Mixe Peoples’ Services (Ser Mixe)

Mixe Peoples’ Services (SER Mixe) is an indigenous organization serving the Mixe people in the Mixe region of Oaxaca, which extends across 19 municipalities in the northwestern part of the state and includes remote communities in varied topographical and ecological zones. The Mixes number about 130,000.

SER Mixe promotes the strengthening of collective land rights and supports the recognition of the Mixe people as an autonomous nation with the right to their own territory, culture and identity. SER Mixe currently runs the following programs: Legal Affairs, Culture and Education, and Sustainable Development. Professionals, social researchers and technical advisors support the organization's work.

For a week in late September, steady rain in the southern states of Mexico created mudslides and floods, affecting communities and farms in Oaxaca, Chiapas and surrounding southern states. Fortunately early reports overestimated the number of people killed in the disaster in Oaxaca.

The hillsides of Oaxaca literally slipped into mud and slid through community villages nearby. Among those affected by the deluge are Grassroots International partners: Mixe Peoples' Services; Center to Support the Popular Movement in Oaxaca;

Chances are, the average U.S. resident has no idea that their demand for electricity might require that a Mexican village be flooded for a hydroelectric dam. The question is: if the human cost were known, would we consume just a little bit less?

At Grassroots International, our bet is that a little bit of knowledge would go a long way.  For those who value human rights, that high social and environmental cost is not likely to sit right.

Our unabashedly biased perspective is based upon the way we’ve worked for more than a quarter century: offering financial support to communities around the world whose natural resources have been extracted and despoiled and sharing their stories in living rooms, community centers and across cyberspace.