Miranda 2018 Book Review Rights In Rebellion. Indigenous Struggle and Human Rights in Chiapas. Stanford University Press 2008. (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Indigenous Uprising in Chiapas as a Praxis of Liberation
Inter-American Journal of Philosophy, 2020
In this paper I focus on the indigenous uprising in Chiapas trying to understand its originality as a result of several factors: from the historical process of confrontation between the indigenous people and the white elites; to the influence of the theology of liberation in the awakening of consciousness that generated the uprising; to the transformation of the original revolutionary model in favor of a movement of civil resistance, built around the goal of a multicultural democracy; to the ability to understand and adapt to the decisive changes that the world has experienced in the last four decades. In this sense, this fight can be seen as one of the several anticipations of the struggle against neoliberal globalization. In my view, then, it is the awareness of the concrete problems of the indigenous communities, along with the utopian horizon of their struggle, that molds the originality of the Zapatista movement.
The rights of indigenous peoples have been at the forefront of human rights debates in recent decades. In the framework of the United Nations system, increased awareness of the need to address the rights of indigenous peoples is evidenced by the creation of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982 and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2000 and the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. The attempt to remedy the abuse, racism, and poverty experienced by indigenous peoples throughout the Americas is not a simple task and is long overdue. Despite the renewed interest in the protection and promotion of indigenous rights around the globe, indigenous populations continue to experience political, social, cultural, and economic oppression. However, as James C. Scott (1990: 45) writes, "relations of domination are, at the same time, relations of resistance." Thus, dominated indigenous populations resist their oppression. Because of the enormous diversity of indigenous peoples across Latin America, it is safe to say that the relationships between dominant and subordinate actors, between different subordinate groups, and within subordinate groups are multiple and varied.
Las Abejas: Pacifist Resistance and Syncretic Identities in a Globalizing Chiapas
2002
Recently I accompanied another group of students from Loyola University Chicago to the communities of the Las Abejas (The Bees) in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. After a few introductory meetings with various local and international NGOs based in San Cristóbal de Las Casas we traveled to Acteal, in the municipality of Chenalhó and met with representatives of Las Abejas' Mesa Directiva (directive board). Joaquin Perez, a board member and a survivor of the massacre perpetrated by a paramilitary group in this village on December 22, 1997, accompanied us into the center of Acteal. As we were going down the stairs toward Las Abejas' main office, Joaquin updated me with Las Abejas' new projects, commissions and initiatives of resistance. We waited a few hours before meeting with the Mesa Directiva, as they were occupied with various groups, assemblies and committees. Coming from the United Stated to Acteal, I wasn't surprised to hear my students commenting on the obvious marginality and poverty of Acteal, a place that functioned until a few months ago as a refugee camp. One of my students, however, observing how people participated in the ongoing meetings, said: "These people are poor, but better organized than the United Nations!" Indeed, coming to these communities with a disposition to listen we have a lot to learn. Las Abejas has a lot to teach to caxlanes (non-indigenous people), particularly for their strong identity and strategies as pacifist resisters. On numerous occasions, I have heard representatives of Las Abejas speaking to international delegations about their economic struggle and impoverishment as displaced people and victims of paramilitary violence. Yet, I always remain astonished when, at the end of their testimonies, they don't ask for money, but for help in spreading their message. Before leaving Acteal, Antonio Gutierrez, one of the founders of Las Abejas, said to my students, "Our heart is happy that you came to visit us. The government and mass media present the situation of Chiapas as peaceful with no more problems or militarization. But you came here, and you have seen that reality is different than what they present.... Now you have heard our story, seen our places, eaten our food, slept in our poor villages. Now you are our voice! You know how the government is not allowing us to go outside the country to give testimony to our struggle. But you can. You are now the voice of Las Abejas." Since I began my fieldwork in Chiapas in 1998 Las Abejas has grown a tremendous amount in their organizational strength, political consciousness and economic experiences. But it is their Mayan and Christian worldview of organized poor people in resistance that continues to inspire their collective identity and actions. After September 11, 2001 Las Abejas communities discussed the tragic event that took place. Initially they were confused by the news, since most of the time, they hear reports of the United States attacking other countries. As survivors themselves, they fully have not abandoned their simple demands for equal justice for all." In Globalization and Postmodern Politics, Roger Burbach considers the similarities between the Zapatista movement in Mexico and the battle of Seattle against the World Trade Organization (WTO) (Burbach 2001). Both movements go beyond old revolutionary ideologies and manifest a new kind of resistance reinvented by the desires for economic justice and the ecological concern of our generation. In spring 2001, Roger Burbach offered an insightful presentation on this theme to my class 'Sociology of Resistance: Chiapas'. Finally, two important historical works, The War Against Oblivion and Acteal de Los Mártires, respectively of John Ross and Martin Alvarez Fabela, offer detailed accounts of the Zapatista strategies of resistance of the Las Abejas communiqués after the Acteal massacre, on December 22, 1997. Memory, as I suggest throughout my work, is an essential tool to attain peace with justice and dignity, as claimed by Las Abejas and the EZLN. This work on Las Abejas' pacifist resistance and syncretic identities is developed in eight chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the organization Las Abejas from its emergence in Tzajalchen in 1992 to the more recent development of its structure. It also presents the violent path that led to the Acteal massacre on December 22, 1997. Chapter 2 presents the methodological and theoretical frameworks used in my analysis. I describe how my own identity and cross-cultural experiences have helped my understanding of Chiapas and the relation with Las Abejas. I describe the challenges and risk involved in doing research in a low-intensity warfare context. Intense networks of communication and collaboration with local and international organizations are essential factors for entering in dialogue with Las Abejas. My personal concern was to conduct collaborative research with existing organizations, so that my work would be beneficial to them. My analysis of Las Abejas' syncretic identity of resistance finds numerous connections with other types of identity construction. The identity formation processes called syncretic, resistance, project and legitimizing are considered in relation to Las Abejas and the socio-cultural context of Chiapas. The religious character of Las Abejas' collective identity is placed in relation to recent reflections on religious identities in movements. The theoretical contributions I offer with this study of an indigenous-religious organization expand the work of previous studies on the cultural relevance of Latin American social movements. There are many people I have to thank. First of all, I would like to thank Liz, my wife, friend, and companion in my fieldwork. Thanks to her precious intuitions and valuable suggestions I was able to focus my research on more sensitive issues. She accompanied me on many trips to the communities. We struggled and lost our breath together climbing the steep, muddy paths to the mountain communities around Chiapas. My wife and I shared precious moments with various communities of Las Abejas (The Bees); from village celebrations, public actions of resistance to delicate disclosures of displaced families and testimonies of the massacre survivors. In San Cristóbal, we were able to reciprocate the hospitality we received in the communities. We shared the warmth of our fireplace with Las Abejas and other indigenous friends coming to San Cristóbal. I would like to give a special thanks to Antonio Gutiérrez, one of the founders of Las Abejas and certainly one of the most committed persons spreading Las Abejas message all over the world. He endured many difficulties trying to get his passport, so he could travel outside of Mexico to give testimony of Las Abejas' pacifist struggle for social justice and cultural dignity. It is still impressed in my mind when he came to San Cristóbal, after many hours of walking and traveling, in order to fax typewritten messages to the United Nations and to the European Union Commission for Human Rights. The U.N. High Commission for Human Rights did hear his words and sent representatives to visit Acteal and meet with Las Abejas. Thank you, Antonio for the many formal and informal dialogues to clarify my comprehension of Las Abejas dimensions of identity and resistance. I would also like to thank Pierre Shantz, a Canadian full-time member of CPT. We shared several moments together in Las Abejas refugee camps of Acteal, Xoyep and Tzajalchen. The children called him Pedro Xux (baldy) because of his shaved head. His example of an enthusiastic and totally dedicated person inspired all of us in building bridges of friendly cross-cultural relations with Las Abejas. Pierre is just an example of the many other courageous and committed CPTers that I do not mention here for brevity but are alive in my memories. One name, however, I cannot omit: Kryss Chupp. Her example as woman and mother completely dedicated to the promotion of nonviolent resistance brings hope and encouragement to Las Abejas' ongoing struggle. Thank you Kryss also for the numerous suggestions offered for the writing of this work. I also would like to thank the people of SIPAZ and for the collaboration we had in assessing the various religious groups in the Chenalhó area. It is my hope that the reflections reported here on Las Abejas' interreligious identity and character of inclusiveness will further inspire the ongoing effort for interreligious dialogue and reconciliation in the Highlands of Chiapas. Even though, for security reasons, I cannot mention the names, I would like to thank the humble and courageous examples of many pastoral workers of the SCLC Diocese. Among them the
Chiapas: Indigenous women weaving territories of life in the crossfire
Debates Indígenas, 2022
The Zapatista journey has marked the lives of Indigenous peoples and peasant communities with its teachings of autonomy and dreams of other possible worlds. However, the southeast of Mexico continues to be plagued by extreme poverty and violence generated by criminal economies. In this context, the collective Fases de la Luna promotes educational processes of political training to eradicate violence against women and promote autonomy. By Delmy Tania Cruz Hernández for Debates Indígenas.