Cultural Practices of the Mexican Totonacs of Veracruz Versus Neoliberal Reforms: A Case for the Recovery of the Sacred

The neoliberal legal reforms carried out in Mexico after the 1980s have paved the way for the privatisation and commodification of land and water. These new laws consider mining, oil and gas extraction, and hydroelectric power plants, as projects of social interest and public benefit with precedence over any other productive activity. This allows the companies involved to strip indigenous communities of their resources, when they deem it necessary. This paper points at the existent conflict between the rationale of these privatising and commercialising laws—notably the National Waters Law (1992)—and the spiritual relationship with land and water that characterize indigenous communities, manifest in the case of the Totonac linguistic group located in the Gulf region of Mexico. Fieldwork was conducted in the municipality of Papantla, in northern Veracruz.