Defying the oppression of bad governments, organized crime and naysayers, art in Zapatista territory continues to liberate and elevate the struggle for life.
With a style and color that has come to define the Zapatista murals, Gustavo Chávez Pávon speaks of the building of a great art collective. Over the years, Schools for Chiapas has had the honor of participating in and supporting the the materials for several of Gustavo Chavez’s murals.
We know of the vital role of women in Zapatismo, as military commanders during the insurrection, as creators of the groundbreaking Revolutionary Law of Women, and as community leaders. In this piece, Rosaluz Pérez Espinosa, who for many years worked closely with women in Zapatista communities, examines how the participation of women, grounded by their experience in the daily life of caring for their communities, shaped of the concept and practice of autonomy in Zapatista territory.
Magdalena Gómez reports on the EZLN’s elaboration, at the recent anniversary celebration, of their latest proposal of lands belonging to no one and everyone, that is, “en común.”
It is in this affirmation that the sweet hope gathered by 30 years of struggle and resistance will be recharged, the sweetness of knowing that they are not alone, that we are not alone, that we are many outlaws, and that rage will be an engine for transformation, because they have shown it, and they have given us tools to know that in the world we know something better can exist.
The EZLN and sympathizers prepare to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1994 uprising in an unprecedented climate of public insecurity in Chiapas, which Schools for Chiapas has been chronicling.
