Comunalidad is a neologism form Oaxaca, developed simultaniously by Zapotec thinker Jaime Martínez Luna and Mixe leader Floriberto Díaz, the concept expresses a stubborn resistance to all forms of development that have arrived in the area, which has had to accept diverse accommodations as well as a contemporary type of life that incorporates what arrives from afar without allowing it to destroy or dissolve what is its own – lo propio.
Comunalidad, as articulated by Jaime Martínez Luna and Floriberto Díaz in Oaxaca, is both a worldview and a practice that describes how Indigenous communities organize life collectively beyond the frameworks of the state and capitalism. Rather than being a simple synonym for community, it refers to a way of being and knowing rooted in territory, collective work (tequio), shared celebrations (fiesta), communal governance through assemblies, and the reciprocal use of land and natural resources. For Martínez Luna and Díaz, comunalidad is not an abstract concept but an everyday practice of autonomy: it affirms that life is possible only in relation to others and to the territory, rejecting individualism, private property, and imposed development models. In this sense, comunalidad is both an epistemology and a political praxis that resists colonial and modern impositions by centering collective decision-making, reciprocity, and interdependence as the basis of social life.