Anarchist Essays Essay #110: Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh, ‘Creating an Anarchist Community: How can Students from a Neoliberal University Participate?’
Dec 8, 2025
In this discussion, Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh, a full professor at the Autonomous University of Yucatán, dives into creating an anarchist community within a Yucatecan Maya village. He argues that students from neoliberal backgrounds can practice anarchism through autonomy and cooperation. Mijangos shares inspiring testimonies from volunteers about teamwork, direct action, and unlearning societal hierarchies. Education at the Canicab Community Center serves as a microcosm for anarchist values, promoting equality and mutual aid while challenging conventional academic structures.
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Anarchy As A Way Of Living
- Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh defines anarchy as living together without oppression and with access to resources for moral and material development.
- He frames anarchist education as cultivating autonomy, freedom, equality, voluntary cooperation, and mutual aid outside state institutions.
Thirteen Years Of Autonomous Community Work
- For 13 years professors and students worked with Canicab villagers using only their own resources and no state, corporate, or religious funding.
- The Canicab Community Center operates as a secular, inclusive, autonomous communal effort with minimal entry conditions.
Neoliberal University Characteristics
- Mijangos outlines neoliberal university features: market norms, precarious contracts, intensified workloads, and income-oriented programs.
- He shows his own university follows these patterns, citing staffing reductions and pressure to generate revenue.