Community social capital, a strategy against poverty in indigenous communities in the state of Guerrero

Abstract

The indigenous peoples of Guerrero show different dilemmas in their ways of dealing with the adverse reality that afflicts them. On the one hand, they fight to maintain traditions and customs, using their customary community practices to maintain unity and face the inhuman conditions in which they live, through what has been called community organization, considered part of the concept of social capital, and on the other hand, institutions that do their part trying to find solutions to this problem. However, the methods clash and sometimes contradict each other. The community assembly, security, work, and tequio are part of some of these practices, which despite being maintained, the living conditions of indigenous families have not improved substantially and migration in search of employment is increasingly noticeable in different scenarios. The majority indigenous population that inhabits the state of Guerrero, made up of Amuzgos, Mixtecs, Tlapanecos and Nahuas, each with their own peculiarities, seek to survive. Poverty, marginalization and physical-geographical conditions determine the cycle of dire living conditions of these indigenous peoples. As happened in 2013 with tropical storm Manuel, where we witnessed how adverse natural phenomena hit the weakest the hardest.