The P'urhépecha Self-Government of Cherán and Community Responses to the Pandemic Revised English translation of an article originally published in Spanish in Revista Catalana de Dret Ambiental (2020).

This text is a revised English edition of an article originally published in Spanish in 2020.

The article analyzes the response to Covid-19 in the P’urhépecha community of San Francisco Cherán, Michoacán, Mexico. It argues that this response was shaped through the practices and institutions that emerged from the struggle for collective rights, self-determination, and self-government initiated in 2011 in the context of defending the communal forest against illegal logging facilitated by collusion between government authorities and organized crime. Long-standing communal health memories are intertwined with contemporary strategies to confront Covid-19 through the use of traditional medicine and midwifery, combined with hygiene measures and clinical health monitoring.

More than a study of pandemic governance, this article offers a window into the diverse ways in which autonomy is practiced, negotiated, and reimagined within Indigenous communities confronting multiple and overlapping challenges.