Monday, October 10, 2011

resguardo

resguardo: indigenous collective property

I have been rendering this term as reservation, but I like this, especially since they don't have the same history, legal status, or politics as US reservations. This term is how it was translated in the article
:

M. Chaves and M. Zambrano, “From blanqueamiento to reindigenización: Paradoxes of mestizaje and multiculturalism in contemporary Colombia,” Revista Europea de estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 80 (2006): 5–23.

Most of the current resguardos in Colombia were only recently recognized. After the passage of the new constitution in 1991
31.3 million hectares, over a quarter of the country’s total territory, was legally granted and titled as resguardos (Chaves and Zambrano, p. 9).

3 comments:

Jeremy O. Simer said...

Would it be fair to say this is much like the Mexican ejido? Out of curiosity I looked up "ejido" on proz.com and found a number of translations, including "communally held land" and "common land." But I think it's appropriate to make the "indigenous" explicit in the translation, as you have done.

Sara Koopman said...

to clarify - many (most?) of the recently 'granted' resguardos were first 'granted' by the Spanish crown but then taken away.

Sara Koopman said...

sorry for the delayed reply Jeremy - just fished the comment out of the spam filter. I don't think resguardos are equivalent to ejidos - aren't all of ejidos worked land? or can it include, say, forests? and are ejidos always indigenous? I didn't think so.