Every Tuesday and Thursday, we meet at Sendas, a cultural center and one of our collaborative projects in San Cristóbal de las Casas, to collectively reflect on the current situation in Chiapas and the struggles and resistance of the peoples who defend their territory and their dignity. This provides a space for encounter and analysis coordinated by Schools for Chiapas.
This Thursday, February 20th, we dedicated our meeting to learning about and deepening our appreciation of the life and struggle of Samir Flores and his community on the sixth anniversary of his murder.
Through several collective readings and an exercise of shared reflection, we approached his legacy, the seeds of consciousness and resistance that he sowed and that today continue to germinate in every corner where his voice and spirit resonates.
After the reading, we collectively created some posters capturing the reflections, messages and slogans that emerged from the dialogue. The posters seek to make his struggle visible and strengthen the memory of Samir Flores.
Samir Flores was a communicator and defender of the territory, a social defender against the Morelos Integral Project and the megaprojects that threaten community life and harm Mother Earth. His murder in 2019 was a blow to those who defend the life and self-determination of the peoples, but his memory lives on in every effort for justice and dignity.
From this space, we join the Global Days for Samir, convened by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI). Naming SAMIR is keeping his struggle present, remembering SAMIR is supporting his ideals; shouting SAMIR LIVES is reaffirming that the struggle continues, because his voice was not silenced, because his struggle is that of many indigenous peoples who today defend their land and territory, their uses and customs, their identity.
Here we will continue building this space for reflection, memory and collective action.
Samir lives! The struggle continues!
Original article by Schools for Chiapas.
All photos by Schools for Chiapas.