Noemí Gómez Bravo, a leader of indigenous pueblos

Noemí Gómez Bravo is from the indigenous tribe Mixe Ayouk (pronounced MI-he). She is a native of the community of San Marcos Móctum. Noemi has worked arduously towards the completion of her dream: to remind the Mixes, and the rest of the world, that their indigenous pueblos (towns) have a great unknown history to tell. The amazing part is that she came upon this dream when she was just 13 years old and not even knowing Spanish. Now, at the age of 27, she has returned from Spain and Switzerland where she assisted the Indigenous Leadership Training Program organized by the United Nations, and more importantly, she presented her ideas regarding the reconstruction of the life and history of Móctum and the grave responsibility to safeguard the archeological vestiges of the Ayoouk that lie in the subsoil of San Marcos Móctum. With a sound academic and political education realized by hard work and sacrifice over a 14 year period, Noemí has a strong social commitment which is evidenced by her struggle for the rights of women within her community. She has attended workshops on the subject in order to disseminate the acquired knowledge to indigenous communities throughout Mexico.

Móctum is an important Mixe pueblo within a small Mixe community. Thanks to existing evidence, it is conjectured it was of ceremonial importance for the Ayouk Pueblo. For this reason, Noemí wants to not only vindicate Móctum but also looks to disseminate all that she has learned in order to motivate young women and children to reach out to their elders to maintain the splendid history of their communities, to reevaluate their culture and what it means to be indigenous while, at the same time, comprehend how they developed and survived as well as what challenges the future holds. At the International Day for Indigenous Pueblos in Barcelona one of 14 questions asked was “Is it possible to be indigenous in the 21st Century?” In Noemí Gómez Brave we have a young leader from the indigenous pueblos who has participated in the World Cultural Forum during the World Festival of Youth and who can answer the challenges for indigenous peoples in the 21st Century.