La fotografia come spazio di azione sociale. Autorappresentazione, tradizione e mutamento a San Juan Chamula e Tenejapa

Facing the study of identity processes and its transformations in the contemporary world means necessarily reflecting on the new forms of thinking about cultural diversity. Referring to the contexts where local and global aspects are linked in a meaningful way and create interesting experiments of daily living, which role does art play in creating new dialogues and stimulating new representations? In the indigenous communities of San Juan Chamula and Tenejapa, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, the use of the camera is not particularly appreciated. Photography is experienced as an external aggression to the rules of tradition which affects the entire community and it combines with forms of tourist promotion that modify the everyday life and the rhythms of the pueblos. However, nowadays indigenous photography renews itself and continues to be influenced by new and interesting creations, as we can see for instance in the work of chiapanecos artists like Antonia Girón Intzín, Abraham Gómez, Juana López López and Marco Girón. In their images, photography becomes a way to live tradition, to conserve memory or to rethink it from an internal perspective. In this way Creativity becomes part of the process of identity definition, reconsidering new ways of being and spaces for social action.