Bicentenario

It's the bicentennial of Mexico's independence, the centennial of the Mexican Revolution. Zapata's dream of land for those who work it is still a dream here in Chiapas (where many people refused to celebrate), where Monsanto is creeping in and autonomous communities continue to be displaced from their territories. Mexico may have gained independence from Spain, but new dependencies have grown out of free trade agreements, corporate and political invasions from the North.

Watched a new documentary called ¡Viva México! which follows the Zapatista's Other Campaign in 2006, as it traveled around the country, listening to stories of how neighbors are organizing, claiming land, speaking out against the privatization of resources and facing violent repression in Atenco and elsewhere. It's a long, wandering story, but I think it gives a good feel of how many everyday people are coming to the conclusion, through organizing around local issues, that the government not only cannot and will not help them, but is actively working against them. That's been our experience with the Quicklime factory in Alejandro's neighborhood.

I've been taking Tsotsil classes, and working with a group of young Tsotsil girls who are making movies. They made a video report about this summer's Hurricane Alex, how it destroyed all of the corn in their community, which lives mostly from subsistence farming. Corn is central to people's spiritual and physical lives, and the crops that were to last the year were all blown down. Watching the video she'd made about the wreckage, she turned to me and said, "Sometimes our poverty enrages me." Out of that poverty, she found a way to document this disaster, and through watching her own work, found the rage that moves her to keep fighting.

(2010)