"Women's urban and rural movements: towards a new type of citizenship andpolitical culture in Mexico today"

 

 

Edmé Domínguez R. and Inés Castro. (October 1997)

 

 

Introduction

Mexico is going through one of the most dramatic economic and political crises of

the post-revolutionary era, and it is giving birth to a new civil society.

The Zapatista revolt in January 1994 is only one of the signs of this crisis that

started several years before, during the 1980s when the official party's (PRI)

credibility started to disappear. Together with other social movements, women's

organizations are created in this new context, that of the crisis of the

"revolutionary," paternalistic-welfare state. Neither paternalism nor populism or

even marxism or socialism, from the opposition side, are any longer alternatives

for broad popular sectors. Corporativism is breaking down and the nationalistic

revolutionary rhetoric is no longer an efficient control mechanism.There is a

rupture in popular culture, and social and political practices can no longer be

expressed through the traditional integration channels.

Up to the 1980s, feminist discourses had had a very limited impact (mostly among

urban middle classes). From that moment on, women's issues reach a broader

social spectrum. They even become a symbolic reference for all kinds of social and

political groups of women. These discourses are re-elaborated according to

different positions, demands and ideological preferences. One example of this is

the feminist demands within the EZLN, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional,

the Zapatista revolutionary army in Southern Chiapas, that, among other things,

asks for a recognition of women's rights within the family, the community, and the

nation as large. But even among the traditionally conservative sectors things are

changing: some of the militant women of the Catholic and conservative PAN

(Partido de Accion Nacional) question the patriarchal mechanisms of their party.

Today, this process has led to the formation of more than 100 NGOs that have

women's issues as their main objective. But the strength of women's demands and

participation is not limited to these new organizations. It has gone beyond and

influenced all other social movements that have become the new social actors of

this period of transition.

This article is a preliminary product of a research project that tries to make a

comparison between the citizen urban women's movement and the indigeneous

women's movement in Chiapas during this transition period. After reviewing the

historical context we present the project, its theoretical and methodological

premises and afterwards, in order to illustrate at the individual level this

phenomenom, we examine some of the preliminary interview material we have

started to collect.

Women's political participation in Latin America; what's new?

There is an extensive literature on women's participation in politics in Latin

America in general and in Mexico in particular. The 1995 UN Women World

Conference on Women developed the discussion on these themes beginning with

the preparatory conferences both at the regional and at the national levels. One

important product of these discussions was the acknowledgement of diversity as

one of the main features of the women's movement at the regional level. (Vargas,

speech, 1995.) Also, at the academic level, this subject has been studied and

discussed from different points of departure and in different national contexts, as

the book compiled by Magdalena León and the summer 1996 seminar on Women,

Political, Civic Culture and Democracy in Latin America demonstrates.

In Mexico, this subject has become part of the research agenda of several centers

of women's studies (see Alejandra Massolo's book). Also, it has created forums of

discussion between academics, NGO's activists and women politicians, such as the

conference "Women in Contemporary Mexican Politics"celebrated in Austin,

Texas in 1995 and 1996. Apart from gathering a broad constellation of

representatives of different women's groups that expressed the diversity in views,

interests, goals and strategies that we have already mentioned, this conference also

presented different projects of research concerning women participation in NGO

activities both at the level of grassroots and leadership, as well as social and

generational contexts, and studies around women politicians.

The study of the Zapatista women’s movement has also attracted an enormous

international attention of which the books of Guiomar Rovira (Spain) and several

articles from American specialists are only some examples.

However, a comparative view of the phenomenom exemplified by the Zapatista

women and women's new citizen movements in the cities in other parts of Mexico

is still missing.This would also lead us to the elaboration of a new thoretical

framework in order to make this comparison possible.

The Context: Women, Political Participation, Feminism, and Social Movements

through Mexico's history

Perhaps as a result of the mixture of two civilizations with strong patriarchal roots:

the Spanish and the "Mexica", women's participation in politics has been as

restricted in Mexico as in other parts of Latin America. Because of this, both

mestizo and indigenous women will share a common patriarchal culture. Even

though we have the examples of important women in Mexico's history, women's

role has been restricted to the family, the household, the private sphere.

Perhaps the women who had most freedom were the women who belonged to

popular classes. Many of them participated in all the armed conflicts Mexico has

experienced through its colonial and post-colonial period up to the Mexican

revolution (Elizabeth Salas 1990). The latter is the most well documented where

we see thousands of women following their men, as suppliers of food, clothing and

medicines, and even as fighters in combats.

However, at the end of the revolution women had no place among the social

sectors (workers, peasants) whose demands were included in the new constitution

of 1917. The"suffragists' demand to obtain equal political rights to men's was

rejected on the argument that, given the lack of any collective women's movement,

it was clear that, within the Mexican society women felt themselves represented by

their men in the family. The real reason was the suspicion that women could be

manipulated by conservative forces, and especially by the Church against the

program of reforms that the new constitution represented. Nevertheless, women’s

political participation advanced, specially in certain regions like Yucatan, during

the government of Felipe Carrillo Puerto in the 1920s, or in Chiapas where women

obtained equal political rights in 1925. Women workers also started to be active. In

1930 they organized the first Congress of Women Workers and Peasants

demanding equal political rights (Tuñon E. 1992:184).

In 1935, during the Cardenas era, the women's movement for equal political righs

reached new heights. The movement organized within the "Unified Front Pro-

Women's Rights", which had more than 50,000 members coming from diverse

sectors and political affiliations: intellectuals, teachers, veterans of the revolution,

workers belonging to different trade unions and parties. In spite of their strength

and Cardenas's support they didn't obtain the right to vote because of the

government's suspicions that they would favour the conservative opposition

candidate, Almazan, against the appointed official candidate.The same arguments

about women's inherent conservatism and their being easy prey to manipulation

were used once more.(Massolo A. 1994: p. 29)

In consequence, women had to wait until 1947 to obtain the right to vote in

municipal elections and until 1953 in federal elections (Tuñon E. 1992: 184)

After obtaining this formal equality, women's movements lost strength and as we

have already mentioned, feminist revendications became restricted to a middle

class, urban culture, although women in other social classes continued to fight for

different social and political causes within trade unions and other types of

organizations.

During the 1970s we see the rise of the first urban popular movements that, as in

the rest of Latin America, had housing as their primary goal. Poor urban women

started to become activists in these movements that became part of the new

survival strategies.

It is only in the 80s that feminism and other social movements tried to join forces.

In 1980, the First National Women's Meeting took place in México City (Espinosa

D. G. 1993). There were about 500 participants from different social sectors: urban

popular movements, trade unions and rural communities. Four themes dominated

this meeting: family, sexuality, the double work day and political participation. For

the first time, a serious dialogue was established between feminist discourses and

popular and social causes affecting poor and marginalized sectors. This first

meeting gave way to ten sectorial meetings (1981-86) that brought together, at a

national level, women workers, women teachers, women activists from the popular

urban movements, women from the service sectors, women from the maquiladora

industry, and women from peasant organizations. Even though these meetings

showed that all these women shared some common problems (oppression in

private life due to the burdens of motherhood and domestic tasks and inequality

inside their organizations), they also reflected a diversity of interests and priorities.

These diversity of interests, but especially the contradiction between sectorial/class

and gender consciousness created conflicts and even ruptures within different

organizations. Some important goals for the urban middle class feminist movement

(like the need to legalize abortion) were not given priority in the popular

movements and vice versa. Also, among the left and specially the Marxist left,

women's reivindications were considered "petit-bourgeois" and "reformist", to be

subordinated to the struggle for socialism. Thus, in the mid 1980s, the problem was

not only how to build a broad women's movement but how to articulate a gender

perspective within social struggles.

After the 1985 earthquake, urban popular movements pushed their demands harder

and women activists within them redoubled their "gender practical revindications"

focusing on basic needs (food, housing). However, women in the popular sectors

started to recognize the urgency of closing ranks with the feminist movement

regarding certain issues. New women's fronts were created, like the "Network

against sexual violence" or the "Front for a Free and Voluntary Maternity".

Moreover, women from the popular sectors created new spaces within their

movements to discuss gender problems in a deeper way. Also, these women got in

contact with other countries' popular women movements (from Nicaragua, Peru

and Chicanas and Black women's movements in the USA), something which

reenforced this strategic alliance with feminism.

In 1988, for the first time since 1929, the official party, PRI, nearly lost the

elections to the National Democratic Front, regrouping 5 oppositional political

parties and several social movements. A new civic movement demanding free and

honest elections appeared. New women's organizations (organized by feminists

committed to democratization) were particular active in this movement. The 1991

"National Women's Convention for Democracy" started a campaign to gain

broader political representation for women. However, in 1991, women

representation at the highest levels of government positions and in the Chamber of

Deputies and the Senate diminished.

In 1994 while the Mexican government tried to present the country as having

begun on an irreversible road to modernization with NAFTA, poverty and

marginalization and the lack of democracy became visible with the EZLN struggle

in Chiapas. This struggle brought popular movements' activities as well as the civic

struggle for democracy back to their full strength and within these, women and

women's revendications ("the women revolutionay laws") gathered a new

momentum.

With this awakening of social struggles civil society also became more active.In

order to assure that the presidential elections would be clean in 1994, hundreds of

civic organizations and NGOs gathered under a non-partisan umbrella coalition:

"Civic Alliance". The purpose of this new organization was to carry out

independent observations of the elections, through a comprehensive monitoring of

the entire electoral process. The organizations that composed Civic Alliance came

from a wide range of fields including human rights, labor, education, health,

development and women's issues. Although cleaner than in the past, the 1994

elections still lacked honesty and credibility according to Civic Alliance's own

conclusions. In consequence Civic Alliance became more permanent in order to

contribute to create a new political culture through civic education and equity in

the electoral processes. Needless to say, most of the grassroots activists of the

diverse organizations composing Civic Alliance are women.

From the above it is important to notice that the different social classes have

marked the kind of demands women struggle for. Middle class women have given

priority to demands of political participation and sexual rights while worker,

peasant, popular and indigenous women have had as priorities more practical,

economic and social demands. This phenomenon starts to change at the present

moment. The new citizenship movement in the cities will be more heterogenous in

regard to their social origins and their demands will go beyond those traditionally

defended by popular sectors or by urban feminists. Political and sexual demands

will be as important as economic demands. The Zapatista women for their part,

will go beyond the tactical demands around survival needs to the struggle for

political participation and to the questioning of gender roles within the context of

the family and the community.

The Project: Women as Political Subjects in a Period of Democratic Transition

Our project which is at its initial stage, will focus on the role these women

organizations have in the transformation of the Mexican political system. We aim

to study women's participation in some of the organizations composing Alianza

Cívica in the urban areas, comparing them with the participation of indigenous

women in some newly formed organizations in Chiapas. Within the latter, special

attention will be given to Maya women's demands within the Zapatista ranks and in

other indigenous organizations.

We aim to focus on the following questions:

1. Democratization and citizenship: What do these women understand as

citizenship, political democratization and democracy? What kind of

democratization do these women's movements propose? Are women's

activities in these new movements contributing to a new kind of citizenship

and to a new political culture?

2) Gender: Does this political participation contribute to structural changes in

society at the level of the private/public sphere, regarding gender relations?

3) Ethnicity, class, generation: Who are these women? How does social class,

political affiliation, generational differences, education, ethnicity, religious beliefs

and other kind of identities affect women's participation and goals?

Theoretical questions:

Traditionally, citizenship has been associated to classical liberal rights: association,

participation in political parties, electoral vote, access to information. From this, it

has evolved to become a permanent questioning of structures, roles, practices,

traditions and laws. According to Herman van Husteren, from an analytical

perspective, the concept of citizenship recalls a conflictual practice associated to

power and reflecting the struggles of who can attain what in the process of defining

which are the social common problems and how they are to be approached. Both

the citizenship and the rights to it attached, are always in a process of construction

and change.

Also relevant to the concept of citizenship has been the distinction between the

formal citizen and the one who really exercises his rights, that is to say the mere

being a citizen in contrast to the assuming and acting like a citizen. This can be

applied in particular to women and to marginal sectors of society, like indigenous

groups.

Different feminist currents of thought have criticized liberal ideas concerning

political participation and citizenship. They have rejected the dichotomy private-

public as well as the idea of an ideal abstract citizen modelled within a patriarchal

society based on the principle of exclusion of all groups that do not fit the ideal

model in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, class or religion

( Massolo A. 1994: 13-17)

Although a new type of citizenship has to recognize the value of the political

principles of modern plural democracy, that is to say freedom and equality for

everybody, we cannot reduce the diversity of identities to an abstract "citizen

identity." On the contrary,as Chantal Mouffe argues, we have to articulate

principles that arise from the different positions of the subject as a social agent at

the same time as they permit a plurality of loyalties and respect for individual

freedom ( Mouffe Ch.1992)

The different positions of the subject affect or determine her/his actions in

collective social practices, what we call the new social movements. These have

been studied since the beginning of the 1980s, as a response to the crisis situation

in different countries of the region. They have been characterized as

heterogeneous, focusing on practical-short-term goals, linked to the transformation

of their environment without aiming at the conquest of power (Escobar A. and

Alvarez S. 1992: 1-8)

In the case of women's movements, the process of articulation of different

subordinations has not been simple or automatic. It has implied the

conscientization of gender subordination taking as its point of departure different

sorts of identities, each carrying a "gender mark".It has also meant the

transformation of the conscientization processes from different subjectivities. The

collective identity of women's movements cannot be taken as given; it's being built

in a complex process of conflicts and negotiations that broadens our frames of

reference concerning women participation in public life. (León M. 1994: 20)

The case of Mexico: political culture, women and citizenship

Women’s political participation in Mexico, at the grassroot’s level still confronts

several obstacles: women have to overcome their psychological, emotional and

economic dependence on men, they have to fight against violence (family violence,

social violence), against traditional images of femininity and motherhood that are

part of their socialization, and, often, against their own lack of self-confidence.

Besides, these women have to create, together with their co-participants a new

political culture that replaces the hegemonic one. We understand a political culture

as being a set or synthesis of beliefs, values, attitudes, symbols, norms and

practices through which citizens understand and act in relation to the state, political

institutions and government authorities. (Massolo A. 1994: 31). In Mexico this

consists of the legitimacy of the Mexican revolution, the belief in an almighty and

providential presidentialism that rests on a passive consensus, the lack of

knowledge regarding civil rights, the lack of any civic culture that encourages a

critical attitude towards the state, the belief in the inevitability of a one-party

system, the lack of credibility regarding public institutions and the government, the

survival of patrimonial loyalties, a respect for authoritarianism and an exacerbated

nationalism.

As a reaction to this, women are forging a subculture that integrates heterogeneity

and diversity although keeping some elements of the hegemonic culture forced

upon the individuals through the sublimation of inferiority and devalorization

(Ibid.) This new political culture tries to destroy the old patterns of

authoritarianism and to create spaces of participation for all, respecting the right to

diversity but also equality of access to social, political and economic rights for

individuals and groups. Also, it seems to be nearer the local context (most women

activists focus their activities on the local level) and to emphasize equality,

competence, honesty, leadership capacity and trust.

 

Methodology, aims and frameworks

This project proposes to examine the present situation though the urban and the

rural-indigenous contributions to a new political culture. This implies two field

works: the urban project that will concentrate in Mexico City and the rural project

centered in Chiapas. The urban project will try to study two women organizations:

’Mujeres en lucha por la democracia’, MLD (’Women in struggle for democracy’),

active since 1988 and ’Ciudadanas en movimiento por la democracia’ CMD

(Women citizens for democracy), active since 1994, that gathers several small

organizations from the urban popular movement and from other middle class

organizations formed since the December 1994 economic crisis. We propose to

study these organizations’ goals, projects, activities, membership, social

composition and to carry out ‘semi-structured interviews’, (a set of common core

questions will be combined with follow-up questions adapted to the individual case

and the specificity of the organization to which the interviewee belongs) at both the

grassroot and leadership levels.

The rural project focuses on the case of the Zapatista women in Chiapas and their

‘Revolutionary laws of Women’, as well as other indigenous women organizations

in Chiapas. The responsible of this part of the project, Inés Castro is already

undertaking a field work on women and citizenship within the EZLN (Zapatista

Liberation Army) in Chiapas financed by the PIEM, El Colegio de México. Her

project is based on open interviews carried out among two groups of women: those

belonging to the grassroot bases of support within the communities and those

within the ranks of the Zapatista army. This empirical material is studied against

the background of the ‘Revolutionary laws of Women’ in its first (1994) and

second version (1996). Also, through the interview material Ines tries to highlight

the factors lying behind women’s incorporation into participation within the

Zapatista’s military structure and bases of support. Among these, she observes the

role played by the family, the community, market relations and how this process

has taken place (the actual experience). She examines also the vision these women

have of their roles, and of the changes in gender relations they want to implement

at the family and community level.

The comparison of our results would lead to a joint analyses of both the urban and

the rural contexts. This comparison will examine the following:1) factors and aims

of these women’s participation, 2) the Mexican crisis role in the triggering of this

participation, 3) the generational differences of this participation, 4) the vision

these women have of their own participation and of a new political culture and 5)

the effects of this participation in the gender relations within the families,

communities and organizations levels.

Our aim is to look for a new alternative political culture and to find a theoretical

framework that can explain the relation between feminism-democratization-

citizenship-social movements and social change within a context of transition such

as the one Mexico is living today.

Women and social urban organizations in México today

If we look at the evolution of women organizations in México since the 70s we can

observe how these organizations' character has become more politicized in the late

years.

In 1975 we had more than 6,000 women organizations registered in Mexico, from

which 50% had a charity character, 22% gathered professional according to their

trade and only 11 % had a gender connotation. (Martinez A. 1993: 51). From 1986

to 1991 the women organizations that assumed some kind of gender demand were

86 at the national level.The 1992 National Feminist Meeting (Encuentro Nacional

Feminista) was attended by representatives of 97 national organizations, a record

of assistance for this type of events in Mexico.The central theme of the meetingt

was the promotion of the political participation of the movement in the democratic

and electoral processes and in the different spaces of power. (Ibid:52)

Some other studies found out that in the states of Sonora and Jalisco and in the

cities of Mérida and México City there were 147 women organizations with a civic

and/or gender character. These are, in general small organizations with sometimes

no more than 10 members but working in a very efficient way. Some of these

studies show that 38 organizations working in Mexico City, with 32 "activistists"

covered/affected more than 40,000 non-organized women. This makes a ratio of 1

activist for 126 "affected" women. (Ibid)

The efficiency of these organizations has to do with their lack of bureaucratic

structures, a high motivation and a personal engagement from their members. The

latter feel themselves motivated by their projects of life and a personal conviction

that a political change is necessary and that this entails also a change in gender

relations within society. This motivation is also the reason for the organizations'

ability to survive in spite of the scarcity of economic resources. Sometimes, some

of these organizations have joined forces with political parties or other kind of

organizations in order to solve concrete social problems like crimes linked to

sexual violence.

Some of these organizations have also inherited the experience and knowledge of

the feminist movement, specially during the 80s when the feminist and the popular

movement joined forces in certain occasions (like the struggle to get public

services to marginalized areas). This experience acquired a definite political

character after 1988.

We would like to introduce now one of the organizations with which we are

planning to work in this project and which will exemplify in a more concrete way

the description we have just presented of women citizen organizations in the 90s in

an urban context.

Ciudadanas en movimiento por la democracia , CMD (Women citizens in

movement for democracy) started to organize during the electoral process of 1994.

Following the example of Civic Alliance, the different organizations, that would

afterwards create CMD carried out an electoral observation process during 1994

and decided after the elections, to continue together in the task of creating a visible

and relevant "femenine citizenship" as a "fundamental part of a true democracy".

According to their "lines of action" CMD tries to promote women's political

participation in the national public scene, to train women in the knowledge and

defense of their citizen rights, from a 'gender perspective', to promote research on

themes regarding a 'generic citizenship' and to join forces with different democratic

organizations at the local and national level in order to build a broad movement

that favours changes towards democracy.(Ibid: 2-3) CMD thus proposes to build a

new political culture that integrates the femenine perception of reality and a

concept of democracy based in diversity also respecting women's specificities and

demands. This new sort of political culture would not delegate women's

representations to others and would give visibility to the idea of nation that the

women's movement has been promoting with its work in the cities and in the

countryside during all these years. (Ibid:3)

CMD is a good example of the heterogeneity of social origins this new sort of

movements have, their members come from the feminist movement, the urban

popular movement, El Barzón, Las "señoras de las Lomas", the trade union

movements etc. They are working class, low middle class, higher middle class,

students. etc.

The range of activities of this organization goes from workshops on gender and

citizenship questions, to the coordination and participation in diverse forums, and

congresses: "Foro Mujer y Ciudadanía" (Jan 1996), "Asamblea Nacional de la

Mujer", a national conference gathering 1000 women, not all feminists from

different organizations, parties and trade-unions and the "First National Women's

Fair" in México City on the 8th of March 1996, (it took place again in 1997).

Among these activities there are two initiatives particularly interesting for us as

they relate to two of the main areas of protest movements today:

1. the women from El Barzón in Chiapas organize workhops on citizenship and

gender questions and plan to advise indigenous women on development

projects in rural communities in this region.

2) the Woman Commission within the Asamblea de Barrios in México City

organizes workshops on leadership training for women.

CMD as organization has supported the Zapatista women's actions regarding their

demands (the Revolutionary Women's Laws) but they have also criticized the

conclusions of a Zapatista inspired event, the Democratic Forum organized in San

Cristobal en July 1996. This criticism was due to the fact that the Forum had not

take into account the proposal that the Mexican constitution should have a "gender

perspective". To give the citizenship struggle such a "gender perspective" has been

CMD's main goal and this is particularly significant given the fact that its

membership is so socially heterogenous with so diverse experiences from different

sorts of movements. This is having a certain influence in their original

organizations (trade unions, parties, etc.) which they eventually try to question

from a "gender perspective" as well.

CMD was also active within the organization of the Zapatista referendum of

September 1995.This referendum or "Consulta" tried to establish a direct dialogue

between the Zapatista army and civil society regarding the Zapatista demands and

their future as organization. The fact that a 6th question regarding women's rights

and political participation was included at the last minute was a surprise but a very

welcome one for the feminist movement in Mexico. In order to help to spread

information about this referendum (specially in such a country as Mexico where

referendums have never existed) and make as many people as possible to

participate, CMD helped to create "Mujeres por la Consulta" (women for the

referendum) a kind of coordinating organization.

This new organization had a very effective action both before and after the voting,

they took charge of 23 voting sites in Mexico City and could even measure

people's participation by sex in this new sorts of election. According to CMD's

own accounts this was a very important event because it showed "the potentialities

for comprehension of women's problems in spite of the fact that the Mexican

society is still very authoritarian and 'macho type' modelled". According to CMD,

the sixth question of this referendum permitted Mexican women "to be named in

another way".

The indigenous women movement in Chiapas

The Zapatista movement in Mexico attracted from the beginning an enormous

attention not only because of its ethnic composition, or its demands regarding

access to land and natural resources, social justice and democracy but because, for

the first time for a revolutionary movement, women's rights were regarded as

important as the rest of the Zapatistas' demands. The "Women's Revolutionary

Laws" became well known world wide and the indigenous women's struggle for

the recognition of their rights at the national, community and family levels changed

completely the traditional image the mestizo society had of the indigenous women

in general.

According to some published documents women's massive incorporation to the

Zapatista army took place in the beginning of the 90s, during the third phase of the

EZLN's life. Several changes in the indigenous women's life in Chiapas took place

and somehow prepared this incorporation. The women who migrated to the

Lacandon jungle improved their communication abilities and the ones who stayed

behind in the Highlands (los Altos) got definitely inserted in the dynamics of the

market, through the commercialization of their handicraftats that became the main

source of income for many families.(Kampwirth K. 1996:8) Other factors may also

have had some influence in this incorporation and bilinguism (possesing a Maya

language and Spanish) alone cannot explain a certain level of politization since

both indigenous women who had worked as maids and those working as bilingual

teachers had been associated with conservative positions.

Not only the incorporation into economic activities but also the possibility these

gave them to improve their Spanish and to participate in workshops about their

rights, gave many of the women from los Altos the opportunity to confront other

experiences and to question somehow their own lifestyle. In San Cristobal de Las

Casas, the main town of los Altos, these workshops are conducted by

"mestizas"from NGOs, and among the main topics they discuss there are such

issues as the international agreements about indigenous rights, the current social

and cultural situation indigenous women confront in their communities, the

traditions and customs which hurt them, and the changes that within these

traditions they want and need to make. Nowdays, they discuss as well the

"Women's Revolutionary Laws" whose first version was written in 1993, and the

second in 1996.

Women's incorporation to the Zapatista ranks as it seems, took place after the

men's incorporation. The family structure was very important in this process:

wives, mothers, daughters or systers came into the organization through the men in

the family who were already recruited.

Within the military structure the recruits were mostly young and unmarried. This is

specially true for the women who make about one third of all the military forces

and who have several commanding positions. These women try to respect the rules

of the military organization remaining single and avoiding pregnancies. As to the

women not directly involved in military tasks but active as part of the "bases of

support", their family responsabilities are not questioned, on the contrary, it is the

extension of these family responsabilities that makes them valuable for the

Zapatista organization: it is their work that feeds and clothes the Zapatista ranks.

How did the "Women's Revolutionary Laws" took form among these women? The

whole process of conscientization is still unclear (although the factors aboved

mentioned may have been important) but it seems that it was the women involved

in the military ranks who first wrote these laws after a long period of discussion

with the women in the communities or "bases of support". These discussions

continued after the Law was made known and recognized officially by the

Zapatista authorities. Whatever the process of conscientization, indigenous women

got involved in a double struggle: the one for the Zapatistas general demands and

the one for their own rights as women, for equality within the family, the

community, and the country.

And these struggles are rather complicated and difficult. They do not only entail a

change, they also entail an effort to keep some of their traditions, those that they

consider important, those that are not used against them. Against the custom, they

are participating in a relevant way: they are trying to create new attitudes, practices

and activities but this is not always easy and as some of the interviews reveal.

Within the military ranks of the Zapatista army, equality has been easier to enforce

but within the communities, traditional attitudes are still strong and women's

participation in community assemblies and in decision-making positions but also

women's physical well-being (the right no to be battered) is still far from being

widely accepted even if the Zapatista rules and codes encourage such an

acceptance.

Nowdays, Maya women from los Altos are also more open to participate in

political events with "mestizo"women, and, perhaps, the most relevant event in this

respect was the Women Convention in Chiapas, which took place in 1994. In order

to continue this first effort, different organizations of women had another meeting

in May 1997, where they shared their experience and work, their ideas and goals.

Another event that has marked indigenous women's incorporation of a gender

perspective to their struggle was their march (engaging several thousands of

Zapatista women) into San Cristobal de las Casas to celebrate the International

Women's Day (March 8th), in 1996. To celebrate this day has certainly become a

way to reaffirm themselves within the communities and in the outside world

(through the march outside their communities).

As part of this research we study how this political process is taking place, how are

these women involving in a "process of citizenship", that is, how, through their

participation they learn their basic liberal rights and they practice them. And how

do they practice them without loosing some of their traditions and customs. We

have already noticed the ambivalence of this process and the difficulties it faces

within the communities. It should also be noticed that this "process of citizenship"

is particularly difficult in the case of these indigenous women because, in contrast

to the mestizo women in the cities, these women have a weaker point of departure.

Not only is the weight of certain traditions heavier, their lack of the dominant

language (Spanish), of a minimum of scholarity and the racism they confront from

the mestizo society (including women) makes their track towards citizenship

longer and more difficult.

This part of the research is more advanced than the urban one. Ten interviews with

Zapatista women have been made, nine of them were made at the communities

forming part of the so-called "Zapatista support bases" and the other one with an

insurgent woman. The majority of the interviewed live in different communities in

the los Altos of Chiapas to the exception of the insurgent woman who was born in

the Highlands but who, since five years ago, lives in the Lacandon Jungle in the

Zapatista ranks.

Due to the current conflict in Chiapas, all these interviews have been made in an

anonimous way, and probably it is not possible to make them in another form until

the present situation changes This also limits the scope of the subjects touched by

the women even if they are relevant to their private and political life: their sexual

relations, specially among the insurgents; the violence within the families and the

ranks; the punishments because of "bad behaviour" within the Zapatista Army; the

attitudes that hinder an increasing and wider participation of the women and so on.

Actually, this reluctance to speak about certain subjects can also take place among

non-Zapatista women, but it is more common among the Zapatistas because they

consider that "the enemy" can use the information against them and against their

movement.

That is why we have tried to make long, deep and open interviews, respecting

however, when they do not want to talk about specific themes. These interviews

focus, basically, on subjects such as their basic formal

knowledge (writing, reading, talking a second language, elementary school); their

knowledge regarding both the mechanisms to participate in public life in their

communities and the different positions of authority (it is more common to find

women who lack this knowledge than women who don't); the origins of their own

and that of their relatives and parents participation (being the family the main

nucleus of the social and political peasants movements); their knowledge and

practice regarding the content of the "Women's Revolutionary Laws"; and

regarding the process through which the women wrote and taught those laws and

their view concerning the reaction of the men towards these laws.

To restrict the research only to Zapatista women would be to limit our observations

to only part of the transformations that are taking place among the indigenous

women as large. Even non-Zapatista women are in fact participating in a

protagonistic way, therefore they are taken into account as part of this research.

Besides, to interview such women is less complicated as the access to their

communities and families is easier and to make deeper interviews is more feasible.

This makes our universe of women more representative, making the comparison

with urban women more complex and interesting.

Some individual experiences of participation

We would like to finish this article by illustrating some of the personal experiences

collected both at the level of the urban citizen movement and at the one of the

Zapatista women movement. These experiences are presented through selected

parts of otherwise lenghty interviews, something that limits the scope of the

information but that serves the purpose of illustration.

The first two experiences belong to the urban citizen movement and the last three

to the Zapatista movement. The names of the women mentioned are not real, but

those of their organizations are accurate.

Luisa is 55 years old and works at a ministry office in Mexico City. As most other

women in her generation she got married very young, with a man much elder than

herself. At present, she has several grown up children who either work or study.

Luisa has always been interested in political or social issues, she has always read

newspapers and commented political events, even if her husband lacked such an

interest. However, she did not start to be active in any movement until 1994 when

she decided to become electoral observer within Alianza Cívica, during the

Presidential elections that year. This experience resulted very stimulating for her

and she continued afterwards, now mostly engaged in support actions for the

EZLN and for the indian communities of the region (through the "food caravans"

organized to deliver food to the communities affected by the conflict). She has

been several times in Chiapas and even been accompanied by her daughters,

attending diverse events organized by the EZLN since 1995.

For Luisa, the Zapatista movement is not only an indian struggle, it is part of a

general movement towards democracy, which she thinks is absolutely necessary if

Mexico is to overcome the economic and political crisis the country is going

through. Her participation, she thinks, is part of a personal engagement in which a

gender perspective is also present. She has tried to educate her children according

to principles of equality in which both sexes had the same rights and obligations.

Her husband does not share her engagement and participation but he respects it and

by so doing she feels some kind of support that permits her to continue with her

activities.

Lucero is a young student, 22 years old. She is not married and has no children.

She is a very active member of a well known organization called "Colectivo las

Brujas" (Collective The Witches). This organization gathers young women

between 16-25 years old around social and political subjects from a radical

feminist perspective, although they are very critical of middle class, middle age

"institutionalized feminism". According to Lucero, her group is very interested in

rescuing the "historical memory"of the first feminists in Mexico and abroad. Also,

this organization has been very active in support of the Zapatista cause, specially

regarding women. Lucero herself has been an advisor of the Zapatista women

during the Larrainzar negotiations. Her organization has produced a lot of

materials around this, in special documentaries as videofilms about the Zapatista

women's conditions and struggles.

For Lucero, feminism and Zapatism, made a strategic alliance in 1994 but it was

broken in 1996 with the second version of the "Women's Revolutionary Laws",

which was very dissappointing for many of the non-indian women who had

supported the Zapatista women demands. According to Lucero this second version

was dissapointing even for some of the insurgent women among the EZLN ranks.

Lucero is also critical of the feminist movement in Mexico. She knows well the

history of this movement, of its conflicts with the popular movement in the second

half of the 80s and of its institutionalization, or "cooptation", according to her, by

President Salinas, through different projects of reform and through the creation of

women centers. However, according to Lucero, many women refused to be

coopted and remained within their "popular spaces" that continued struggling to

gain more representation for women in the 1994 election.

Lucero critizes the feminist movement for having made serious mistakes: its

language became uncomprehensible for most women and generational differences

were not taken into account. In consequence, most young women are not interested

in the feminist movement although they know very little about it. Therefore the

rescue of the historic memory becomes so important, something the feminist

movement has also neglected. And, according to Lucero, even if the academic

work regarding women has grown enormously it is still largely unknown for most

of these women specially the young ones. Moreover, feminism has become a

pejorative term for many of them.

Juana is a young woman, 24 years old, and, since 1994, the leader of a cooperative

of women artisans in Chiapas. She is still single, and refused to marry at least once,

going thus against the tradition to accept the person who was previously selected

by her father for her. Perhaps this action was her first rebel attitude. Her family is

involved in the Zapatista movement as part of the social bases of support. Even

though she lives in a city, far away from the regions in conflict, she knows well the

political situation in the communities. That is, she has a high level of information

of the Zapatista process, its demands, its internal conflicts, its options. This

situation provides Juana with a wide knowledge which helps her to participate in

different social and political events, and, as a consequence, to make her leadership

stronger.

When asked about her community she says that it would be almost impossible for

her to go back there to live, because of all the changes that have taken place in her

life. Certainly, she is not the same person who arrived in town three years ago. She

knows more about the differences between the life of women in the communities

and in the cities, she has learned many of the advantages of living in the city. But,

also, she knows that in order to support the social changes that are demanded some

actions, like the organization and participation in meetings, workshops, marchs of

support, are needed. It is also necessary to take part in civil organizations like the

Zapatista Front of National Liberation, and in political activities such as the ones

the EZLN has organized or inspired, for example, the Democratic National

Convention, among others.

Carmen is an insurgent of the EZLN. She is also young, 23 years old, and has been

participating for five years in the armed ranks of the EZLN in the Lacandon

Jungle. If we can speak of a "gender consciousness" among the indigenous women,

Carmen is one of the persons who definitely has such a consciousness. She joined

the EZLN when she was 14 and she says that even if some day she leaves the

organization, she would work and support it in some other way. She is one of the

women within the organization, who knows more about the rights of women,

including the Revolutionary Law of the Women and about the discussions it has

created. She also speaks about the discussions they are having within the

movement in order to find the best form to learn to read and write and to speak

Spanish, that is, everything the "mestizos" learn through formal education, the

Zapatistas are trying to do through their own methods within their organization.

Regarding armed movements Carmen is positive about their efficiency in order to

get substantial economic and political changes, and does not trust the goverment's

commitment with the negotiations and their outcome.

As to her private life, for the time being, Carmen has accepted the necessity of not

forming a family or of not having a normal life because the movement is her

priority. This "sacrifice" of delaying the formation of a family seems to be valid for

both men and women insurgents as we have already noticed.

Eugenia is 34 years old and has all the qualities required to become a leader. She is

one of the the best artisans in the Highland of Chiapas and one of the women who

participates most in all activities. She contributes with new ideas and feels

stimulated and supported by her husband with whom she says to have a very

satisfactory relationship, something which is not so common among married

women in the communities. As many other indigenous women she joined the

Zapatistas though her previous engagement in the new sort of catholic movement

that contributed so much to the process of political conscientization in the region.

Eugenia does not speak Spanish, but in contrast to other women who are usually

very timid to speak in front of others, she is not afraid of expressing her opinions in

Tzotzil every time there is an opportunity, for example at the workshops discussing

women and Indian rights. She thinks the Zapatista movement is very important and

necessary in order to attain the demands they have. She also thinks that if a woman

in the Zapatista communities does not know about the "Women's Revolutionary

Laws" or does not change her life accordingly it is because she does not want to, as

she has been given the tools and the social conditions exist.

Although it is very difficult to assess the representativity of these experiences, we

think they reflect some of the points we have discussed before. There is obviously

the difference between the rural and urban contexts but this is less striking than the

generational differences. One is tempted to compare the experiences of two of the

young interviewed, Lucero and Carmen with each other. Both are deeply involved

in radical movements to change both the political and the gender situation of the

country. Both are critical not only against the government but also, in the case of

Lucero, against an institutionalized women movement that has been coopted or

isolated from women at large. But, in spite of these criticisms Lucero shares

feminists dissapointed viewpoints regarding the second version of the "Women's

Revolutionary Laws". In this sense Lucero shows the influence of her urban

background and experience and her failure to understand an indian community's

stern moral codes, regarding marriage and the family's institution, in spite of the

fact that she herself has been an advisor to the Zapatista women during the

Larrainzar negotiations. Another young woman, Juana, is also an example of the

distance between the community and the urban experience; of how two processes

combined, moving from the community to the city plus the Zapatista politization

process and the organizational experience, make the return to the community life

style nearly impossible.

The middle age women Luisa and Eugenia present also some similarities in spite of

their different backgrounds. They have a certain support from their

familes/husbands in order to pursue their activities, something which is rather rare

among urban or indigenous families.They seem to be very motivated in their

engagement and not so critical as Lucero concerning feminism which they hardly

even mentioned. Theirs seems to be a more open and unconditional engagement

which obeys to a belief in the necessity of a change. Their gender consciousness is

also less politically focused, it's more related to a lifestyle: Luisa educated her

children in more equality orientated principles and Eugenia seems to take the

"Women's Revolutionary Laws" as the basis of a change within the communities

but leaves the responsibility of this change to the women themselves.

Otherwise, these short illustrations of personal engagements show a process of

change that entails both democratic changes and a qualitative change for women's

status as citizens.

Conclusions

For the first time in Mexico's history women are starting to demand to be

recognized, and be counted as political actors but also as decision makers att all

levels and spheres of society. The process has only begun, it is full of

contradictions, hinders and traps but its on its way.

This is a movement part of the general awakening of a civil society that can be

considered a new phenomenom in a country where authoritarism, paternalism and

populism have dominated during centuries. It's not only a question of political

change, it's a question of a new political culture, of changes in attitudes, in

mentalities, in patterns of behaviour. It's also a question of going beyond the left

paradigm, of class struggle, of the old strategies of conquering power to which

everything, and specially women's demands, had to be subordinated. Social

movements do not depend on ideologies, they have their own dynamics, they

follow their own ways against all sociological or political logic and we have to

acknowledge this dynamic.

That means that we have to accept the possibility of multiclass movements like the

ones we are observing here, that join forces in order to fight for a change but not

only for a change of government. The issue is a change of political system, a

change of lifestyle. We are no longer facing the conjunctural alliances that women

organizations went though during the 1980s to fight against violence or for the

legalization of abortion, this is a new sort of movement that demands that women

be recognized in their diversity, in their particularities and in their potentialities.

Also, the women of this movement assume their differences not as an obstacle or a

hinder but as an asset for the creation of this new political culture that above all

respects diversity.

This is we, think a new field of studies that can give us new and valuable

information and theoretical frameworks if we want to be more concrete when we

speak of a "process of transition to democracy".

 

 

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