ABSTRACT
This essay represents an epiphany of sorts, an acknowledgment of who I am. It is a coming-of-age story, a middle-aged reflection on my personal and academic formation against the backdrop of Chamula Tzotzils and Chiapas in an era when social change in Mexico and the intellectual transformation of anthropology have moved at an accelerating pace. The acknowledgments at the end of this essay will reveal that this essay began, for me, as an embarrassing fiasco. In a nutshell, I was told by several colleagues whom I respected very much that my presentation at a conference (1990, in Trujillo, Spain) was a very good example of what nobody did anymore.
