Edited Final Draft

8/12/2019 Edited Final Draft

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Diann Rozsa

Geo 530- Rough Draft

November 13, 2013

Zapatistas Revisited: Meaning, Memory, and Imagination

As we edge closer to the twentieth anniversary of the inception of the North American

Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), there is little doubt that members of the business press are

hailing its successes and singing its praises, while reminding fellow colleagues that [p]lenty of

opportunity remains to be tapped (DG&A 2013). One such so-called business blogger admits

that he was skeptical at first, claiming that wages in Mexico were not falling as fast as they were

in China, and that the race to the bottom may stop well short in Mexico. But alas, no; he cites by

2013 the picture is very different, and [t]he wage gap between Mexico and China had shrunk

by 40 percent (DG&A 2013). The race was back on again. I think that Mexico would be worse

off if it wasnt for NAFTA today, cites Geronimo Gutirrez, in a New York Times article

(Aguilar 2012). We learn that yes, the business class believes the future is wide open (Aguilar

2012), but just who is left at the bottom when the race is over? In spite of these success stories,

there is a dark side to NAFTA, the damages persist and its effects remain twenty years later.

We can not begin to understand the Zapatista uprising without first understanding how it

is not only directly tied to NAFTA, but goes back far beyond its implementation in 1994. In

1982, what historically became known as theMexican debt crisis,began when then President

Jesus Silva Herzog made an announcement that his country owed private and public foreign

creditors a staggering $80 billion, a sum which could not even meet the interest payments

(Hellman 1997: 3). Mexican president Jose Lopez Portillo waited until the end of his term before


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imploring the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assist Mexico with foreign debt. President

Miguel del la Madrid, who now inherited the mess, quickly began to implement the demands to

secure the IMFs offer of a $4 billion dollar loanausterity measures.

The IMF required the streamlining of the bloated state sector which had long served a

make-work refuge for the unemployed and underemployed wherebyhundreds of thousands of

jobs were cut, and real wages were reduced (Hellman 1997: 3). It is estimated that over

800,000 jobs were lost during this first phase alone. These austerity measures shook the Mexican

economy to its core and unfortunately did not help the already sinking shipinvestments fell,

production in some sectors came to a complete standstill, factories closed and hundreds of

thousands of workers were laid off (Hellman 1997: 3). The standard of living dropped even

further under austerity, and the poverty rate grew. Yet, there were a small handful of elites that

were entering the ranks of the worlds richest (Huck 2008: 110). There were spotty or sporadic

uprisings by various groups during this time and these continued in spite of the militarized police

that came out to break up these protests (Harvey 2005).

By 1990, then-president Carlos Salinas continued with liberalized reform, which

emphasized foreign direct investment and the further dismantling of government

welfareprograms (Harvey 2005: 110). Salinas announced Mexicos entry into GATT

(General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)in 1990 after months of denials was just the

beginning of a larger program designed to liberalize Mexican markets and open them to FDI

(Hallman 1997: 4). Finally, in 1991, Salinas announced his proposal to amend Article 27 to

permit the privatization of ejidal land,a proposal that would change more than seventy years of

land reform in Mexico. This would now open communally held land to privatization and foreign

ownership.


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These types of reform would continue through to 1994 with the implementation of

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), in which Mexico was further expected to

continue privatization of state-owned sectors as well as the implementation of his earlier

proposal to privatize ejidal lands. The effects of this were harsh. Mexican peasants no longer had

the security of land, which allowed for their livelihood via farming, but even worse was they

could no longer compete against the flood of cheap imports from other countries that came

barreling through the borders. The price of corn was driven so low that only the most efficient

and affluent Mexican farmers could compete (Harvey 2005: 101). As peasants were forced off

their lands and into the poor, crowded cities, with no income, the protest movement began to

grow.

On December 31, 1994, the day before Mexicos implementation of NAFTA, a group of

armed Maya emerged from the jungle of Chiapas and took control of various cities.1Declaring

war on the Mexican government, these armed Maya stated that NAFTA would be a death

sentence for the indigenous campesinos and peasants. It was no accident that the group, who

called themselves Zapatistaschose this day, and it is also no accident that they chose the name

Zapatista to represent the group. One of the main complaints of the group was the reform of

Article 27, stating that [t]he lands in question are primarily inhabited by indigenous people who

have historically occupied them (Face Sheet 3). HEREMORE ABOUT

GOVERNMENTALILYACCORDSAND AFTER FAILED NEGOTIAIONS

NAFTA and neoliberal theory are forever intertwined. Neoliberalism has its roots in the

1970s and 1980s, and was thought of as a response to ineffective Keynesian policies of the 1970s

and as a way to cure stagflation. Chile was the first country to implement this kind of reform, and

1The cities include, Orosingo, Las Margaritas, Oxchuc, Huixtan, Rancho Nuevo, Altamariano, Chanal, and SanCristobal de las Casas.


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was soon followed by the neoliberal turnwhen the United States (under Reagan), the United

Kingdom (under Thatcher), India, and Sweden all began to implement their own partial

neoliberal reforms. The goal is quite simple: open markets to investment (deregulation) while

regulating (constraining the power of) labor, in the name of profit maximization. The IMF and

the World Bank are key players in this game of commoditizingand privatizing everything.

Soon they began issuing loans to countries in which the borrowers are forced by state and

international powers to take on board the cost of debt repayment no matter what consequences

for livelihood and well being of local population(Harvey 2005: 29). The goal was to drive

policies away from those of embedded liberalism, which had implanted social programs and

safety nets. When a state takes an IMF loan, they must agree to various terms, or structural

adjustment policies, which must be implemented and followed as a condition of taking the loan.

The stated goal is to restructure the public sector and reduce government spending. For example,

in order to accept an IMF loan a state must implement certain austerity measures, devalue the

national currency or peg it to the US dollar, remove price controls and barriers to trade (like

quotas and tariffs) to open markets, and they must agree to privatize national and state

enterprises, like oil reserves or nationally held land holdings, etc. This is a very simplified

version, but for our purposes here, we will only focus on the privatization of land and natural

resources.

There is also a dark side to NAFTA, however, and it is here that I would like to shift our

focus. NAFTA came to Mexico in 1994. Prior to its implementation, Mexico had to agree to

many of these types of restructuring and austerity measures to open its markets. One of such

roadblocks was nationalized landejido. Ejidal lands were a vestige from the Mexican

Revolution of 1910 and had to be reformed (through privatization) in order for Mexico to sign


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onto NAFTA. In 1992, as a condition to NAFTA, the Mexican government, under President

Carlos Salinas, amended Article 27 of the constitution. This one change had big and long-lasting

impacts on Mexican campesinos (farmers), peasants, and indigenous communities. Article 27

allowed private sales on communal lands for the first time since 1917. To further understand the

impact that this constitutional change has made, we must go back in time, to the almost thirty

year presidency of Porfio Diazalso known as ThePorfiriatobefore the revolution of 1910.

Methodology

The Zapatistas as a subject of study consists of a large body of various types of evidence

centered around their 1994 uprising and continues into present day. As a subject of a case study

one could theoretically approach it from various angles. For example, a study on indigeneity and

ties to the land, or just examining their structure or government, as well as just looking at support

from outside Chiapas and how that may have informed other rebel groups and supporters. My

point is simply that while doing research for this paper, I learned that this subject was quite

extensive, and I would need to narrow my focus for purposes of page and time limitation. I chose

to focus on the history of the lead up to the implementation of NAFTA to understand how these

reforms had an affect on the Maya in Chiapas, and also to understand how something like

NAFTA brought about the reform of Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, which was the

catalyst for 1994 Zapatista uprising. Realizing this topic had been covered ad nauseam, I wanted

to look back on the uprising from a different anglethough their collective memory and

community. It is no accident that this group of Mayan insurgents chose the name Zapatista and

also no accident that they did so when attempting to fight for matters having to do with agrarian

land reform. Further, I also wanted to touch on the community beyond Chiapas and look at the

way the Zapatistas used new media (the Internet, which was fairly new in 1994) to elicit support


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for their cause. And finally, as NAFTA heads into its twentieth year, I would like to keep the

Zapatista discussion relevant to today, by rounding out the anniversary of the 1994 uprising (and

NAFTA) and looking in on the Zapatistas today.

This paper intends to show [THESIS]

500 Years to Diaz

Prior to the liberalization of the 1980s and 1990s a campaign to modernize Mexico

took place in the early twentieth century. Porfirio Diaz, considered as one of the great Mexican

caudillos (strong men), reigned as president of Mexico for over thirty years, while serving

interrupted terms from 1877 to 1911. Diazs attempts at progress, reform, and

modernization in Mexico was not good for everybody. In a way, he fits well with this notion of

reforming at the expense of the poor and marginalized. In his attempts to achieve progress, the

reforms increased foreign investment, brought new technologies and incorporated parts of

Chiapas into the international economy, while concentrating political and economic control with

the elitesthereby increasing the financial dependence of the peasantry (Neu and Heincke

YEAR: 195). Chiapas, which lies in the southern part of Mexico, was particularly hit hard by his

reformas. Dean Neu and Monica Heincke (YEAR: 195) explain the Porfiriatosimpact on the

peasant in Chiapas:

Financial mechanisms facilitated the imposition of this new style colonialism in that

macro government policies provided transnationals with incentives to locate in Chiapas.In turn, these policies had trickle-down effects on indigenous peoples. Native people did

not have any self-subsistence opportunities: without land, the only option for natives was

to be employed on the new large plantations. Payment received was in tokens, which

could only be used in specific stores strategically located, known as tiendas de atarralla.However, the payment was not enough for their minimum expenses, which obligated

them to acquire loans from the employer orpatron. In turn this resulted in a life-long

commitment and dependence on thepatron. Thus in this example we observe how theindirect incentives given to the transnationals effectively governed the day-to-day


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activities of indigenous peoples: in this case displacing them from communal lands and

enrolling them in the plantation market economy.

Diazs formation of the latifundios (large private estates), coupled with bringing the rail system

(another modernization reform) into Mexico, created vast private fortunes for the rich while the

Indigenous populations were either entrapped as forced laborers or channeled into the new

peasant economy at the margins of estates and the frontiers of uncut forest (Howard YEAR:

360).

Chiapas is located in the southern part of Mexico; it borders the states of Oaxaca,

Veracruz, and Tabasco. Chiapas is one the richest states in Mexico, as far as natural resources

go, and one of the poorest as far as people go. It has remained an extractive region prior to Diaz.

Logging began in the Lacandon in 1859, with the first large cedars and caobras being felled at

the juncture of the juncture of the Usumacinta and Jacate Rivers (Howard, Dixon: 360).

During the Porfiato, private logging companies began purchasing millions of acres of forests

(Howar, Dixon: 360). The indigenous in Chiapas took the brunt of this, leaving many displaced

from their native lands (Neu and Heincke YEAR: 195).

The Mexican revolution of 1910 was a direct response to Diazs presidency, and one that

would finally do away with the longstanding dictatorial presidency for good. As revolution from

below, the people of Mexico sought greater equality than that of Diazs reformas, which they


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saw as only beneficial to the business class and elites. One such revolutionary reform was

agrarian reform. Land reform programs sought to give back land that had been taken away from

the people during thePorfiriato. In 1911, during the early part of the Revolution, Emiliano

Zapata, who would become one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution, called for land and

liberty, and fought for agrarian reform throughout Mexico (Gonzales 2002: 59). Article 27 was

put in place during the Mexican Revolution by the government as a result of the organized

protests and demands of revolutionary leaders such as Emiliano Zapata, the leader of the

Zapatistas (Stahler-Sholk YEAR: 3). Article 27 was considered a radical reform in that it

proclaimed the Mexican people as owners of the lands and waters of the nation. It established

agrarian reform to redistribute land to the campesinos, and provide for communal ownership of

the land (Fact Sheet: 3). Further land reform in the 1930s provided a constitutional basis for

the distribution of 20 million hectares or ejido lands (Fact Sheet: 3)

1938 Painting of President Lazaro Cardenas signing land over to peasants

Lead up to 1994The Extractive State

Historically, Chiapas has always been an extractive state; it did not begin nor did it end

with thePorfiriato. A short discussion of the matter will put things in context and also allow us


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to see clear reasons that the Zapatistas declared war on the Mexican government in 1994; Article

27 was merely the last straw. The lineage of peasant unrest goes way backrevolt is not new

however, what is new is the ways in which revolt is done. The Zapatistas are new in the ways

that they have done revolt for the modern age.

In the 1930s, when President Cardenas attempted a strong Federal government by

introducing new federal agencies, like the federal department of Indian Affairs in an attempt to

break traditional power relationships, local elites found ways to circumvent[the

attempted]changes (Hencke YEAR: 196). Peasants fought to re-instate ejidal lands, but due

to local corruption and bribes to officials, peasants were given the worst lands, which served to

protect business as well as local elites (Heincke YEAR: 196). Resource extraction was still going

strong from the 1950s to the 1970s. The breadth of natural resources in the area encouraged the

federal government to treat Chiapas asan extractive region, producing income without costs

(Hencke YEAR: 196). This came with a cost, of course. Indigenous and the poor people of

Chiapas suffered and were continually displaced from their native lands. The government

decided in the 1960s to begin to clear the Lacandon forest and the encourage the populations to

relocate, which just echoed previous extractive policiesthe poor were left with the worst

lands, and the policies served to benefit outfits like Chiapas ranching and plantation dynasties,

with government knowledge (Heincke YEAR: 197).

Peasants continually voiced their concerns, and in 1974 the governor instated an

indigenous Congress to try and deal with the complaints by the peasants and indigenous groups

in Chiapas[t]his congress provided a venue for indigenous peoples to publicly present their

demands relating to respect of land and indigenous culture, and to complain about corruption,

government absence, unfairness and inefficiency (HeinckeYEAR:197). This was really for


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naught, for at this time the government was preparing to issue a decree to expropriate land from

37 indigenous communitiesand [give] it to 66 families in order to exploit reserves of flint

(HeinckeYEAR:197). This was not well taken by local indigenous people in the region, and it

took the Mexican army to physically expel peasants from the Lacandon forest (Heincke

YEAR:197). These types of extractive policies continued well into the 1980s, even into the

Mexican Debt Crisis and subsequent Peso devaluation. By this time, the Mexican government

began to exploit large oil reserves as well as building large hydroelectric plants in the state

Chiapas, to the detriment, of course, to the campesinos living there.

It should come as no surprise, when looking back in context, to see why hundreds of

armed campesinos emerged from the jungle in 1994. Philip Howard and Thomas Homer-Dixon

(Year) explain that the 1990s in particular was a catalyst in itself for the armed uprising.2They

surmise that there were two particularly explosive factors that culminated in the EZLN. They

site a growing peasant population happening at the same time as an already in place structural

inequality, as well as the already persisting and weak property rights that were easily abused by

powerful interest groups (Howard and Homer-Dixon YEAR: 1996). The continual resource

extraction and land distribution by elites finally hit a wall and peasants said, Enough is

enough. Although the Zapatistas did not just manifest over night, all of these factors helped

push them to revoltthey had been organizing deep in the jungle since the 1980s, it was just a

matter of time.

2Chiapas is particularly rich in natural resources, in the 1990s. Chiapas was producing forty-eight percent ofMexicos hydroelectric power and five percent of the nations oil. Resources are extracted by the Mexicangovernment in the state of Chiapas.


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Chiapas has been environmentally damaged due to the logging industry.A large logging project began in the 1980s, and completely altered the natural landscape of the

region. Due to just the logging aspect, people lost their lands, and access to food. One of the causes ofvarious indigenous uprisings over the years has been due to the logging industry.

(Source: Sexto Sol Center)

From the Forest Itself (Comes the Handle for the Axe)3Using technology

David Harvey (2005) discusses the paradox of neoliberalism. He explains that in spite of

the rhetoric, the goal of the project is to essentially undermine the state by concentrating

everything into private hands; however, the project actually needs, and uses, the state for its own

ends. There is also an interesting paradox in the uses of technology for subversive acts,

something the Zapatistas have done to great success. Maria Elena Martinez-Torres (2001: Page)

discusses the role of technology and the paradox also involved with its use and reachand its

links to burgeoning global capitalism: A paradox has emerged from the revolution in

communications: the same technology that has taken world capitalism to a new stage of

developmentcorporate globalizationhas provided a significant boost of anti-corporate and

anti-globalization movements. Indecently, the same technology that is needed for globalization

to be successful can be used to fight it. The Zapatistas have used this method to expand their

reach and make their complaints known far beyond the jungle of Chiapas. The Zapatistas have

3This is a lyric from the song Chop Em Downby artist Matisyahu, from the 2006 album No Place to Be.


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changed the way that revolt is done; they have used technology and media in ways that have

been very beneficial to them, and in doing so, they have also expanded their community. And it

is within this context thatZapatismojoins the new wave of social movements, manifested in the

Latin American region and beyond, that occupy and attempt to transform spaces in civil society,

thereby reframing the meaning of disputing and exercising power(Stahler-Shock 2010: 272).

Since its inception, the Internet has allowed for a more globalized world. It has also

allowed the world to become smaller. The Zapatistas as a movement were different from guerilla

groups and uprising movements of the pastthey used modern social-networking technology to

their advantage. Richard Stahler-Sholk (2010) posits that in our global age, we can no longer

think of revolutions or even uprisings in terms of the old statist, vanguarist notions. We must

construct new ways to think about rebellions in a globalized, technological age. The armed

uprising was but a few days long, we should focus on this new movement using media, and the

Internetthe glocal4aim to change society from below.

Permeable Structures and Imagined Communities

Nations and borders are slippery categories, especially in a globalized age. The Zapatistas

have attempted to remove borders, boundaries, and hierarchical categories. As explained earlier,

revolutions and uprisings of the past were attempted and executed under more modern

constraintsclear borders, vanguarist approach, and clear definitions of nations and community.

According to Benedict Anderson (1983), modernity allowed for these fixed social structures,

fixed boundaries, and what he refers to as languages of power, the hallmark of the modern

nation, which performs stable borders. He surmises that the nation itself is an imagined

community, it is imagined, he states, quite simply because the members of even the smallest

4This was a fairly common term that was used around 1999 with the Battle for Seattle and other social movementsemphasizing the use of global and local.


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nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear them, yet in the

minds of each lives the image of their communion (Anderson 1983: 6). The nation itself is a

matter of a social identity category, i.e. who is inside of it, and who is not. The technology of the

Internet has allowed us to move beyond this line of thinking. It has allowed us to remove

structural obstacles and at the same time, it has allowed us to tear down the borders of our

mindsthe world is vast, yet it is shrinkingwe are beginning to see, just like the proponents of

neoliberalism, that these borders can be permeated.

In our modern (or postmodern, for that matter) age, we could further expand Andersons

theory of imagined communities to the Internet itself. New media is fast replacing thebook as

the dominant language structure, and borders are somewhat imaginary as well thanks to

globalization and the Internet. A community can be considered imaginary for Anderson if people

recognize themselves as having certain bonds that link them together, i.e., they identify as a

community. Globalization is but one way that borders are permeable. The Zapatistas solidarity

network transcends the Lacandon jungle, the state of Chiapas, and even Mexico. A Zapatista

catch phrase that they often use is weare all Zapatistas. By exclaiming that anyone, anywhere

can be a Zapatista, not only erases already permeable borders, but links like minds with members

of the community at large, who share not borders, nationality or culture, but an ideology of

principals (anti-capitalist, anti-globalization, anti-hierarchy), which can be thought of as a kind

of language in itself. Thus, the study ofZapatismois a study in community as well as solidarity.

Subcommondante Marcos states,

Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, Chicano isSan Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestine in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets ofSan Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist inBosnia, a housewife alone in a Saturday night, a single woman on the Metro at 10 p.m, apeasant without land, a gang member in the slums, and unemployed worked, an unhappy


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student, a Zapatista in the mountains. Marcos is all the exploited, marginalize[d], andoppressed, resisting and saying, Ya Basta!(Vodovnik 2004: 40).

By taking the oppressed outside of Chiapas, and placing them all over the world, it is clear that

the Zapatistas believe that their fight is everywhereit knows no borders. Marcos expands on

this thought, we see ourselves as a group that posed a series of demands and was lucky because

those demands happened to coincide with and mirror the demands arising elsewhere in the

country and in other parts of the world (Vodovnik 2004: 39). Naomi Klein (YEAR: 20) furthers

this thinking in her discussion of Zapatismo; The Zapatistas staged an open insurrection, one

that anyone could join, as long as they thought of themselves as outsiders. It is clear that

technology has allowed us to break through borders of our minds, and has allowed people who

may live across the world to share in a solidarity movement based not on nations and location,

but ideology. The Zapatista movement has set the stage for other uprisings of this nature.5

Landscape and Memory

The Zapatistas use collective memory in several of their manifestos and writings. The

purpose of doing this is to align themselves with struggles of the past, and to show that this

struggle is the very same struggle that has been fought since colonization. Using Emiliano

Zapata is just one of many symbolic examples. Subcommondante Marcos, the articulate

spokesman for the group, recalls the past from which they came in this communiqu, thus

linking not only the current Zapatistas to the former Mexican Revolutionary Zapatistas, but to

five hundred years of colonization and oppression:

We are the product of 500 years of struggle: first against slavery, then during the War ofIndependence against Spain led by insurgents, then to avoid being absorbed by NorthAmerican imperialism, then to promulgate our constitution and expel the French Empirefrom our soil, and later the dictatorship of Porfirio Daz denied us the just application ofthe Reform Laws, and the people rebelled and leaders like Villa and Zapata emerged,

5Seattle, in 1999, Egypt and Libya come to mind. Social media played a large part in these uprisings.


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poor people just like us. We have been denied the most elemental preparation so that theycan use us as cannon fodder and pillage the wealth of our country. But today, we sayENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We are the inheritors of the true builders of our nation. Thedispossessed, we are millions, and we thereby call upon our brothers and sisters to jointhis struggle as the only path, so that we will not die of hunger due to the insatiable

ambition of a 70-year dictatorship led by a clique of traitors who represent the mostconservative and sell-out groups. They are the same ones who opposed Hidalgo andMorelos, the same ones who betrayed Vincente Guerrero, the same ones who sold halfour country to the foreign invader, the same ones who imported a European prince to ruleour country, the same ones who formed the "scientific" Porfirista dictatorship, the sameones who opposed the Petroleum Expropriation, the same ones who massacred therailroad workers in 1958 and the students in 1968, the same ones who today takeeverything from us, absolutely everything (Marcos 1994).

By stating this, they are literally re-membering themselves as revolutionaries from the past. And

further, by invoking Emiliano Zapata and his fight for agrarian peasant land rights, they actually

recall (and align themselves) with the Mexican Revolution of 1910, thePorfiato, and finally, the

500 years of indigenous struggle since colonization. It is certainly not an accident that they chose

the name Zapatista to represent this current struggle, and neither is it as superficial as it may

seem. It is literally a lesson in collective memory, to show the links to the past, which align us

today. Only now, in this new technological, borderless imagined age are we all Zapatistas.

6 Left: Subcommondante Marcos Right: Emiliano Zapata


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benefit. The people at all times have the inalienable right to alter or modify their form of

government(Shahler-Sholk Year: 275). Furthermore, by using article 39 against the state, once

again the Zapatistas purposefully align themselves with the revolutionaries of the past, thereby

calling up the image andspecterof Emiliano Zapata once more. Naomi Klein (YEAR: 21)

reminds us that the Zapatista uprising is about creating free spaces, born of reclaimed land,

communal agriculture, resistance to privatization, [which will] eventually create counter-powers

to the state simply by existing alternatives. This project is what the Zapatistas have been

involved in for the past twenty years. It is clear that old paradigms of the past have been cast

aside with this group. The Zapatistas aim for a social revolt that actually makes a difference in

the lives of the poor and marginalized. In these new ways the Zapatistas are attempting to

reassert their own anticapitalist roots in a new way of doing politics (Mora 2007: 65), with an

emphasis on dignity in the communities (Stahler-Sholk YEAR: 273).

Women are vital to the movement. Prior to the main 1994 uprising, women were already

organized, and it was the Zapatista women who first experienced an internal uprising and

who implemented theRevolutionary Law for Women (Weidman et. al. 2008: 1). This is

absolutely necessary for complete equality in the revolutionary struggle and calls for more rights

like the right to a fair wage, and a right to hold office and participate in community affairs.

The Zapatistas are commanded by several indigenous women (as well as men); Marcos, is

not a commander, he is, as he reminds people, just a sub-commander. Up until her death in 2006,

the group was commanded by a woman named Ramona, who has since become a legend and a

beacon of hope to millions of Mexican women (Wolfwood 1997: 1). Romona is important in

the movement simply due to her being just a mere street vendor prior to the uprising who

evolved into a revolutionary leader (Woolfood 2008: 2). Symbolically, she is important as the


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first EZLN leader to speak in public in the national capital in 1994a woman was the first to

speak as a leader of a revolutionary group (Wolfwood 1997: 1).

Comandante Ramona pictured here in traditional Maya clothing with typical Zapatista black mask

These two photos also conjur memories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, in which women (Las Adelitas) werefamous for particapiating. The photo on the left is from 1910, and the photo on the right is from 1997. It is clear toseethe importace of women in the revolutions and uprisings in Mexico.

Clear a Path So You That Can Find Your Way Out7

This last section will be a discussion of what has happened to the Zapatista movement

since the initial 1994 uprising. Soon after the initial uprising, the Zapatistas began talks with the

Mexican government for a peace agreement. It seemed as though the Mexican government was

open to this and ready to sit down at the table and come to a solution. What became known as the

San Andreas Accordsincluded not only members of the EZLN and the Mexican government but

also broad sectors of society [which also] called national and international attention to

7This is a lyric from the song Chop Em Downby artist Matisyahu from the 2006 album No Place to Be.


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indigenous issues and introduced new ways of doing politics (Navarro 1999: 1). The purpose of

these talks was to be recognizedto be heardwhich also could be looked at as a symbol for

other indigenous groupsto finally be present at the table.

Talks were held in January of 1996, and also consisted of [f]ive hundred delegates from

178 indigenous organizations, [which] participated in the forums, including representatives from

32 Indian peoples (Navarro 1999: 2). Hopes were high as this could have a larger impact than

just on the EZLN. The accords themselves consisted of a series of radical (and progressive)

demands, which focused on autonomy, sovereignty, Indigenous rights, womens rights, rights to

natural resources, and education (Gutierrez 2007: 205). The accord was signed by the both the

EZLN and the Mexican government in 1996, which in an unprecedented fashion, spoke to the

indigenous community at large and symbolically said, You are no longer invisible.

Unfortunately, the Mexican government, and more specifically, then-president Vicente Fox

reneged on the agreements and simply refused to acknowledge them. And with that, the

Zapatistas had to go on from there, fully aware that the government would not come to any kind

of agreement for autonomy.

Today, the Zapatistas still focus on maintaining autonomy, but they have done it outside

of the official government channels. They had to navigate through a neoliberal construct that was

in place, and as such, had to operate outside of the system, coming up with new ways to do

politics, and they continue to reach out to other like-minded groups (Mora 2007). In June

2005the EZLNentered a new phase of its 12-year struggle against economic exploitation

and for the radical recognition of ethnic-racial and gender differences in Mexico. In anticipation

of the 2006 presidential campaign, the rebel army launchedLa Ortra Campana(the Other

Campaign), designed to link nonpartisan anticapitalist national liberation struggles around the


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organized and participated in the Zapatista movement (Klein 2008: PG). The Zapatistas have

continued to build community. In 2007, they began marketing GMO-free corn. Indymedias

featured article states that by purchasing the corn (complete with link to a cart), one can now

Sow the seeds of resistance (Indymedia 2007). The non-GMO seeds were donated by various

Chiapan farmers, and those who make a purchase must take a pledge to never allow this corn to

be used for commercial purposes (Indymedia 2007).

The Zapatistas made news once again in 2011 when the Mexican police raided an EZLN

meeting in San Sabastian Bachojon, and arrested over a hundred supporters of the Other

Campaign. The arrests picked at old scabs and sparked protests across Mexico and in front of

Mexican consulates across the world, leading to the Chiapas government to release the majority

of prisoners (Bricker 2011: 2). Even though there has been no actual fighting between the

Mexican government and the EZLN, the conflict still persists almost twenty years later. In 2012,

the Zapatistas once again took to the streets in various cities in Chiapas to commemorate the

Acteal massacre, in which 45 unarmed civilian Zapatista sympathizers-including children and

pregnant women-gathered at a prayer meeting were brutally murdered by paramilitary forces,

while soldiers stood idly by (Kersen 2013: PG). Furthermore, December 2012 also coincided

with the end to the Mayan calendar, and by marching in silence, to be heard, they are also

aligning themselves with the past and future as a new cycle of resistance begins (Roar 2012:

PG).


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Zapatistas and supporters gather in silence. Photo: Roar Magazine 2012.

http://roarmag.org/2012/12/zapatistas-march-chiapas-mayas/

The Zapatistas have been consistently committed to community building and autonomy

since their inception. Almost a year after their march in silence the Zapatistas opened a

community school in Chiapasthe University of the Peoples Land of Chiapas. In August of

2013, 1,700 students from around the world enrolled in la escuelita de liberdad, or the little

school of liberty (Molina 2013: 1). The school, which is non-hierarchical in stucture, will be an

open space for the community to learn together (Molina 2013: 2). The requirements for

attending are simply an indisposition to speaking and judging, a disposition to listening and

seeing, and a well-placed heart (Molina 2013: 2). The first students left with very important

homework afterwards: to transfer what they learned to their respective collectives and

movements (Molina, Students, 2013). Subcommondante Marcos explains, There isnt one

teacher. Rather, it is the collective that teaches, that shows, that forms, and in it and through it

the person learns, and also teaches (Molina 2013: 2). The goal of the school is to do what the

Zapatistas have been doing since 1994to build bridges, and create community bonds that


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transcend borders, in a non-hierarchical fashion, and we can expect that they will continue these

actions, even in spite of dominant power systems being really nothing more than a small hurdle,

as they have been doing these types of action for more than twenty years.

Conclusion.

NAFTARACE TO THE BOTTOMCOUNTER MEASURES?

Edited Final Draft

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