The First "Other" Winds
Zapatista Army of National
Liberation
In the name of the Zapatista
System of Intergalactic Television, "the only television which is
read," we would like to express our gratitude to this space for the presentation
of a special program, sponsored by "Huaraches
Yepa, Yepa. The only globalized huarache" and "El Pozol Agrio.
A delight for the palate."
We would like to take the
opportunity to report that the channels on which SZTVI is broadcasting are for
the exclusive and preferential access by the alternative media, and for all
honest and principled persons on any part of Planet Earth. As an alternative to
the tiresome (and inefficient) PPV system, the SZTVI is offering the NPPL (No
Pay Per View) system as a gesture of courtesy for our compañeros and compañeras.
The following program will be
rebroadcast by the frequency of below to the left by methods which range from
pirate radio to the very sophisticated (and practically impossible to jam)
bathroom gossip. With you, the program...
The First "Other" Winds
Part One
(Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucata'n, Campeche)
"We want them to lend
wind to our words,
that they fly quite high and go very
far."
Words
of a Mayan indigenous, spoken in the Other Cancún,
in the
Other Quintana Roo, in the Other southeast,
in the
Other Campaign, in the Other
Walking over itself, with the
excuse of a ski-mask, the Other Campaign started the year by noting, from its
first steps, what the response would be from above. The march which joint
forces of the Other Campaign held in
Above, a traveling stage set.
Below, a yet incomplete heart and a growing indignation,
seeking a way, a path, a direction and a destination.
The stations of the Other
Campaign follow each other, one by one, but the indigenous voice is repeated. From
the first day, the Other Campaign has demonstrated that it is more, much more,
than the EZLN. San Cristobá'l de Las Casas, Palenque, Chiapa
de Corzo, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the Amate jail, Tonalá, Joaquín Amaro, San
Isidro, Huixtla, Ejido Nuevo Villa Flores. Indigenous, most especially indigenous, and, along
with them, those who accompany their sorrows and rebellions: non-governmental
organizations, groups, collectives, families, individuals who work in the
defense of human rights, gender struggle, economic projects, education,
culture, defense of the environment, alternative communication, analysis and
theoretical debate. Mostly women, mostly young people.
There they are, there they always were, even before 1994.
But something has
changed: their voice no longer carries just solidarity and support for zapatismo,
now it speaks their history, their resistance, their struggle. The "this
is what I am" with which the Sixth Declaration of the Selva
Lacandona started up is now beginning to recount
other histories and to name the other through their own voices. Indigenous
organizations and Indian peoples, they are not Zapatistas but neither are they
anti-Zapatistas, are demonstrating that their unfinished business is not just
with those who rose up in arms in 1994, but also with the very root of the
Mexican nation.
The reappearance of the
evangelical indigenous on the outskirts of San Cristó'bal de Las Casas put
an end to the illusion that the Otra Jovel is mestiza. In
In Chiapa
de Corzo and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, new voices appear with their own sound: market
tenants, teachers, students, residents, non-indigenous campesinos. The tension line
which joins the southeast with the north surfaces in the first steps:
David Meza, chiapaneco,
who is used as a scapegoat in order to conceal the inefficiency of officials in
the feminicide which set up camp in
The young students point out
a truth: education is bad and moving towards privatization, and when they
leave there's no work. Injustice in
And throughout the coast of
Half-way along, a blow to the
heart forces the silence with which we grieve those in the struggle whom we
love. Comandanta Ramona has gone, leaving a multi-colored
piece of embroidery as a Zapatista proposal for the Otra
throughout the country. In the mountains of the Mexican southeast we Zapatistas
tear off a piece of the clothing we're wearing and, with this sorrowful tatter
on our left shoulder, we name the one who we now miss beyond all measure.
Meanwhile, as the Otra's journey progresses, the state government is moving
the stage set of "Everything is calm in
Too late. It does not matter if they close their eyes and ears
up above, below they have listened and seen. Now a
wind lifts up and, from below and to the left, heads towards...
Quintana Roo
Above, a
country of hoteliers. Below, Chan
Santa Cruz speaks once again.
Chetumal, Carrillo Puerto, Playa del Carmen, Cancún. Names which refer to tourist
destinations, to large hotel companies and to natural disasters. But the history of below recounts that the latter
have been brought about by pro-business governments. The privatization of large
stretches of land and water were achieved through underhanded laws, seizures of
ejidal and
communal lands and through the destruction of nature. The campesino voice denounces seizure
of lands and privatization of beaches with Procede as
spearhead. In Majahual, while the North American
government is building a wall on the northern border, another is being raised
by foreign companies in order to prevent access to a beach. The countryside no
longer suffers from government inattention under these skies. Now it has an
exceptional commitment, but in order to conquer-destroy it: high interest
rates, low prices for what is produced, turning ejiditarios and comuneros into
small landowners under Procede. The result is
indebtedness, attachment or buying and selling. And where before there was
farming land, now there is, or will be, a shopping or tourism center, a
residential area or an airport.
Adding insult to
injury: After Hurricane Wilma, wasn't the priority of Fox's PAN
government to bring aid to the big hotel owners instead of to the humble people?
Fear of the Otra up above distributed blankets to the
Maya of Nicolás Bravo so they wouldn't go to the
meetings, while lumber is being looted by big companies with government
permits, and the selva
is being destroyed with legal backing.
But nature and history have
their guardians. Individually or in organizations, the defense of nature and of
heritage supports their strongholds throughout Quintana Roo.
Men and women are meeting, analyzing, discussing, agreeing
to not remain silent or immobilized. They are thus undertaking a two-fold
struggle: one for the legal defense of nature and of history, and the
other for creating awareness among the people of below and to the left. Hand in
hand with these efforts, another artistic and cultural work is on the march,
running up against the tackiness of Fox's cultural programs and seeking other
ears, other gazes, below.
In a corner of the corner
that is the Mexican southeast, then appears the indigenous voice of the Union
of Defense of the Mayan Race and of the Collective of Isla
Mujeres. The dark word of the most small is the one
which has best summarized the purpose of the first stage of the Otra: lending wind to word, that it might fly high,
that it might go far. The faltering initial steps of the alternative media in
the Karavan now have, from these distances, their own
pace and firm definition: so that the ear can exist and increase, the word
of the other is necessary. The direction of the other cameras and
microphones have thus been reoriented, and, with these other men and women, now
beginning to fly high are the voices of farmers, fishermen, construction
workers, artisans, street vendors, indigenous, campesinos without land,
residents, students, teachers, workers, researchers, men, women, young people,
especially women and young people.
But, in addition to voices,
whispers and shouts, the Otra hears silences. Here,
in the Mayan lands of Quintana Roo, Chan Santa Cruz
is taking back up the message of the chiapaneco mountains, echoing and so repeating:
"May all the guardians of the land, the mother, awaken. May the watchkeepers awaken. May they
awaken from the night of sorrow. The hour has
come."
The wind then takes on new
force, and, with the voice of the other as engine and fuel, reaches...
(Tomorrow, Yucata'n and
From the Other Tlaxcala,
Sup Marcos
The First "Other" Winds
First Part/II and Last
Yucatán
Above, a
hacienda as political program. Below, Mayan dignity awakening the other.
On one side, that of
above: the resistance of the powerful to losing privileges won through blood
and fire since the times of the Conquest. On the other, that of below: ancient
rebellion multiplying its colors.
The postmodern hacienda of
the PAN's Yucatán is adding
the establishment of maquiladoras to the tourism and
oil. The weak scaffolding of government propaganda is being built on top of
this: even though local economic powers are still thinking in the 16th
century, Yucatán is exploiting these lands (and their
people) using 21st century methods.
This is the National Action
Party's [PAN] political program: an encomendero mentality running an
industry. More is missing, this is the
"government of change." The real results are at odds with the
fragile PAN stage set: land seizures, privatization of the heritage, industrial
exploitation, destruction of nature, migration. This truth is more visible in
rural Yucatán: the destruction of the Mexican
countryside is not the result of the governments' lack of skill,
rather it is their primary objective. It has to do with a strategic plan that
entails, in simple and straightforward terms, a war, a war of reconquest. But this war is not just one-sided, the
resistance is also resounding from below.
And then the guardians appear
who are making it quite clear that not in their name will the oblivion of the
native persons of these lands be legislated. The Mayan artisans who are
resisting the seizure of memory made stone of their ancestors. Chichen Itzá: the fishermen
of Puerto Progreso, of the Camarón
Vagabundo, who denounced that they are turned into
criminals if they work because of a law. They have to pay them to get
permission to work, and not even then. In addition, the inspectors steal their
catch. The ejiditarios of Oxcum who note that
they want to seize their lands for an airport. The banda that
suffers persecution for making and promoting another culture.
And the fury and indignation
looks around, and, with Mayan language, color and ways, they find the others
who are also repeating, though separately, that "ya basta!"
Also appearing here, along with residents, students, artisans and academics,
homosexuals, their Oasis of San Juan de Dios and
their threefold struggle against AIDS: against the virus, against the
society which discriminates against them and segregates them and against the
government which washes its hands of the problem. Others who
join in with the struggle for respect for sexual diversity.
They all say, repeat,
insist: we're not going to allow it, no longer, ya basta. And now it is not only pain which
can be heard in the voices of below. Also the joy of someone who is beginning
to realize that he or she is not alone, who, by being listened to and
listening, finds the compañero, compañera.
But the rebel peninsular wind
doesn't stop here, and it goes on to...
Above,
destruction as government program.
Below, the rebellion of colors.
In Bekal,
the first voices resound, and from here they are beginning to sound the alert
about the greatness of raising a movement of the people throughout the country.
The recounting is made: ejiditarios harassed by corrupt leaders, by the government
and by the big owners. Now they have to pay to work their own land, pay to be
poor. In the
Hand in hand with wealthy
locals, Pemex contributes to the destruction of
nature. In
And lies hold an important
place in this war: the government social welfare programs do not arrive in
full. Those monies remain somewhere else, but government progress is
nonetheless announced with pomp and circumstance. The modern divestiture
follows known paths: bank credits, increasing interest rates, the bank
devouring all the work, and the debt somehow grows, Procede
eliminates legal impediments and they are seized. Years of work and, in
the end, without land or anything...only rage.
But in the
The Other Campeche
joins together artisans, campesinos,
cultural and theoretical analysis collectives, beekeepers, cooperative members,
mostly indigenous. Many come from the ecclesiastical base communities and
committed Christianity. And all of them are in agreement about their being
fed-up, about their rage, indignation, rebellion. But they don't stop
there, they form their organizations and educate in the struggle, and there
they identify the enemy and the compañero, the opportunist and the momentary passenger.
The wind resounds in
the Other Campaign and repeats: "No longer!,"
and the echo is so powerful it manages to reach the other country which, below
and to the left, watches over the night in order to continue on its path, on
another dawn, to
Intermission
Along its way and in its way,
the Otra is beginning to turn into an option, into
something else, into another alternative to despair. While up above the noise
comes and goes (as does the money to simulate discussion and debate, where
there are only e-spot ads), an echo sounds in the other voices of below, an
echo which does not end, which is beginning to define itself in
collective: the Otra is joining together
struggles and thoughts. The "I am" is beginning to transform,
step by step, into "we are."
Various points in common in
the first winds:
- The brazen alliance between
businesspersons and politicians from all parties.
- Seizure of lands.
- Privatization of the national
heritage.
- Premeditated destruction of
the environment.
- Repression, persecution and
imprisonment of those who fight for social good.
- High cost of living,
especially that of electricity.
- Migration to the
- Educational crises at all
levels and, in the end, the disaster of unemployment.
- Disgust with the political
class and criticism of institutional political parties.
And so the bridges are
beginning to be extended between those who below are who we are. The first of them,
the struggle for our own: freedom for all political prisoners and the
cancellation of all arrest warrants for social activists.
But that is not
all. Proposals are also beginning to emerge: the general strike over
payments to the Federal Commission of Electricity until fair rates are agreed
according to the criteria that the rich pay more and the poor pay less or they
don't pay. The generalized campesino rejection of Procede. The national blockade
against the official policy of destroying the environment. The national defense of our heritage in the face of its growing
privatization. The building of a new option for future migrants which
consists of a cry: Stay and fight! Another 1st of May
for the other workers. And the first signs of other realities and
demands, which we will explain further along.
Video Click: The Week Above and Below
There are differences, above
and below, in looking at how the week transpired. Up above it's always Monday,
even for those who are running as the electoral alternative.
Time and again they tell us
that we don't have to go quickly, we have to stop, walk so slowly that movement
is barely feigned.
Ah! It's so nice up
above! Entertainment suitable for a wallet full of plastic, high culture,
highways and wide streets for vehicles, second floors in order to reaffirm that
we are above, television as an instant stage set in every Mexican home. Ah! And
once again those naughty ones of below, listening to each other, exchanging
histories which look so nice in books and essays, but
that way, being talked about, how they offend, my friend, that democracy of
those words of below is in such bad taste. Then what are we for, the popular
representatives, the opinion leaders, the columnists, the commentators,
editors? Where do they get off dispensing with intermediaries and speaking
among themselves? And then, in addition to talking and listening, they dare to
agree to rise up. Better that you turn up the volume on the television, my
friend! Come on, just like that! How are the polls going? Good,
we're in the lead.
What? The
Other Campaign? A murmur, nothing to worry
about...Or yes? I don't know why they're infuriated and promising
us a jail. But who is advising them to try and dispense with us? They themselves? Why don't they wait? We can go on
leading them, teaching them the caution and prudence which we learned and
which, you'll see, is so comfortable! Red and black
weekend? Excuse me, no, my friend, that color isn't registered, it's
worthless. What do you mean they don't want to be registered? Don't tell
me another politics is possible? And we, the whitewashed tombs of unhurried,
exceedingly slow change, take no notice, my friend, because then the investors
will be frightened away from us. What is this about their not wanting investors?
Or politicians? You see, my friend, they are so
very pre-modern. Let's hope they don't affect the polls. What would happen to
our democracy then?
Yes, they look so pretty when
they're silent, stopped, attentive to our word, to our
directions. Yes, ingrates. They don't know they can't do anything in such a hurry,
so below, so to the left. Yes, little by little. Now, with the project for the
Isthmus...What? The same as the Plan Puebla
That left - how can I say it
- isn't it an ugly, poorly educated, vulgar left? Where is the high level
of debate, our skill in dulling the edges of words and our all remaining
friends, happy, immobile? Yes, we say what debate is and what it is not. For
example, all discussion that ends up in principled commitments is not
high-level debate, it's for ultras, the desperate,
resentful. Bah! They can't take anything, a few indigenous shot,
kidnapped, tortured, stripped. No, my friend, don't look down there. What
for? Here is the mature, calm, prudent path. Do you see how we barely
move? No, my friend, don't be distracted, look at me, listen to me, sit
down, wait, don't move, like that, very quiet. Look, what you have to do is to
let me do. The rest are just that, the "rest," the "other."
Listen, my friend, and are
there a lot of them? And you say they're coming for us? For
everyone? Also for the left that's faithful and loyal to the system? And
are they going to take a long time? You know, the academy, the café', the
automobile, the position, the symposium, the stroking we give and receive, the
invitation to eat with that so very important politician-businessman-leader.
Another
communication? All right, tell me
why if this one that we have is the one that rules, the one that counts in the
polls, the democratic and modern one. As if there's anything more important to
report on other than what concerns me? Another art? What?
And the exquisite selection of our tastes? Another culture? That, yes. The charrapastrosos
need their own things. They look so cute with all those things. What are they
called? Yes, that, with their idiosyncrasies, their crafts, their piercings, their tattoos, their
hair sticking up and painted in scandalous colors, their chido-guey-varo-rola things,
their music. No, my friend, that's not rock. Real rock is neat and tidy,
"nice," it's "your rock is voting," it's "better shut
up," it's about that immobility that moves, jumps and applauds, but
thinking...well, my friend, what for? If you're going to grow up and mature and
you're going to be like us anyway...Or not?
What are you saying? An uprising? National? You mean
it's not just a national mailbox of complaints? They're also joining together,
organizing? But that's too fast, there should just be
a few. What? They're growing? Listen, but is it true they're still going to be
a while? My grant, my position, my editorial, my essay, my teaching post, my
candidacy...
Unauthorized Interference
Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca,
Puebla. Eight states and one single
challenge: communication, another communication. Among the conclusions of
this first third of the trip around the country is that "All Mexico is Telcel country" is a lie. Slim needs
to be put in jail, not just for exploiting, but also for lying.
One of the challenges is that
of communication with all those who are battling for this. Technology should
also seek the path of below so that the weaving of this network can be made
visible in the Other Campaign. Here is a job for now, for right now. The
alternative media should not be satisfied with keeping the words of the
"others" up to date on their current channels. They should, we
believe, seek out the others who don't have the ways or means to learn about
this "other" which is growing down and to the left.
Little by little, the
alternative media is coming to understand that the Sixth Committee of the EZLN
is just their "back stage," a support team (big-nosed and
ill-tempered at this point) which is helping this part of the "other"
a bit in the beginning: making the word grow from below and building a
collective ear for it. But the science and technology is still lacking to link
up the most distant compas.
Provisional Final (only for the broadminded)
Dawn has almost slipped away.
The light from the sun is beginning to peek through the crevices, and we must
return to the dim shadows which clothe us. The skin of desire and the tempest
of her hair are still missing from my hands. A sigh still waits expectantly on
lips. The gaze, and the cloud which envelops it, miss the light which is absent
from them. Ah! The tricks of imagination: in the half-sleep dream,
her thighs were moaning on cheeks and prison for the waist. Standing,
the ride of desire ending, after a brief precipice, in a damp and mutual fall.
And at the end there were no debts other than those one has with oneself. Ah,
the longing to be drenched in her rain. To be sated by her
and to make her desire increase.
Dawn breaks with the
certainty that there could be no better photo than the one I take with my hands
and lips, no better audio or video than that of awakening her gasps and moans,
no better show or painting than that of skin joined together, no better meeting
than that of our bodies...
Another
communication? Another
news report? Another art? Another
culture? Another campaign? Who in the hell
would embrace that nonsense?
They are knocking on the door
of the day. The shadow laces up his boots and desires.
We must continue walking, listening...
From the Other Tlaxcala,
Sup Marcos
P.S. As of February 15 of
this year, the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign has gained 1036
political, indigenous, social, non-governmental organizations, groups and
collectives supporters, all of them from below and to the left. Without any ads
other than their voices, nor any signatures traced other
than those of their steps throughout the country, signed firmly and with a
flourish. Here we are, we are the Otra,
rebel dignity, the heart forgotten up till now by the Patria.
Originally published in
Spanish by the EZLN
*************************************
Translated by irlandesa