Paper short abstract:

The text grapples with how the Tamazunchale Power Plant, as a foreign Spanish-owned energy infrastructure participates to the assimilation of the Nauhatl of the Huasteca Potosina. Is settler colonialism only about settlement of the foreigners, or can things such energetic infrastructures settle?

Paper long abstract:

Amidst the recent rise of Latin American authors attempting to grapple with the notion of settle colonialism in the Americas, this paper explores the benefits of stretching such a concept to consider ongoing processes of annihilation and assimilation of the Nauhatl indigenous people of the Huasteca Potosina. Despite Mexico not being generally treated as a case of Settler Colonialism, the text grapples specifically with how the Combined Cycle Thermoelectric (CCT) Power Plant of Tamazunchale, as a foreign Spanish-owned energy infrastructure, participates in agricultural, environmental and cultural changes. Retrieving and seeking contextual clarity amidst long standing debates, we ask: is settler colonialism only about explicit erasure of the natives and settlement of the foreigners, or can things such as energetic infrastructures and related modes of living settle? Drawing from fieldwork data gathered in and around Tamazunchale’s CCT, the paper argues that energy infrastructure alters socio-spatial relations around itself, generating both forms of assimilation and annihilation worthy of being considered from a settler colonialism perspective.