Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mexico celebrates 200 years of independence today, and this year also marks 100 years since the Mexican Revolution. While a deadly drug war clouds the celebration, a forgotten revolution marches on in Chiapas. The Zapatistas, an army of indigenous campesinos, took Mexico by surprise in 1994. Today, the Zapatistas remain determined as their movement continues its slow course. Grant Fuller has the story. (Photo: Myles Estey) Support for this report was made possible by the Common Language Project
Download MP3
slideshow photos by Myles Estey, audio by Grant Fuller
Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.
LISA MULLINS: Mexico this year also marks the centennial of its 1910 revolution. The outcome of that conflict shapes Mexican political life to this day. Somewhat forgotten in all the events that commemorate the Mexican history of long ago is the most recent attempt to launch a revolution in Mexico. That would be the Zapatista rebellion. It started in January of 1994 in the southern state of Chiapas. Reporter Grant Fuller travelled to Chiapas and sent us this update on the former rebels.
GRANT FULLER: In the mid-90s, the Zapatistas were at war. 16 years later, things have changed in Chiapas. A group of Zapatista men hold a meeting on the hilltop that overlooks their quiet village. Young and old, they discuss the issue at hand. Their cattle are eating crops from neighboring farms. They need to work together to build a fence. This is what the movement looks like today. While it may seem like a step back, it actually marks something of a victory for the Zapatistas. Prior to 1994, few of those at the meeting would have held land, let along cattle. Mestizo landlords owned the land, which the indigenous worked for virtually nothing. But in the uprising, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation took over and re-distributed farmland. A few years ago, they used tracts of this land to create autonomous zones called “caracoles,” Spanish for snails. Each carocol is run by a “junta de buen gobierno,” or “good government junta” and its autonomous schools and health clinics are readily available to the region’s indigenous residents. Gustavo Esteva is a leftist intellectual and longtime advocate for indigenous rights. He advised the Zapatistas during the uprising.
GUSTAVO ESTEVA: Any person that knew the situation in 1993 and can compare the situation today in these communities, can see an impressive transformation. The people are no longer dying of hunger or curable diseases, they have a lot of improvements in the daily life, but living with a lot of tension, and a lot of difficulties.
FULLER: That tension stems from ongoing friction between the Zapatistas and paramilitaries or government supporters. This has repeatedly led to violent clashes in Zapatista territory. The Mexican Army also maintains a strong presence in the region, and the government’s tolerance of Zapatista autonomy is tenuous at best.
SPEAKING SPANISH
MALE SPEAKER: Whether the government likes it or not, we’re here to stay.
FULLER: At the junta office in the Zapatista carocol of La Garrucha, community leaders stress that fear does not deter them from trying to provide food, education, health care and justice for Chiapas. The junta insisted on speaking with one voice, and requested not to be named individually.
SPEAING SPANISH
MALE SPEAKER: We won’t just sit here and do nothing because they intimidate us or threaten us, no. The Good Government Junta will always be here for the people. The goal we are working to achieve in this country is that the Mexican people decide the way they want to live their lives.
FULLER: The Zapatistas became world famous for the ability to use the media to promote their cause, but they’ve largely retreated from public view in recent years. That means fewer eloquent communiqués from their mysterious spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, and more focus on grassroots development. But many doubt the Zapatistas still hold potential as harbingers of change. Juan Pedro Viquiera is the author of the recent book, The Indigenous of Chiapas and the Zapatista Rebellion.
SPEAKING SPANISH
JUAN PEDRO VIQUIERA: Really what remains of the Zapatista movement is very little. It’s reduced to its minimal expression. At the national level, it’s lost practically all influence, and in Chiapas, there are just a few support bases left for the Zapatistas.
FULLER: Today, there are 38 Zapatista municipalities in Chiapas, and the group claims to control more than 600,000 acres of land. But the movement undeniably lacks the same momentum it had in the ’90s. Still, the Zapatistas in Chiapas reject the view that they’re gradually fading away. Again, the junta in La Garrucha.
SPEAKING SPANISH
MALE SPEAKER: The Zapatistas, the Good Government Junta, we’re here, we’re working, we’re serving the people. The office of the junta is here, we have compañeros working in the autonomous municipalities, and we’re solving problems.
FULLER: Still others have taken the Zapatistas’ silence as a sign that they’re planning something major to coincide with Mexico’s bicentennial. But Gustavo Esteva says that’s not likely.
ESTEVE: The Zapatistas, they are ready for the peaceful uprising, but perhaps we in the rest of the country, perhaps we are not ready. If we start the uprising, we will have them with us. But we are the ones who need to start. One of the main principles of the Zapatistas is “caminar al paso del mas lento,” is to walk at the pace of the slowest, meaning it’s the opposite to a vanguard. If they can wait until the last member of the community is ready to go forward.
FULLER: At the autonomous school in the village of Juan Diego, a new generation of Zapatistas go through their morning routine. Every day, they march and sing three songs. The Zapatista hymn, the Chiapas anthem, and the National Anthem. Despite calling for radical reform to the political system, the Zapatistas say they never claimed to be un-Mexican. And watching these students salute and sing, one thing is clear. The Zapatista movement is still here, it’s just moving forward at a snail’s pace. For The World, I’m Grant Fuller in Chiapas, Mexico.
MULLINS: That story was co-reported by Myles Estey. Thankfully for us, Myles brought his camera and took some remarkable pictures of the Zapatista children and their schoolhouse. The photos are part of an audio slideshow. Find it at TheWorld.org. Check it out.
Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.
Discussion
One comment for “Mexico’s Zapatistas”