Indigenous Urbanisms in Pandemic Times: Countering Settler Violence withconvivencia

Abstract

The pandemic catapulted Mexican cities into spaces of trauma and loss and as sites of state failure. For Maya migrants, state failure forms part of a history of settler violence and neglect. In Cancún, settler tactics promote a narrative of a city of immigrants. These tactics erase Indigenous urbanisms seeking to uphold Indigenous self-determination and nurture u kuxtal yéetel u máatsil máako’ob/convivencia, a Maya ethics of sociality and care based on caring for each other. I argue that the ethics of care and place-making entailed in convivencia help Maya migrants experience the metropole as a space of reciprocity, survival, and healing.