Book Excerpts — A curated collection of selected passages from books and publications that document how Yaqui people, histories, cultures, and identities have been described by outsiders. The excerpts provide an entry point for those new to these resources, offering insight into the writing styles, perspectives, and content found within them.
They invite reflection on who has recorded our histories, whose perspectives have been preserved, and how these narratives shape our understanding of Yaqui people.
YAQUI WOMEN: Contemporary Life Histories
Author: Jane Holden Kelley
‘Why are you bothering with talking to those women?’ the Yaqui men asked Jane Holden Kelley during the years in which she laboriously and painstakingly gathered detailed life histories from over a dozen Yaqui women. ‘My uncle has been in many battles. He has history.’ Yet perhaps more can be learned of a people from the lives of women, four of which are presented in detail in this book, than from the more public presentation of self that is the male lot.
All the women presented led a ‘typical’ Yaqui life. All suffered poverty, extended forced migration - caused either by poverty or the Mexican government - and actual physical abuse.
