The Encounter of Art, Rebellion, and Resistance toward the Day After, convened by the EZLN, took place from April 13th to 20th in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Photo: Moyses Zúñiga Santiago
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. The struggle and duty of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) is to discover where new art should be directed because “we no longer want the art of the evil capitalist system,” but rather a new way of life, affirmed Sub-commander Moisés.
“This system is no longer life; it was born wrong, that’s why it will end, and one day when it’s gone, we won’t have everything it left us accustomed to. Furthermore, everything it has produced is for its wealth. But when there’s no more of it, what are we going to do?” he added.
He reiterated: “For us, art is everything. It’s a combination of everything, but in this case, what we want, and what we will strive for throughout this time, is how we are going to live without capitalism.”
Moisés said this during the roundtable discussion entitled ‘’The Arts and the Storm. The Arts and the Day After’’, held at the CIDECI-Unitierra facilities on Saturday night, that concluded the Encounter of Art, Rebellion, and Resistance toward the Day After, convened by the EZLN from the 13th to the 20th of this month.
Captain Marcos reappeared as moderator at the panel discussion, which included Los Zurdos, Iván Prado, Stefani Weiss, Antonio Ramírez, Luis de Tavira, and Moisés.
In that capacity, he stated, “I said earlier that the late Sub-commander Marcos, and later Sub-commander Galeano, had special respect for the dramatic arts, music, and dance because of the situation they faced, which was irremediable at the time they were presented. And that was because, for him, it seemed like a battle where no matter how much you prepare and train, at the moment of action, nothing can be remedied.”
He added: “The best military commanders are those who learn theater direction. The late Sub-commander Marcos said this in response to a reporter’s question decades ago about why he didn’t play chess. Insurgent Sub-commander Moisés has spent hours and sleepless nights devising what he’s about to tell you now. I once heard him say that everything was art and struggle, and that the greatest, best art, and the most powerful weapon against the system was life. So I did what anyone would have done. I asked for his autograph and a selfie.’’
He continued: “When I saw the rehearsals for the play ‘’Nature Rebels’’, there’s a scene where the bees come out. I saw the first rehearsals without the costumes they made themselves, and I watched with anguish as a boy or girl—I don’t know why, with the thing they were wearing, they couldn’t tell what it was—got lost because they had to run behind their mom or dad. I also don’t know why the costume prevented them from doing so, and they always got lost. So, I thought, that boy or girl is training to get lost. And in the last rehearsal at the Jacinto Canek Caracol, they found themselves. And then I said: well, that’s what we’re doing. We train to get lost, and we find ourselves.”
Moisés then took the floor to explain the preparation process for the plays, the songs, and all the artistic activities presented by the Zapatistas since April 13th at the Jacinto Canek Caracol, along with artists from more than 25 countries, as part of the Encounter of Art, Rebellion, and Resistance toward the Day After. “We want it to be understood that our task and duty is to discover where new art should be heading. We’re saying we’re against the system and we need to discover other art forms. As we say with our support base comrades: what our poetry and songs say must be put into practice. Any art we’re going to create must be put into practice,” he noted.
“I think in this case, we have plenty of songs and poetry in Mexico; what we don’t have enough of is the art of discovering what we’re going to do…With the comrades of the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee, we said we don’t need more art, or more films, more songs, or more other things,” he added.
He emphasized: “Everything is art: political, ideological, economic, cultural, social, and we no longer want the art of the evil capitalist system. We want a new way of life. The art of life. And we are going to change it; no one is going to change it for us, because we have to have hope ourselves, not the hope that someone in Mexico has, because, what hope is there?”
He maintained that the task of what to do the next day “is up to all of us, each one of us where we live, because capitalism, the system, is present in the world, and each one of us, with our art, has to decide what to do,” because “no one is going to fight where you live more than you.”
Moisés insisted that “what we are doing is our duty. I hope that (the meeting) has truly served you for the change we are talking about, for the struggle; this system is simply no longer life.”
Closing the panel and the meeting during the first few minutes of this Sunday, Marcos thanked the attendees for “the perspective they brought; we hope our perspective has been helpful and that something new will emerge next time.”
Original article by Elio Henríquez, La Jornada, April 20th, 2025.
Translated bt Schools for Chiapas.