Message in a Bottle: Re-visiting La Sexta...

Excerpts from La Sexta Declaración de la Selva Lacandona 

"Ésta es nuestra palabra sencilla que busca tocar el corazón de la gente humilde y simple como nosotros, pero, también como nosotros, digna y rebelde. Ésta es nuestra palabra sencilla para contar de lo que ha sido nuestro paso y en donde estamos ahora, para explicar cómo vemos el mundo y nuestro país, para decir lo que pensamos hacer y cómo pensamos hacerlo, y para invitar a otras personas a que se caminan con nosotros en algo muy grande que se llama México y algo más grande que se llama mundo. ésta es nuestra palabra sensilla para dar cuenta a todos los corazones que son honestos y nobles, de lo que queremos en México y el mundo. Ésta es nuestra palabra sencilla, porque es nuestra idea el llamar a quienes como nosotros y unirnos a ellos, en todas partes donde viven y luchan..." 

"This is our simple word which seeks to touch the hearts of humble and simple people like ourselves, but who are also, like ourselves, dignified and rebel. This is our simple words for recounting what our path has been and where we are now, in order to explain how we see the world and our country, in order to say what we are thinking of doing and how we are thinking of doing it, and in order to invite other persons to walk with us in something very great which is called Mexico and something greater which is called the world. This is our simple word in order to inform all honest and noble hearts what it is we want in Mexico and the world. This is our simple word, because it is our idea to call on those who are like us and to join together with them, everywhere they are living and struggling..." 

Sometimes you just have to go back to those trusty old basics to make sense of it all. Como dicen por ahí 'mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo.' And so I've decided to take a step back from the plethora of debates making the rounds out in the great bloggasphere. I'm taking a breather from the two or three posts I've been working on pero no mas no salen. Breathing deeply before diving into the dozen or so applications hanging on my head like esferitas on a Christmas tree. 

Coming back to la Sexta feels like landing on a deserted beach after a storm. You feel the sand underneath your feet, the sun caressing your skin, and when you  look out you can see clearly for miles and miles. Every time I read through it I feel like I've been standing in a dark room when suddenly a lightbulb turns on... 

No theoretical trabalenguas, no massive dictionary needed, no big road maps, just words sent out to the world in 2005 from deep down in the Lacandon Jungle. 

It wasn't always this way. I remember shunning most of the Zapatista declarations for a while, cuando se puso muy de moda, and all I could see were international activists wearing pantalones de manta y guaraches and those dreaded blond dreads snaking down or bee-hiving-up-high on their heads. The sudden catapulting of the Zapatista's into celebrity status by activist groups made me cringe, cover my ears up with my hands, close my eyes, and start humming 'blah blah blah' the same way Dorothy repeated "there's no place like home" in the Wizard of Oz.

Then there was grad-school... Talk about overkill. My graduate department was basically divided between the all hail the Zapatistas can do no wrong and the 'blah, blah blah'-humming contingency. As usual, I was stuck somewhere in the middle, but mostly tried to stay out of it as I tried to do with every other gone-awry battle in my department. No, this was not out of some sort of complacency, it was mostly out of the profound disconnection I felt between the graduate school battles, my life and the world at large. That disconnect became so heavy that at some point I lost my voice, but that's a story for another day. 

Re-reading through the Sexta and visiting a Zapatista Caracol while living in Oaxaca profoundly changed my relationship to words that had at one point become a burden. Reading la Sexta in the dry asphyxiating heat of a Spring in Oaxaca was like walking out into the drenching cooling rain of a Oaxacan summer evening. And so I turn to it again and again, on the eve of the 'rapture', when people around the world rise up and demand to be heard and our news channels run 20 minutes on the Billboard awards and debate who will replace Charlie Sheen on Two and a half men. I turn to it at a time when our digital acercamientos leave us more and more disconnected from one another tripping over words when how-do-you-do scripts are not followed. I turn to it feeling like I've experienced a small miracle, as if  I had just found a message in a bottle set out to sea. I turn to it with the hope that maybe just maybe others might also stop their "blah blah blahing" and find the message in the bottle stuck somewhere in the sand...

Oventic, Chiapas, 2010.

"Bueno, pues ahora les vamos a decir lo que queremos hacer en el mundo y en México, porque no podemos ver todo lo que pasa en nuestro planeta y quedarnos nomás callados, como si sólo nosotros estamos donde estamos..."

"We are now going to tell you what we want to do in the world and in Mexico, because we cannot watch everything that is happening on our planet and jut remain quiet, as if it were only we were where we are..."

Rumores en el Blogosphere

OJO! I've UPDATED this post!

Taking a clue from a few other sites I follow, I've decided to give this a try. Some blog loving. A few posts I recommend for this week.

"Botas y disco ball," from the exhibit Milli es una histérica at Estación Cero, Oaxaca, Mexico, February 2011. 

On proving citizenship: check out the Unapologetic Mexican on the Obama Trump saga and what it means for the rest of us.

On May Day: photo essay, street vendors working on May day in L.A. at Multi-American.

On Cinco de Mayo: check out this short but sweet piece at Racialicious from a few years back. Also check out Alt.Latino's podcast on up-and-coming Mexican musicians with a little sprinkling of LA Mexican History.

On feminisms and intersectionality: check out What Tami Said on how to blog on race, feminisms and equality...  LOVED this piece! Also check out Feminism for Real, responding o the mainstream feminist blogosphere.

Anecdotes: from the trenches of the LA Book festival. A Chicano cuenta cuentos from the student movement and more at interections.

On the Borderlands: a book review, Making a Killing: Feminicide, Free rade, and La Frontera also published at Feminist Texican.

Reflections on violence: given the recent news, everything from the Royal Wedding, to the Marcha por la Paz in Mexico, and the killing of Osama Bin Ladden, Empezo a Volar's reflections are not only timely but beautiful.

Any blogs you suggest getting to this week? (Shameless self promotion is allowed and highly encouraged ;)

Demos taller...

Lucio Cabañas instalación organica, Demos Taller Galería, Barrio de Jalatlaco, Oaxaca. Enero 2011.

The last few weeks here have been extra busy! Knowing that we will soon be leaving for an extended period of time is making my head spin with work, visits with friends, and mental re-organizing. Finally after months of uncertainty and confusion, it all seems a bit clearer, a bit more in place and little by little I've had the chance to put all those once retired skills to work! (and to think I will most likely be starting over when we leave... sigh)

One of the projects I've been working on has been a blog for a collective of artists from/or who were living in Oaxaca during the 2006 social uprising.  As a collection, the 15 woodcut and linoleum prints produced are titled "Dialectica para NO Olvidar". The original project grew from a collaboration between Demos Taller Gallery and a group of women, human rights activists and Demetrio Barrita who then invited 7 other local artists. Each artist was given the task of producing at least 1 piece, most produced 2,  for the series using their particular visual language and their personal reflections on the movement in an attempt to not forget their experiences, to keep the memory of that time and place alive as well as to leave a tangible rememberance. The pieces not only speak of that particular time and place from the perspective of each individual artist but also enter into a collective dialogue about their very particularities. The finished series also, I feel, invites the viewer to participate in a much larger reflection about the perpetual state of violence we live in here in México, but also engage in a more global reflection about the state of normalized everyday violence being experienced around the world. 

I've had a great time working on this project and spending time with Demos and the group of artists involved. After so many years of knowing Demetrio, the corner stone of Demos Taller, I have been more than happy to finally have someway of giving something back to him for the open arms of friendship he extended in the middle of so much chaos in 2006. While at the studio I have taken a few photos. Here is a little of what I've been surrounded by lately...

Portada "Dialectica para NO Olvidar," Demos Taller Galería, Barrio de Jalatlaco, Oaxaca. Enero 2011.

Detalle Zapatista, Virgen y niño instalación organica, Demos Taller Galería, Barrio de Jalatlaco, Oaxaca. Enero 2011.

"La barca del olvido" instalación organica de D. Barrita, Demos Taller Galería, Barrio de Jalatlaco, Oaxaca. Enero 2011.

"Niños Dios en proceso de restauración," Demos Taller Galería, Barrio de Jalatlaco, Oaxaca. Enero 2011.

Bici-Zapata

Bici-Zapata, Calle Crespo, Oaxaca de Júarez, Oaxaca. October 2010.

It's been a while I know! I've been contemplating coming back for a few weeks now but sometimes life gets in the way and then before you know it we just don't know how to come back... Where to begin!

October and November are probably hands down two of my favorite months here in Oaxaca for so many reasons that I don't think I can explain just yet. Can't say December's been too shabby either ;]  I don't see myself writing about the 'lost weeks' at the moment, but something tells me I will come back to these 'lost weeks' at this time next year when I am completely homesick for Oaxaca...

Now back to where we left off...

This Bici-Zapata went up a few weeks ago. It was designed by two young artist friends and I had the chance to see their original stencil. The piece is about 5 feet tall (to give you some perspective), and the stencil looked very complicated. They put the piece together on paper and then pasted it on the wall. I think this was their trial piece since I found pieces of others throughout the city after a protest march. Pasting stenciled pieces is becoming increasingly popular because of the speed these artists can put their work up clandestinely.

There is no doubt that stenciling continues to be all the rage here in Oaxaca. Just the other day, M and I walked into an art school and found the whole inside of the building had been used as a canvas by stenciling artists. The city itself is a changing canvas upon which artists paste and stencil their work, archeological remains of those that came before found in bits and pieces framing the most recently exhibited work.

I leave you then with exhibit B...  and yes I am back ;]

Ps.
I am working on redesigning my page, so bare with me... It will look weird for a while until I get the redesign all done :]

Flores Magon & friends... Barrio de Xochimilco, Los Arquitos, Oaxaca de Júarez. November 2010.

Bicentenario from the South (part deux)

Break dancers  next to calle Indpendencia practicing their moves, Sept. 15, 2010.

Oaxaca's bicentenario celebrations were no where near what we saw in newspapers, through youtube videos, and heard coming from DF, but it was very much a reflection of where Oaxaca (and maybe the rest of the country), is. It was evident that for one, the PRIs defeat (the country's ruling political party for over 70 years, and in Oaxaca for almost 80), put a big damper on the 'official' celebration. In Santo Domingo, the anti-government celebration was left to be, although there was no lack of intimidation. Truck loads of soldiers passing on nearby streets, state police on motorcycles periodically running through the pedestrian street where the Triqui women from Copala had setup camp, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary really.

Near the zocalo, the group of young break-dancers that usually gathers on weekday and weekend evenings, set up their radio and put on a show for each other and the curious passerby. The show was interrupted periodically by those tourists and locals wanting to take a picture in front of the countdown clock (which was miraculous clean, no graffiti, no stencil art, no tagging). 

Despite the mostly tranquil bicentenario in the city of Oaxaca, there were several communities under threat, Copala, Zimatlan de Matamoros, and Ixcatlán, hence unable to celebrate. In the community of Copala 3 women were shot during the days leading up to the national celebration. Due to the threats on the community, none of the women were able to receive medical attention until they were 'recued' from the community by state police.

Here are a few more pictures from the bicentenario celebrations in the city of Oaxaca. The few night images I could rescue from my digital camera ;)  Enjoy!

Heroes de la Independencia with National Anthem in several Oaxacan indigenous languages, Spet. 15, 2010.

Catedral, Sept. 15, 2010.

Zocalo de Oaxaca, Sept. 15, 2010. 

Sombrerote, Hidalgo y Morelos, Sept. 15, 2010. 

Ex-Palacio de Gobernación, Sept. 15, 2010.

Banderas, reguiletes, y soldados (soldier convoy) en Alcala, Sept. 15, 2010. 

El Bicentenario from the South

Vocho, bandera y paloma, Sept. 2010.

After a year of preparations, analysis, and talk about Mexico's 200th independence anniversary... IT ARRIVED! Toda pomp y circumstance, but not all out pavorreal, aventando la casa por la ventana as we might have expected, or as DF seems to have gone. Unless you've been living under a rock, in some hole, or the such here in Mexico, there was no way around the Bicentenario frenzie. Living through the bicentennial celebrations here in Oaxaca was interesting. Unlike the DFs all-out-bash, (a few links for your enjoyment: link 1 link 2), Oaxaca seemed quite tranquilo, and if you walked through the zocalo just the day before "el grito" the plaza was full of anti-government graffiti up the waaazoo! It was hard to imagine any government celebration actually taking place the next night. 

The next day I was actually shocked to walk through the same plaza to find it all painted over, cleaned, and as festive as an army of workers could get the place. You could still make out the words ASESINO through the paint during the day, but lucky for the government night time lighting can perform miracles. 

The celebrations went on without a hitch. I say celebrations because there were two in the centro de Oaxaca, the 'official' celebration over which the outgoing governor presided, and an anti-official celebration held in front of Santo Domingo (one of Oaxaca'z main churches and tourist corridor), where the on-going planton by Triqui women was reinstalled after having to move a few days before. At the second celebration videos highlighting some of the ongoing struggles in Oaxaca were projected. The place was filled with mostly young people.

At the 'official' celebration, three stages were set up from which music acts alternated. The whole place was strung up in green white and red lights and large portraits of some of the indenpendence heroes were set up in front of the cathedral with the himno nacional (national anthem) written in a few of Oaxaca's 16 indigenous languages. 

To celebrate Mauricio and I had a plate of nachos, a beer, and I accidently ordered some kind of Cancun-Spring-Break drink that the waitress insisted on setting-on-fire and having me chug with a straw... Hmmm Yeah! It wasn't my style at 16 or 19... Turns out I'm still not into the chugging, so I didn't! Who knew that Juan Rulfo's classic "El Llano en Llamas" would be turned into some flaming chugging devil drink?! Se a de estar revolcando en la tumba!

Anywho, here are a few images of how the Bicentenario looked down south in Oaxaca. Will post the night time images on another post. Enjoy!

Balcon y bandera, Sept. 15, 2010.

Ex-Palacio de Gobierno, Oaxaca, Sept. 15, 2010.

Sombrero Viva México, Sept. 15, 2010.
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Papel picado, Sept. 15, 2010.

Our lunch! Chiles en nogada, only available during this time of year... Click here for a recipe

Reguiletes, Sept. 15, 2010.
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Manequín, Sept. 15, 2010.

Grita tu Pesar, Sept. 15, 2010.

Hereo de la Independencia, Guerrero como Boxeador, Sept. 15, 2010.

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On Women Aquí y Allá

Colectivo Raahuna - Tejiendo por el futuro de nuestros pueblos, Santo Tomas Jalietza, Oaxaca, July 2010.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how we relate to one another, in other words, been thinking a lot about Human Relations. Yep, here goes another curve ball in the all-encompassing slightly schitzo mexiroccan blog coming to you direct from deep down in the heart-of-southern Mexico. Bare with me...it's a bumpy ride but one I think worth taking ;]

Specifically I've been thinking about women and how we relate to one another. I think about these relationships constantly I suppose as a direct result of my own back and forth upbringing, the macho and machista-like tendencies in this upbringing (I urge you not to take my honesty under a US-centric microscope of Oooohs and Aaaaws exotification), my here and there state of mind, and the constant need to reconcile this aquí y alla syndrome in the most productive of ways possible. Mostly, I think, the strong female role models that have surrounded me, as I am sure many of you, throughout my life have led me to seek out other women, to listen, learn, and at times use that bridge on my back as a link between what I understand and what I don't get just yet. You gotta keep that bridge handy living the transborder lives we live these days, gotta bring it out to reach each other just as much as to cross to the other side. 

I've been more aware lately of these crossings, of the reaching, the seeking, the learning. For one, I recently had the opportunity and privilege to meet a grupo de artesanas from Santo Tomas Jalietza, a small rural pueblo in the central valley of Oaxaca, with two Xicanas from Califas who were visiting Oaxaca for a few weeks. The indigenous Zapoteca women from el Colectivo de Mujeres Raahuna originally came together to support each other in the working and sale of their weaved goods, which now includes computer bags and cell phone pouches (how's that for globalization). The experience was humbling as the women worked to organize packages to send back to the US with the two Xicanas. Final destination for the packages...the hands of an indigenous woman migrant who has been living under cover with the threat of deportation for a few years now, who despite her own situation has kept extending her hand out to help. 

Sharing time with the women in Santo Tomas and  the Califas Xicanas, and thinking about myself the pocha living in Oaxaca, and seeing how we all came together a darnos la mano was, at the risk of sounding conry, exilerating and nurturing. Don't get me wrong I am by no means naive enough to believe in some sort of universal sisterhood, hermanahood, or the like. And NO, I am by no means interested in engaging in some sort of we are women vs. machista men dialogue. On the contrary, what I am interested in is finding ways of relating despite or better said, THROUGH our differences. We already do this all the time! Let's leave that second wave feminism cochinadas, as much as they pop-up over and over, where they belong en el pasado. 

What I am interested in these days is finding spaces where we can learn, collaborate, and exchange ideas without leaving behind our differences, mas bien, spaces where we can put those differences to use. In other words instead of beginning from an assumed sisterhood, launching ourselves from difference towards building bridges, links, conversations...

Lately I've been more hopeful of the possibilities, mostly because of everyday experiences here, but also because of you I know personally, because of you I don't but who read, and because of you with whom I exchange brief "how do you do's" with virtually.

Here are just a few more mujeres, you might be interested in checking out what they do:

afrolicious  Fabmexicana  FloResiste   MonikaFabian

ModelMinority   SheBeganToFly   QuirkyBlackGirls

For more on Colectivo Raahuna in Oaxaca click here.

Zapata Instructions

Zapata léase instrucciones, Buscando a Zapata Series, Oaxaca, 2010.

Our back and forth travels lately have left me with little time to write so I apologize de antemano for la tardanza with this post. 

Now only a few weeks from el grito commemorating the 200th anniversary of Mexico's Independence, and with this year also marking the 100th anniversary of la Revolución, it is, I think, appropriate that Zapata makes another appearance on this blog. One of my favorite, along with the Zapata Punk that no longer exists, in my Buscando a Zapata series, this mural sits inside a house nestled in the middle of our currently chaotic city of Oaxaca. Sometimes I think it might do better sitting outside where people can see and read it... A reminder of where we are 100 years later.

As for the chaos...
Transportation costs went up 64% from one day to the next with bus fares going from 4.50pesos a few days ago to 7pesos. Yesterday the streets were blocked everywhere, making it impossible for people to get from one place to another. We got home just in time for it...WELCOME TO OAXACA!

This is not the first time I see Oaxaca on foot, but the mere scale of this time's street blockades was much larger than I have ever seen except for the 2006 uprising. Traffic seems to be flowing today, and negotiations between state 'regulators' and the transportation companies have cut the initial increase to 22%, 1 peso for the time being... Still, it does make you wonder how much can be squeezed out of people, many of whom could barely pay the previous fee... 

In the meantime... Zapata con todo e instrucciones!

Las Oaxaqueñas

La Banda at the 1 of August women's march commemoration, Oaxaca 2010. 

It's been four years since las oaxaqueñas marched down the streets of city of Oaxaca banging on pots and pans with large spoons, chanting consignas, wearing rebozos and aprons; indigenous, mestizas, middle class, working class, young and old, demanding to be heard. The now famous marcha de las cacerolas, as the women's protest would be called, was organized by women in support of the ongoing social movement pumping through the streets of Oaxaca. What began as a women's march would turn into a spontaneous burst that would go down in the history of Oaxaca as the day the women spoke. This is what I heard happened after I left the zocalo where the women's march turned into a miting. 

Surrounded by what they felt was biased news media and especially tired of the Televisa, coverage of Oaxaca during the weeks of unrest, a group of women confronted a few cameramen and reporters about what they felt was an ongoing smear campaign directed at the Oaxacan movement. When the Televisa reporter deemed them lucky to get any coverage and threatened to stop covering their event, a few women in the group decided to head over to the local state TV station to ask for a few minutes of airtime... and so las oaxaqueñas would do what no one could have imagined. After being denied any airtime, the women, cocineras, housewives, street vendors, abuelitas, professionals, teachers, with no previous experienced would peacefully take over the state run TV and radio stations. Reclaiming the state run media as the stations of the people of Oaxaca as the official slogans claimed, became a key turning point for the movement. 

Four years later, if you're lucky and listen to the streets speak you can still find small waves of electricity from the lightning rod plunged deep into Oaxacan society by las guerreras oaxaqueñas on August 1, 2006. This past Sunday, on the day declared as the day of las oaxaqueñas four years ago, they marched again, led by a band of girls and boys from the Valles Centrales.

On Quesillo Politics

Quesillo in Oaxaca Market, author unknown.

Elections for governor were finally held in Oaxaca and in 11 other states in Mexico this past Sunday on the 4th of July. Six years after the 2004 elections that magically and over night, literally, had the trailing PRI candidate Ulises Ruiz Ortíz leading and declared the winner by morning, his mustache clone budy Eviel Perez Magaña and the same 2004 coalition candidate Gabino Cúe, fought long with over the top campaigns that left a see-it-to-believe-it circus act/mafia taste in my mouth. The outcome this time was "different" with Gabino Cúe, the mega coalition candidate declared the winner breaking an 81 year PRI hold on the state. The "change" is considered significant and although I have been out of the Oaxacan politics loop for the past two weeks, visiting family in northern Mexico, the chants of joy have reached me in these desert lands. I am happy for the "change" but not quite ready to rejoice with the crowds and here's why.

I believe having Cúe as governor will do little to change the current situation of thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of Oaxaca’s, and that on the contrary sometimes having the right face is misleading. What I mean by this is that having a more likable and less brutish person at the forefront with no actual structural or social change and who on the contrary continues to merely reinforce   the system can be more dangerous. I don't want to sound like dooms day here, or like I am expecting miracles to be performed, but something clearly needs to change so things don't continue to go downhill. Something has to be reversed or at the very least stopped because continuing on the same path with a prettier face is not good enough. It might be easy, less worrisome, more convenient and even make one feel like a good and responsible citizen to merely go out and cast a ballot, come home watch the polls and cross ones fingers wishing and hoping stepping right back into our daily routines the next morning, but what good is a vote without any civic responsibility. By this I mean, if we want true change we can't naively think it will come through a ballot. 

What is good about the "change" in Oaxaca is that with Cúe, there might be less politically motivated arrests, there might be less politically motivated disappearances, and there might be less politically motivated assassinations than there could have been with Eviel Perez Magaña. He will most likely meet with more civil organizations give in to token gestures to quell growing discontent as he continues on the same path the PRI has been following, which is not necessarily their path, or the path of any other party, but that of market interests outlined at a much higher level than just Oaxaca. 

There is however a very small opportunity in this "change" that must be seized so that real change might have a slight chance. Real and continued civic participation, genuine interest in what is happening, pressuring the new government to also seize this opportunity to at least take a good look at the possibility of turning the wheels of a run away train that might just be fleetingly at a crossroads. I admit it is hard to believe this is even possible given Cúe's first words of thanks to both Lopéz Obrador and Calderón... (the great irony of his success on a ticket put together by a coalition of the supposed ultra right wing and left wing parties which in itself offers this slight opening as the parties argue over control)... but we are going nowhere and are stuck on this train whether we want to or not. We might as well do something and stop (excuse the language) half assing it sitting around the next six years in hopes of another shot for change...

The Scream and Oventic, Chiapas

Caracol Resistencia y Rebeldía por la Humanidad, Oventic, Chiapas,
sabado 29 de mayo, 2010.

'Zapata,' Oventic, Chiapas, May 29, 2010.*

"In the beginning is the scream. WE SCREAM.

When we write or when we read, it is easy to forget that the beginning is not the word, but the scream. Faced with the mutilation of human lives by capitalism, a scream of sadness, a scream of horror, a scream of anger, a scream of refusal: NO.

... It is from rage that thought is born, not from the pose of reason, not from the reasoned-sitting-back-and-reflecting-on-the-mysteries-of-existence that is the conventional image of the thinker..." 

- from Change the World without taking power, by Josh Holloway.

Lately the scream has been building up inside of me. Lethal cocktail, chemical reaction between myself and the world apparently...

No soda POP f i z z i n g ,  j u s t   a   B I G   B A N G ! glass and fire flying   s l o w   m o t i o n  through the air...

Can't read the paper, can't hear the news, can't over hear conversations on the street without the SCREAM  b u b b l i n g  up like lava in a volcano...
YA BASTA!

Flotillas, oil, bullets, and tassers... not to mention the ball of quesillo** that gets bigger and BIGGER each day here in Oaxaca... YA BASTA! They screamed form the SOUTH!

Now their silence   e  c  h  o  e  s   like a pebble tossed in a calm lake.

So we went to that place called Chiapas to see for ourselves. Turns out the revolution will NOT be televised... but IT WILL be painted.

P a i n t e d  on  the muros y paredes of every building, in every corner, wherever the eye can see... s h i e l d s   o f   c o l o r   a n d   h o p e. 

Aquí, a few of the pictures I took while in Oventic. The second of two Zapata in Chiapas posts.

Los Zapatas de Oventic

* Click on the images to enlarge.
** Quesillo is a Oaxacan string cheese wrapped into a ball much like a ball of yarn. There is a saying in Oaxaca, that basically pokes fun at the fact that Oaxacans managed to even make cheese difficult by wrapping it into a ball. 

Zapata Punk

Zapata Punk began to pop up in 2006 during the APPO movement. The art collective ASARO stenciled the Mohawk clad Zapata on walls in a sense claiming his image for the underground, marginalized and highly persecuted youth movement that sprung during the 2006 mobilizations. Four years later, despite an apparent return to the status quot, the youth movement that walked the streets in support of change continues to march to its own beat through small collectives. And so Zapata Punk continues to make his appearance here and there as if to confirm their continued resistance.

  'Zapata Punketo...' from the 'Looking for Zapata' series. Oaxaca de Juárez, 30 marzo, 2010.

Aurora y Antonio

'Y las paredes siguen hablando,' photo by Mauricio Magaña. Oaxaca, 2010.

I will try my best to be brief precisely because it is almost impossible to think of brevity after spending hours and hours listening to people weave stories into tapestries of esperanza. Last week was probably one of the hardest and most fruitful weeks of my life. I have had little time to think or wallow in 'foreigness' lately. I have been overwhelmed with emotions rushing gushing and spilling out of me; laughter, happiness, uncertainty, impotence, sadness, rage, and so, so much esperanza it poured out in tears several times. Too much has happened and I had been unable to write anything out of sheer exhaustion. This is my first attempt at reflecting on some of what was lived last week and I have chosen to begin by writing about Aurora and Antonio.

On Friday we went to a local university to hear two ex-commanders of a guerrilla group called the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (Éjercito Revolucionario del Pueblo Insurgente - ERPI). The ERPI grew out of another well known guerrilla group here in Mexico, the EPR with whom these two commanders broke from to form the ERPI in 1997. Both Gloria Arenas Agis and Jacobo Silva Nogales, known as Coronela Aurora and Comandante Antonio were political prisoners until late October of 2009 a little over ten years after being apprehended in late October 1999. Curiously the year before their arrests was the year the Mexican government formed the Federal Preventive Police (Policía Federal Preventive - PFP). The PFP was in fact the unit responsible for their arrests just as they were in charge of bringing order to Oaxaca in late 2006 during the APPO rebellion.

Both Gloria and Jacobo were arrested without warrants, both were severely tortured, and both were accused of a long list of crimes including rebellion, sabotage, murder, terrorism, etc. When apprehended neither denied their identities and both were presented to the public at a rueda de prensa in an effort to show the government's efficiency at dealing with crime. Finally both were sentenced to over 50 years in prison. 

Being accused of a crime in Mexico, especially if done for political reasons, means guilty until proven innocent, or to put it bluntly it means guilty with a stroke of a pen and regardless of a person's innocence. Piles of evidence in a person's favor will do nothing to reverse sentencing and will most likely, depending on the judge, never leave a person's file to be reviewed. A case in point here in Oaxaca is the case of Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno currently in prison accused of shooting the American Indymedia journalist Brad Will in 2006.

The talk on Friday was inspiring. Walking into the room I recognized Gloria. Something about her was so familiar to me I felt I knew her, I tried to recall why I felt this way while rationalizing in my mind the impossibility. I decided I must have seen her picture or seen a video of her somewhere at some point. Like Jacobo's, Gloria's face reflected an enormous sense of peace that made the idea of  them spending 10 years in a maximum federal state penitentiary seem unimaginable. The room was full and the conversation focused largely on how to conceptualize and live fundamental social change without 'taking power,' ( to recall Holloway's 'How to change the world without taking powers'). Gloria and Jacobo spoke quietly yet with resolution while answering questions, showing an unfledging support and speaking of their incorporation into the continuing lucha for fundamental social change.

What was most surprising however, to most of us listening and asking from the audience was how these two ex-guerrilleros, Aurora y Antonio, political prisoners just recently released, having endured torture, and ten years in a maximum security prison, were tremendously moved by the people of Oaxaca. Their respect for the Oaxacan movement was unprecedented. I have heard reporters, NGOs, people disappointed by the movement, and a slew of academics discuss, speculate, and make conclusions over what exactly happened in the southern Sate of Oaxaca in 2006. The controversies extend from the usual arguments over semantics, (was this a movement? was this a rebellion? was this an uprising? and does it even matter?), to the aloofness of many who decided to shock-it-all-up to a few power hungry individuals pulling their usual puppetry tricks in the name of social change, in other words the tendency to reduce peoples participation to merely political manipulation. Ah but if only it were that simple... If only we could homogenise real life like we do often in our minds or on paper... Pardon me as I celebrate the fact we can't!

Gloria and Jacobo spoke with great admiration about the many lessons Oaxaca had shown the rest of Mexico in 2006, despite the aftermath and the current apathy that seems to permeate the Oaxacan landscape. It was clear that they had taken much from what was experienced in Oaxaca, not in the defeatist sense that many seem to have taken, or in fruitless arguments over whether or not what happened can be considered a movement, but by focusing on the glimmer of esperanza the Oaxacan movement was able to reveal, simply put, by imagining the possibilities.

To them the Oaxacan movement is exemplary of what el pueblo can accomplish, how it can organize, and even how it can surpass more than one would-be leader.  Yes some people within the movement sold their soul to the devil, yes there was repression, yes the same governor is still in power in large part due to the Federal Government's complicity, but beyond the materially and academically measurable how did people move, react, defend, fight, or even understand their own process etc. There will always be those who take the route of politics, who are able to gain materially by taking advantage of movements, but at the same time there will also always be those who will not follow, who will make their own paths, who will challenge through their actions, and surpass movement structures. That was more than evident in 2006.

Yet in a sense those of us in that room needed to hear it, not from the countless NGOs, reporters, or academics who have tried to speculate, but from Aurora and Antonio who have spent a lifetime working, fighting, and believing in social change. Their voices echoed in those walls louder  and more clearly than the voices of those of us who spend a lifetime behind desks analyzing data, deconstructing and reconstructing Babylon. In a sense their presence here in Oaxaca served to re-ignite a lingering flame amongst many Oaxaqueños whose participation in 2006 has been either elevated to misunderstood heroics or diminished to an anomaly. And so the flame of esperanza shines bright in the torn up streets of Oaxaca.

Oaxaca Vive Vive

To be honest I hardly know where to begin...

Tonight I listened to many stories. Stories about deceit, loss, triumph, disappointments, love, and even hope. I spent the night talking and sharing experiences. The kind of sharing you can only do after a few beers on a Tuesday night in a cantina in the center of town.

Lately there have been so many things making my head spin I have had a hard time processing my surroundings or my very feelings but tonight things were brought back into perspective.

Since we arrived late last year the uprising of 2006 has almost seemed like a far away dream Oaxacan's woke up from maybe a bit too early. Life in Oaxaca is almost seamlessly familiar, usual, and unshattered. The Swiss, German, French, Italian, and American senior citizen tourists, ex-pats, 'profesional anthropologists,' college students and 'artists' continue to arrive in busloads. Yet at least part of the young European and American backpackers/philanthropic activists that came before 2006 have now been replaced with what has been known as Turismo Revolucionario (a term first used  in Mexico to name the flocks of European and American activists that arrived in Chiapas after the 1994 EZLN uprising), who now come to linger in what remains of the 2006 Oaxacan landscape. The city with its wide blue skies, cotton candy clouds, and touch of honey evening light continues to unleash its magical spell on more than one unsuspecting passerby.

Lately I have been questioning my place here. Mostly because I have made an effort to stop myself from falling into the middle-class 'intelectual' comfort that comes with being a highly educated, yet poor, Pocha/mestiza living in southern Mexico. Walking through a city once sown together by  a network of barricadas, now literally torn apart by the construction projects of an exiting governor desperately trying to gain a fleeting and unattainable legitimacy, I have made an extra effort to see, listen, and feel Oaxaca from where I stand.

Tonight I heard, felt and saw disappointment, failure, loss, guilt, anger, pride, enormous love and so much hope it seemed to pour out from the catina and flow like rivers onto the streets of Oaxaca. It is hard to find hope after hearing about so much repression. After hearing about the continued persecution experienced by people in their everyday lives, the enormous losses they have experienced on personal and professional levels, the shattered lives that bear witness to a time and place that might otherwise seem to no longer exist. I listened to stories filled with bravery, self sacrifice, and experiences remembered and lived whole heartedly. As I listened I remembered that time that place, my heart filled with angustia, fear, and sadness as I left Oaxaca that September  in 2006 knowing full well that my father's decision to migrate to the United States at age 17 had given me the privilege of crossing to el otro lado and the ability to leave while others could not.

I listened to the crumbling of marriages, to the loosing of children, to the nights of anguish, to the embracing of the wounded, to the battles of rocks and sticks against armour and guns, the victories,  the defeats, to the comradery between people, to the helping hand, to the need, to the want, to the willingness to fight for change at all costs, and to the what ifs...

And yet in between it all, despite so much loss, despite so much sarcasm by others who no longer believe, and despite the what ifs, they are here in Oaxaca as they are in Oregon, broken, beaten, and tortured but unwilling to take the easy way out, to settle into the status quo, knowing full well maybe others might not follow, others might not care or take the time to listen. Knowing what that means for themselves and their families but believing there is something much greater... and so you can almost hear their voices once by the thousands in the streets of Oaxaca now filled with the rattling of destruction and reconstruction...

24 hour coffee shops

All I can say at 1am as I frantically try to get something that makes some sort of sense written about social movement theory, anthropologies of feminisms and place, and the politics of alliance is THANK GOD FOR 24 HOUR Coffee Shops, Pandora, the Ozos, Los Lobos, Bjork, Weezer and Orishas! And of course all of the looney toon people here. I am not alone in this insanity! Someone just ordered a coffee at 1:30am... Now that's my kind off woman ;)

...Update... She got another cup at 2:30am...

...never sleeping deadline soundtrack list...
1. all through the night - Cindy Lauper
2. state of emergency - Bjork
3. out of my head
4. like a prayer - Madonna
5. sweet dreams - Eurythmics
6. insane in the membrane - Cypress Hill
7. basically - Gnarls Barkley
8. in the wee small hours of the morning
9. three o'clock blues - BB King
10. under pressure - David Bowie
11. hard to concentrate - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

...to be continued...