“Naked For It’s All We Have Left”. The Protest Dances of the 400 Pueblos in Mexico

The naked protest dances of the 400 Pueblos have led Mexican farmers from Veracruz to explore the artistic and aesthetic dimensions of political protest. Through this festive rite of political appeal, we consider the emotions at stake, the propitiatory and expiatory effects of this rite, as well as its spatial logic, in order to understand what is played out politically and mediatized in and around the 400P. From this, the gendered practices of these events revolve around the nudity of female bodies. In this way, the appropriation of Mexico City’s public space by landless peasants transforms modes of political communication and internal power relations, offering women a path to emancipation while at the same time participating in their reification. Finally, while media visibility offers new opportunities, particularly for the arts, it also helps to disqualify the political issues at stake in this long-term social movement.