Gustavo Esteva


Gustavo Esteva is a Mexican activist, "deprofessionalized intellectual" and founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. He is one of the best known advocates of post-development.

Life

Esteva's life—as he tells it himself—has been marked by many ruptures; there are also many facts to confirm this view. Esteva has worked in very different environments.
Esteva's father died early.
Esteva worked for different companies. "Despite the personal discomfort brought about by an increasing awareness of the fraud of the original promise of my profession, I advanced rapidly in my career." Finally he turned to the public sector. He worked for the Bank of foreign trade and joined a marxist group with revolutionary aspirations which he quit in 1965.
From 1970 to 1976 he was a high-ranking official in the government of President Echeverría.
When he gave up this job, he was totally disillusioned about statist development practices.
In 1983 he met Ivan Illich. " I was invited to a Seminar in Mexico City on the social construction of energy with Wolfgang Sachs. Ivan was there. I was mesmerized. That very night, I embarked on my Illich studium. A little later, I started to collaborate with him. Still later, slowly, we became friends."
He was an advisor with the Zapatista Army for National Liberation in Chiapas for the negotiations with the government. He works at the Centre for Intercultural Dialogues and Exchanges in the city of Oaxaca, publishes regularly in different journals, and works with Indian groups and NGOs.

Thinking

Esteva had a Catholic upbringing. When he lost his faith in God he replaced it with a faith in reason. Through his studies he became familiar with instrumental rationality; dissatisfied he turned, after some soul searching, to marxism. During the 70s Esteva
With marxism Esteva has given up all ideas about a vanguard. He is an advocate of radical pluralism.
Discussing the national identity Esteva refers to Guillermo Bonfil' distinction between a profound and an imaginary Mexico. He questions the modern obsession with planning the future and "projects" of all kinds:
The contrasting attitude of the indigenous peoples, according to Esteva, is not to reject change, but
Traditionally the indigenous people did not oppose their own project to the dominant project -- but times have changed:

Selected works

;Books
;Articles