Empathetic Witnessing: Moving Beyond Singular Layers of Gender Inequality in Oaxaca, Mexico

This paper centers empathetic witnessing, which refers to committed acts of observing and confronting women’s intersectional inequalities, (multiple social and structural factors of inequality). Empathetic witnessing allows people to understand the layers of marginalization that Indigenous (Zapotec and Mixtec) gender violence survivors face, which prevents them from properly receiving help from community leaders and the Mexican judicial system. This concept also helps others understand how gender violence perpetrators may lessen the severity of their crimes because of their connections to the Mexican state, vis-à-vis their military affiliation or their socio-economic status. Using ethnographic methods, including interviews, this paper documents the accompaniment of empathetic witnesses —specifically, Indigenous community leaders (e.g., teachers, psychologists, and healers). It considers two contrasting forms of affective activism. The first involves advocates’ strategies for circumventing a survivor’s reticence with gender violence. The second involves outspoken, emotionally charged forms of addressing inequality. It highlights how community leaders, like María Elena Ríos, a Mixtec outspoken activist, choose to use their voice to publicly raise concerns about the way Mexico’s legal system handles punishment for perpetrators of gender violence. This paper analyzes why empathetic witnesses may use different strategies of visibility to address the multifaceted causes and manifestations of gender violence in Oaxaca, Mexico.