https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20975004 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 236, Vol. 48 No. 1, January 2021, 42–62 DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20975004 © 2020 Latin American Perspectives 42 Communal Responses to Structural Violence and Dispossession in Cherán, Mexico by Giovanna Gasparello Translated by Mariana Ortega-Breña Mexico is currently subject to generalized violence due to conflicts between drug car- tels, the state, and resource-extraction companies jostling for territorial and economic control. In 2011 and in this context, the inhabitants of the indigenous municipality of Cherán confronted the criminal organization responsible for kidnappings, extortion, and illegal logging in their communal territory. Study of this conflict and the communal responses generated in the peace process reveals that the violence was founded on social inequality and was both cause and effect of the indigenous population’s material and cul- tural dispossession. The peace formation process involved the valorization of a collective and territorially rooted identity, the strengthening of security and justice practices based on the authority of assemblies, and an incipient interest in the construction of economic alternatives for the local population. Actualmente, México vive una situación de violencia generalizada debido a los conflictos entre los cárteles de droga, el Estado y las empresas de extracción de recur- sos que luchan por el control territorial y económico. En 2011 y en este contexto, los habitantes del municipio indígena de Cherán se enfrentaron a una organización criminal responsable de secuestros, extorsiones y tala ilegal en su territorio comunal. El estudio de este conflicto y las respuestas comunitarias generadas en el proceso de paz revela que la violencia se fundó sobre la desigualdad social y fue tanto causa como efecto del despojo material y cultural de la población indígena. El proceso de paz implicó la valorización de una identidad colectiva y territorialmente arraigada, el fortalecimiento de las prácticas de seguridad y justicia basadas en la autoridad de las asambleas, y un interés incipiente en la construcción de alternativas económicas para la población local. Keywords: Conflict, Criminal logging, Peace formation, Cherán, Communal govern- ment Giovanna Gasparello is an Italian anthropologist who has lived in Mexico since 2003 pursuing ethnographic research in the indigenous regions of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Michoacán. She has a Ph.D. in anthropological sciences from the Autonomous Metropolitan University and is a senior researcher in the Department of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History and a member of the Center for Studies on Human Rights at the Ca’Foscari University of Venice. This article is the product of the project “PEACEAUTONOMY, Indigenous Autonomy in Mexico: Building Peace in Contexts of Violence” (2016–2017) developed as part of postdoctoral work at the Center for Anthropological Studies of the College of Michoacán and was funded by the Mexican government’s Excellence Scholarship for Foreigners. Mariana Ortega-Breña is a freelance translator based in Mexico City. 975004LAP XX X 10.1177/0094582X20975004Latin American PerspectivesGasparello / Communal Responses to Violence In Mexico research-article 2020