previous journal entries:

journal #1 - mexico, chiapas:
chiapas.mediosindependientes.org/display.php3

journal #2 - chiapas, honduras:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/87108/index.php

journal #3 - honduras, nicaragua:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/87109

journal #4 - nicaragua, el salvador:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/87851/index.php

journal #5 - el salvador, guatemala:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/87852

5 jan 2004
san cristobal de las casas
chiapas
mexico
coming back into mexico after central america really feels like entering a whole different world....the streets aren't crowded with huge multicolored buses spilling out people and animals, the air isn't black and smoggy with pollution...you can barely even smell the odor of burning plastic. it's a far cry from the usa of course, but it really does feel different from guatemala.....of course, the people in the countryside are still living pretty much the traditional life, and THAT crosses all these borders, but in the cities it's especially apparent that mexico is a regulated society, like the USA.

as I walk around this tourist town in the heart of zapatista territory, I find myself meeting people from the US and europe who know very little about what they have walked into here. I find myself having the same conversations, repeating some of the same histories, answering the same questions......I'm struck by the level of ignorance of most people from the US, but I don't blame them for being clueless....I mean, just look at where they're coming from! the tv nation! it's sad...it makes me sad to KNOW what's going on here in this area, and see tourists come fumbling in, inadvertantly exacerbating tensions, increasing the disenfranchisement of the people who live here, verifying stereotypes and just generally making a mess of things --- all without having ANY IDEA what they are doing. not that I'm any better....I make mistakes, same as everyone.....but I TRY to be conscious about the context in which I find myself here.

I wish there were some small guide, even a few pages, that people visiting chiapas would be required to read before visiting here. something that described the BASICS of the history and the situation here, so people would at least have a base of information on which to base their decisions on what to do here, where to go, how to spend their money.

check my journal entry #2 for some more background on the zapatistas and chiapas:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/87108/index.php
or my 2002 journal from chiapas:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/278

I keep thinking about privilege, and how some people in this world are able to spend hundreds of dollars on plane tickets, hotel rooms, restaurants on a trip that is merely for pleasure.....and why?? is it because they worked harder for their money than the men who are breaking their backs carrying cement blocks, or the women who are farming dawn to dusk in the hard rocky soil of these mountains? I don't think so. the reason is that they come from a privileged class, just as I do -- a class of people who has the connections, power and privilege to get a lot of money without doing much work. and yes, there are costs to that privilege -- alienation, isolation, loneliness, lack of community, dysfunction within families -- but these costs are so abstract, so ...... frivolous.

I look at the people here, working so incredibly hard, doing manual labor day in and day out, never a chance to take a break or their family might starve, and the problems of the privileged class of americans I come from seems so trivial in comparison -- the realtionship issues, the identity crises -- it seems so idiosyncratic -- a quixotic response to the contradiction of being the recipient of the benefits of a brutal empire. I wonder if the citizens of the roman empire had similar problems -- the mental breakdowns, the anguish of hypocrisy -- how many roman therapists had to listen to the breaking apart of roman families, the crying of spoiled children, before the empire finally fell.....

meanwhile, the resistance to the US empire is growing. here in chiapas, I am so inspired by what is happening -- the feeling of empowerment among the indigenous community, of self-government, or autonomy... so different from the defeated attitude of much of the rest of central america -- but then, mexico hasn't lost hundreds of thousands of its people in the brutal 'anti-communist' war hosted by the US in the 70s and 80s. There were moments, yes -- hundreds of students shot down in cold blood by the Mexican army in Tlatelolco, mexico in 1968......but nothing like the US-sponsored wars in honduras, nicaragua, el salvador, guatemala.

here, there is a feeling of strong, resilient, cooperative resistance. throughout the zapatista-controlled part of chiapas, there are lots of projects flowering -- water pumps and piping, clinics, schools, dental clinics, community gardens, microradio stations, bike workshops, fair trade cooperatives of coffee, honey, handicrafts, boots, chocolate -- so many things are happening all at once here -- it's exciting to be here at this moment.

and this moment is also a historical one -- ten years ago, on jan. 1, 1994, the zapatistas began their uprising here in chiapas, surprising the mexican government and the world by taking over a dozen cities and towns, including san cristobal de las casas. it was the first coordinated armed action by mexican indians since the mexican revolution in 1910. and now, for the ten-year anniversary, many zapatista supporters from around mexico, the US and europe came here to share the zapatistas' new year celebration. some of those who arrived for new years were merely 'zapatourists', interested in the rather voyeuristic thrill of standing next to a masked zapatista in indigenous dress. but many of the foreigners and mexicans who arrived in each of the 5 zapatista caracoles for new years were people who have supported the zapatista movement in various ways throughout the last ten years, and came here to renew their pledge of support to the social, economic and political project that is zapatismo.

we managed to put out an audio stream from the independent media center here in san cristobal documenting the various new year's celebrations, and giving some history and context on the situation. it was only in spanish, but you can listen to a half-hour audio report in english here:
www.fsrn.org/news/20040101_news.html

here's a four-minute audio report I made about ten years of NAFTA (the north american free trade agreement), and the ten years of zapatista resistance:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/88282/index.php

and here's some of the audio from our earlier trip to chiapas:

visit to zapatista clinic and school:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/87850

talk with comandante moises of the zapatista central command:
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/87345

talk with the committees of good governance in a zapatista caracole (cultural and political community center):
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/88280/index.php

san cristobal continues to surprise and frighten me -- the audacity of tourists never ceases to amaze me. last night in the town square I saw this really strange scene -- a mexican marimba band playing swing music, and all these white people dancing the lindyhop, and a crowd of indigenous mexicans watching them.....how bizarre, that what began as a black cultural phenomenon in the US in the 1920s, coopted by white people in the US, would then be brought down here and displayed in such a manner to native mexicans. it just seemed rather surreal......