Mitote

Mitote is a signifier originally appropriated by the Spanish during the “age of discovery” of the Americas and used to criminalize the Indigenous resistance they encountered. They labeled clandestine gatherings asmitotes to signify a sinister affair of debauchery and excess notable for the free use of intoxicants, dance, and declarations that to the Spanish must have confirmed their worst fears of an Indigenous disposition to subversion. We have re-appropriated the concept as both a category of analysis, strategic practice, and a political objective that identifies and promotes a community gathering marked by ritualized celebration dance and food organized for the purpose of sharing local wisdoms and producing strategic relationships between generations and communities. As spaces of community regeneration through ritualized celebration and knowledge production mitotes operate as spaces of encounter in service of complex, emergent strategies of rebellion and autonomous political formation.