Mexico: The Yaqui fight back

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Resistance and division among Mexico’s indigenous Yaqui people. Anabela Carlon is a legal advocate for the indigenous Yaqui of Sonora – a fierce defender of her people’s land. And she is no stranger to the immense dangers that face her in northern Mexico, a region dominated by organised crime. In 2016, she and her husband were kidnapped at gunpoint by masked men. And now one of her biggest cases is representing the families of 10 men from her community who disappeared last year. In Mexico, the Yaqui of Sonora are known as, ‘the undefeated’. In spite of being hunted, enslaved and exiled, they are the only indigenous group never to have surrendered to Spanish colonial forces or the Mexican government. Somehow, eight communities survived along the River Yaqui. But there are deep divisions. Most of all, over whether a gas pipeline should be allowed on their land. Anabela Carlon is adamant it will not happen. Presenter: Linda Pressly Producer: Phoebe Keane Producer in Mexico: Ulises Escamilla (Image: Anabela Carlon, of the Yaqui tribe, stands in the dry bed of the river Yaqui. Credit: BBC)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Great you've chosen to listen to this edition of the documentary.
0:03.6	So this one was based on an idea that came from a Mexican colleague, Ulysses Escamilla.
0:09.2	On a trip with another foreign documentary crew interested in Indigenous communities,
0:13.7	he met Annabella Carlón, a Yaki woman.
0:16.9	Uly told me he thought she and her activism defending her people's land
0:21.2	would make a really interesting crossing continents.
0:24.0	Well, the trip didn't quite go as we expected.
0:27.5	As a fixer, Ulysses journalist, producer and logistics coordinator,
0:32.2	but in Mexico, given the violence that pervades so much of everyday life,
0:36.8	he has another critical role, and that's keeping visiting teams safe.
0:42.0	We needed that in Sonora.
0:43.8	Here's assignment.
0:50.2	Are we put a camera?
0:52.6	But it's gone.
0:53.9	It's gone. What's somebody's taken it?
0:55.7	I think it's somebody to get.
0:58.1	Annabella Carlón from the Indigenous Yaki tribe is checking the hidden cameras
1:02.8	she placed on land belonging to her community.
1:05.5	I haven't come this way to pick it up, and now that I am here, I didn't find.
1:12.8	We're in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, among giant cacti and desert shrubs.
1:18.4	Apart from the distant roar of the highway, it's desolate.
1:22.1	So why would Annabella put cameras here?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.