UC Davis

This dissertation project focuses on the Yaqui uprisings of 1825-1833 when Yaqui peoples led by Juan Ignacio Jusacamea (also known as “Juan Banderas” or “Juan de la Cruz Banderas”) took up arms against the then newly established Mexican nation-state. I examine the leadership of Yaqui captain general Juan Banderas and the political and military campaigns that he spearheaded in the region that comprises modern-day Sonora, Mexico to protect the ancestral territories and autonomy of the Río Yaqui communities. My primary objective is to achieve a clearer, more exact understanding of Jusacamea and his movement by taking into account and actively engaging with Yaqui cosmologies and storytelling. By doing so, my work will provide an innovative perspective on the Juan Banderas movement, implementing a research methodology that embraces Indigenous epistemologies and addresses the ongoing resilience and continuity of Yaqui peoples into the present-day. I interweave a Yaqui-centered cosmovision with early nineteenth-century archival records, an understanding of the storied ancestral landscapes comprising the Yaqui Nation, and the oral traditions of contemporary Yaqui peoples. Some questions that I seek to answer include: How did the Mexican Federal Constitution of 1824 affect Yaqui autonomy? What were the initial responses of the Yaqui pueblos to the formation of the Mexican nation-state? How do Banderas’s decisions convey inherent Yaqui responsibilities and worldviews? How do Banderas’ strategic choices reflect an outlook emanating from within a Yaqui understanding of reality? How can Yaqui stories and cosmologies help to further illuminate what is known about Banderas? How do the events of 1825-1833 connect to current-day forms of Yaqui resistance? My hope is that the completed work not only add to the field of Native American and Indigenous Studies, but that it will also contribute to the continuance of Yaqui narratives concerning their/our own histories.