The story told by the image is far from anecdotal. That past is still present. It is etched in the skin and memories of those who suffered it, but also in their children and grandchildren.
With its memory fixed on the hell of what life was like on the plantations, the Lacandon Commune has brought up several generations of indigenous rebels.
In a follow up to his earlier piece, Raúl Romero sketches just a few examples among so many in Mexico: Cartography of Hope and Resistance. “Moved by different causes, these organizations are building pockets of resistance and sometimes even zones free from dispossession and organized crime, and although they are not exempt from harassment and persecution by the real and formal powers, they continue to build bridges and construct a cartography of hope.”
The task of the people, in this period of capital wars, is not to take power but to preserve life and take care of Mother Earth, to avoid genocides and not to become the same as them, which would be another way of being defeated.
“Pedro Uc Be reminds us of those poets that in wars past took the side of the most just, the most humane causes. In this war for territory and for life, the poetry of Pedro is a poetry that lives and gives life, and positions itself against the plunder.”
Following the EZLN’s invitation to the CNI to join in as they travel 5 continents, Gloria Muñoz Ramirez interviews CNI lawyer, Carlos Gonzalez about the struggles facing indigenous peoples and their strategies of resistance.
