August 25, 2008
Zapatistas respond to questions about immigration
Richard Schaefer, associate professor, Communication & Journalism, led his UNM Cross-Border Issues Group from their base in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, to the state of Chiapas to further their research on immigration. Schaefer’s group last year focused on Mexican immigration to the United States. This year, the perspective was expanded to include immigration from Guatemala to Mexico as well as intra-Mexico migration. The trip included crossing the Mexican-Guatemalan border seeing the difference between that international border and the muro, or wall, being erected between the U.S. and Mexico.
The group spent four days in San Cristóbal de las Casas, population 200,000, considered the cultural capital of the state of Chiapas. Located in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas Mountains, the city lives among the clouds, but the people have their feet firmly on the ground.
The X-Border Issues Group needed to understand the dynamics and reality of both city and state to understand why people leave either for other Mexican cities or for the United States.
They found San Cristóbal to be a dichotomy. The city features Spanish architecture with colorful buildings adorned with balconies erupting in vibrant pink, red and purple flowers. Plants and shrubbery line hilly, stone streets with narrow sidewalks. Although the citizens are predominately Mexican mestizo, the city also has many residents or vendors who come from the surrounding countryside. They are the descendents of the ancient Mayans who now live in Chamula, Huixtán and San Juan Larráinzar, among other places.
Their dress reflects both color and climate. The women are clothed in heavy woolen skirts topped with colorful woven and embroidered blouses. They speak to each other not in Spanish, but in Tzotzil and Tzeltal, the sounds of which waft in the air where the smells of fresh fruits and vegetables hang heavy and sweet.
San Cristóbal appears a place of wealth, but the economy in all of Chiapas is primarily agricultural with coffee, corn, vegetables and fruit with some cattle ranching and small business. Tourism, including eco- and edu-tourism, is part of the economy of the city as well as the state.
The bountiful vegetation is deceiving, as well. Chiapas possesses a variety of natural resources, but extensive exploitation has devastated areas of the bosques and forests resulting in a loss of many species of both flora and fauna.
Human Rights
The X-Border Group met with Santiago López Gomez, general coordinator for the Human Rights Committee in Ocosingo. His group works with migrants, both those from Chiapas as well as those migrating north from Guatemala, at Chiapas’ southern border. He talked about the need to provide safe passage for “nuestros hermanos,” our brothers and sisters, immigrating to escape poverty. He said they are abused at the hands of Mexican authorities. López Gomez said that many people leave when there isn’t enough land to support the family. “There is enough land, but much of it is in dispute either at the federal level or between indigenous groups,” he said.
He also spoke about what happens to a community when someone leaves. “When a countryman migrates, it changes and causes suffering for the community. It is like a body without an arm. Those who do migrate and return come back with other ideas.” He added that it is “ignorance” to believe that one culture is better than another.
Zapatistas
He also supports the work of the Zapatistas.
OventikThe Zapatistas, or Zapatista Army for National Liberation, is a Chiapas-based politico-military organization comprised predominately of indigenous people. They came into public light on January 1, 1994 when they took over various municipalities the same day NAFTA took effect. Their fight is for indigenous Mexicans whose individual and collective rights have been neglected historically. They strive for a new democratic model based on the fundamental principles of liberty and justice and have created a network of revolt and resistance against Neo-Liberalism.
The X-Border Group wanted to interview the Zapatistas. Schaefer knew Esteban López Gómez, who speaks Tzotzil and Spanish, and he helped the group gain access into Oventik, a Zapatista-controlled zone, and get an interview with the “Zetas,” or “Z’s” – the Zapatistas.
After showing passports and explaining the reason for their visit, the X-Border group was asked to provide a written list of their questions. Then they waited three hours to interview a group of six rebels, who declined to be video or audio taped. All wore the distinctive Zapatista black mask.
The Z’s took their name, one told us, in honor of Emiliano Zapata, who organized a 1906 uprising of campesinos in defense of their rights to the land in the state Morelos. His cry for “land and liberty” resonates with the Zapatistas. “Zapata’s fight was for the poor. He started a fight that we are continuing. His work lives through the Zapatistas,” one told the group.
“We have a dream of a land free of borders. We fight for the land which is necessary for the growth of the pueblo. This is our dream. One day we will be free,” one said. The Mexico “ejido” land system, which provides communal lands, but disallows individuals to sell land or use it to acquire loans.
Immigration, he said, isn’t healthy for the individual or the community. “Leaving disorients a person. When they come back, they have a different mentality.” However, another Zapatista said, in response to a question about the economic impact on the community when someone leaves, “There’s no effect when they leave, but when they come back it’s good because they have money.”
The Zapatistas are organized in five caracoles, or groups, and exist within six communities.
They created their own medical and educational systems. The Mexican education system didn’t help students hold onto their idiom or culture. Their teachers or “promotores,” “advocates,” teach for free. They also have teachers from around the world who come on their own time and dime to teach in Spanish.
Zapatista leadership includes women. The current leader in San Juan de la Libertad is female. “The Mexican government does not treat women equal to men. We have succeeded, we have our place here. Because of women’s involvement in the movement, more men take responsibility to help care for children and the animals,” a Zapatista woman said.
Because of the X-Border group’s strong interest in the Zapatistas, López Gómez wanted to expose them to the varied indigenous cultural contexts, who the people are, and how they live. “It is the only way to understand why the Zapatistas came into being,” he said.
Religious Confluence
The X-Border group then stopped to visit San Juan de Chamula a church where López Gómez explained, “There is no mass, there is no priest, although a priest does come and baptize the children on Día de San Juan.” Inside the church, the floor is covered with fresh pine needles “because the Maya tradition tells the people to be in contact directly with nature,” he said. Candles are everywhere: on tables, around the statues of the saints, and on the floor. People kneel or sit on the floor. They pray and chant. They drink “posh,” a fermented sugar cane drink. Families sit together as comfortably as if at home.
“This is a place created for Catholicism and where Catholicism still exists, but traditional Mayan religion is very obviously practiced here,” López Gómez explained when the group witnessed the sacrifice of a chicken in the church.
NAFTA’s Impact
Among advocates for the Zetas in San Cristóbal is Miguel Pickard White, director of CIEPAC, an organization that gathers political and economic information. Pickard White said that the day January 1, 1994 was both the day NAFTA went into effect and the day of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas. He said, “NAFTA is one of the main reasons for the huge increase in out-migration from Mexico.”
MiguelHe said that NAFTA was the “death knell” of the indigenous people in Mexico. He said that emigration from Mexico to the U.S. has increased 300 percent in the past 15 years. “All sectors have shown increased out-migration. Whether this be the young people, women, children, the elderly, everybody’s on the move. All of those sectors of the population have picked up and moved in increasing numbers,” he said.
The young – those between 15 and 35, is the sector with the most out-migration and their exodus has the largest effect on the community.
“What this has meant for the indigenous communities is that, as the young people leave, most of them do not come back. Upwards of 80 percent do not come back, this tears apart the fabric of the indigenous community. Those that do come back, come back transformed. . . most of the time they do not want to participate in the traditional rituals of the indigenous community. They don’t want to take up the traditional posts.
“Many times they are now ill-at-ease speaking their indigenous language, participating in the religious rituals, etc. And what happens is that as the young do not reproduce the indigenous culture, that that culture is obviously subjected to the possibility that it may disappear. . . . Or that it may become part of the ‘mestizo mainstream’ here in Mexico,” Pickard White said.
The Journey Continues
Schaefer plans a third trip to study immigration. In addition to three weeks in Cuernavaca he anticipates a week’s stay in Oaxaca, which, like Chiapas has a high indigenous population.
Special Thanks
Schaefer said that the Cross-Border Issues Group program was successful because of support from the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Communication & Journalism, University Communication & Marketing and Universidad Fray Luca Paccioli.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at August 25, 2008 12:13 PM