Raúl Romero reminds us that the emergence of Zapatismo on the global scene over thirty years ago became a crack in a system that calls to be opened wider. And after three decades the voice of the Mayan rebels continues to provide insight into how to do that.
An analysis of changes within the Zapatista movement over the last thirty years, an interpretation of their recent proposal for a re-examination of how property is viewed (the common), and the implications for the movement and indigenous people looking to the future.
Young Liria nodded excitedly with a smile that lit up her face like the Mayan sun. Her small frame rocked back and forth with emotion. She had been at the 30th anniversary celebration of the EZLN in the Caracol of Dolores Hidalgo, and still vibrated with the energy of it. Along with thousands of her peers, she witnessed as people from around the globe streamed into the remote canyons of Chiapas to celebrate, and to listen to the Zapatista youth as they enacted their stories before an international audience. She witnessed for the first time the global reach of their movement that her grandparents and parents had built, and that she, should she choose to, would be charged with carrying on.
It was said recently that congratulating women on International Women’s Day is akin to congratulating students on October 2nd, the anniversary of the Tlatelolco Massacre. Without doubt, the Tsotsil women of Chenalhó have little to celebrate.
“If the communes or agrarian communities and ejidos of almost the entire country, but especially in the deep south, were not colored by revolts and stories that paid with blood for Article 27 ….I would say without reservation that I fully accept the proposal of common and non-property…However, the historical-epistemic root of indigenous agrarian communality, particularly in Mexico, differs correlatively from the common…”
Respectfully raising questions of the common and non-property, the author draws on the history and complexity of the struggles that culminated in the Accords of San Andrés.
