There are more and more families helping the teachers, donating support for their trips and marches, becoming anxious when they are attacked, offering food, drink, and refuge. They are families who, according to the taxonomy of the electoral left, have been “dumbed down” by television, or are “sandwich-gobblers,”(i) “deranged,” “sheep,” “people without conscience.” But it seems that the outsized media campaign against the teachers in resistance has failed.

Joint Communique from the National Indigenous Congress and the EZLN on the cowardly police attack against the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers and the indigenous community of Nochixtlán, Oaxaca.

This mural was created in the spring of 2016 as part a collaboration between the students and educators at one Zapatista school and a group of international and Mexican people-of-conscience including students from the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. This mural painting caravan was hosted by the Zapatista Education Commission of the Caracol of Morelia and organized by Schools for Chiapas.

The descriptions below of seven sections of this mural captures some of the conversations and understandings during our mural painting collaboration. We appreciate you suggestions and comments; your support for our next Zapatista school mural is also vital! Join us!

Did you get an envelope from us in the mail this week? We sent this letter – along with colorful graphics and a newsletter – to all supporters on our list; it should have already arrived in your mailbox! Thanks to your ongoing pledges and other forms of support, Schools for Chiapas is looking forward to 2016 – our 20th year of providing moral and practical support to the autonomous schools of Chiapas, Mexico – with tremendous optimism and excitement!

We’re writing today to give you an idea of what we’ve got planned for 2016 and to invite you…