ABSTRACT
The loss of the P’urhépecha language due to acculturation processes, accelerated by migration, is one of the greatest concerns for the community, especially for the normalista elementary school teachers. A saga of resistance against oppression that can be traced back to colonial times is what allowed a small and marginalized Indigenous community to recover from an extreme act of incommensurable and incomprehensible sanctioned violence. A sequence of four images showing a street scene of the arrival of a paper rhinoceros on a platform, its head on fire, and the burning away of its skin to reveal a metal structure and its eventual breakdown. The main component of Kurhirani no ambakiti is a life-size papier-mâché rhinoceros that functions as a stand-in for the “rhinoceros” tank used by the police forces and that allegorically embodies the harm and evil inflicted in the community of Arantepacua.
