An Indigenous Business Network Rises in Mexico - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

"According to Mexico's latest census, an estimated 19.4 percent of the population self-identifies as Indigenous. That's over 23.2 million people. (By contrast, in the United States, which has nearly three times as many people, the Indigenous population is about a third of that amount.) Even so, the emergence of an Indigenous political movement in Mexico is a fairly recent development."

"[The Mexican Indigenous business network] serve[s] as an economic arm of a broader Indigenous movement. Today, Solís directs a national Indigenous chamber of commerce known as CIELO, the Federation of Indigenous Businesses and Local Communities, with its main offices in Mexico City. Founded in 2014, today it has over 230 businesses (some of which are featured here) from 33 different Indigenous nations located in 22 different Mexican states. But what makes this chamber of commerce unique is that of the 230 member businesses, the number owned by a single person is zero."

Mexico's latest census reports 19.4 percent of the population self-identifies as Indigenous, totaling over 23.2 million people, compared with a smaller Indigenous population in the United States despite a larger overall population. The Zapatista movement launched a brief armed rebellion on January 1, 1994, issuing a Declaration from the Lacandona Jungle focused on campesinos and later reframing the uprising as a movement to claim Indigenous rights when rank-and-file guerrillas were identified as nearly entirely Indigenous. CIELO, founded in 2014, links over 230 collectively owned businesses from 33 Indigenous nations across 22 states and promotes a democratic economy rooted in community and solidarity.

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