traces the diverse articulations, practices, and effects of Indigenous cultural development between state institutions, Indigenous organizations, and ordinary people in the capital city of San Salvador and the neighboring municipalities of Izalco and Nahuizalco in the western highlands. He entered these distinct social worlds through the Red Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas, "El Jaguar Sonriente," an influential network of Indigenous organizations within the Salvadoran Indigenous movement organized by the state institution responsible for national culture, the Ministerio de Cultura. He accessed the network through the Consejo de Pueblos Originarios Náhuat Pipil de Nahuizalco, a grassroots Indigenous organization. Hector conducted ethnographic research between January of 2019 and March of 2020, during the transition period in national politics between the outgoing FMLN and incoming Bukele administrations.
Environmental justice activism
Hector has begun pilot research on environmental justice activism in the Sacramento Valley of California. He entered this emerging field of public policy through his mother's participation as a community leader in the Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition, a grassroots organization.
Hector has begun pilot research on environmental justice activism in the Sacramento Valley of California. He entered this emerging field of public policy through his mother's participation as a community leader in the Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition, a grassroots organization.