Underground resistance: resettlement as a form of struggle of the population displaced by the El Novillo dam, 1960-1990

Abstract

In 1964, construction of the El Novillo hydroelectric dam, in the state of Sonora, flooded three villages. In response, the residents affected undertook actions to establish new population centers that would allow them to continue with their social and productive activities, an option that followed their rejection of the relocation proposals offered by the authorities responsible for the dam project. The population centers they established share a particularly important feature in that they were based on solicitudes for ejido land submitted between 1960 and the early 1990s. This means that a form of land regularization was used to form the towns that, historically, had helped settlers resolve social conflicts while also allowing the permanence of subordinate groups that transformed this mechanism into a form of resistance. The article takes up this case to analyze the action of founding new population settlements as a form of struggle in contexts of forced displacements through such proposals as social resistance and other approaches that address resettlement as a juncture of empowerment. The objective is to rethink the figure of displaced populations by showing that, to a greater or lesser degree, they can achieve an organization that allows them to act autonomously without resorting to open, direct struggle. Learning how populations affected by the construction of dams –and megaprojects in general– have staged their struggles will aid in reconstructing the figure of these groups in broader terms by perceiving them not just as statistical data but as individuals with the capacity to organize and resist.