From the Cat-Dog’s Notebook:
Preparations for the Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic Film Festival, a CompArte Focused on Dance, and the Second International Gathering for Women in Struggle

Twenty-six years ago, in 1993, the Zapatista women wrote the “Women’s Revolutionary Law.” In one of the articles of the law, they declared they had a right to study… “and even to be drivers,” as noted by SupMarcos in a public letter commemorating the anniversary of the law and the role of the late Comandanta Ramona and Comandanta Susana in the creation of the women’s law. Maybe someday we’ll learn why the indigenous Zapatista Women aspired to be drivers. But for now, the EZLN’s Sixth Commission presents an exclusive preview of the documentaries to be premiered by the Terci@s Compas [Zapatista media] on a still to-be-determined date. Here goes:

Title: “…And Even to be Drivers”

A documentary filmed entirely in the mountains of Southeastern Mexico in 2019. Written, directed, and produced by Zapatista women, this documentary compiles scenes of Zapatista compañeras learning to drive. Duration: undetermined. Format: unknown. Rating: Z (as it should be). It won’t come out on Netflix, nor on Amazon Prime, nor on Apple TV, nor on HBO, nor Fox, nor…what are the other options? Well, not on any of those either. Nor will it be shown in theaters. It will be shown exclusively in the Zapatista Caracoles… Oh, also at the Second International Gathering for Women in Struggle? Should I include that? Got it. But without any date or location? Okay. But people are going to complain that I’m leaving them hanging. Couldn’t we at least give them a hint, like a road sign? No, not for the actual road, I mean like an idea of potentially when and where… in December? Of this year? Hello? Helloooooo? Feeling low? Huh, well it looks like they left, but I can tell you they don’t look low at all… in fact they had a glint in their eye, in their gaze, like a goal, or a challenge—a rebellion, really. A Zapatista glint, that is.

Disclaimer: no men were hurt in the production of this documentary. Well actually there were, but only in the form of a few blows to the ego. Oh, and also a few who fell as they were running away from a compañera who got pissed because they were yelling stuff at the women learning to drive… no, it wasn’t me, I was watching from a ways away, I wasn’t going to find myself in the vicinity of that piece of lead pipe she was carrying… yee-haw…

Apocalyptic Synopsis: A virus produced in the laboratories of the Illuminati is released in the mountains of Southeastern Mexico. For some strange reason, it only affects those law-breakers who call themselves Zapatista women. The virus causes them to do strange and illogical things—they rebel, they resist, and they take over jobs and responsibilities that should be the exclusive domain of men. This documentary compiles evidence of this insubordination, and you can see exactly how the Zapatista women consider themselves not only to be free but also—you’re not going to believe this—even to be drivers. Didn’t I tell you? Nobody has any values anymore. (Continuar leyendo…)

Images from the Breaking of the Siege II (and last)
From August 17, 2019.

Note from SupGaleano: Here there should be a photo slide show from the new CRAREZ [Centers of Autonomous Zapatista Resistance and Rebellion] which were announced as part of the breaking of the siege on August 17, 2019. This video will likely be removed by Mr. YouTube since it is set to a song by Ana Tijoux (Chilean-French) and Shadia Mansour (Palestinian) entitled “Somos Sur,” [We are the South] and supposedly we either have to pay royalties or accept advertising. We are not of course going to accept advertising, and if there’s no money for water tanks for the new caracol Tulan Kaw, then there’s certainly no money to pay royalties. In any case, the Sixth Commission does not “monetize” our videos (plus, the traffic on our channel is like the traffic during semana santa (Easter) in Mexico City), so I doubt Mr. YouTube is going to end up any less rich because of our refusal to accept advertisement, nor are Ana Tijoux and Shadia Mansour going to lose artistic quality or followers because we have accompanied their rebellion with ours.

Maybe instead of taking down the videos that people set to music—as Zapata didn’t say, “music belongs to those who sing/dance/hum/bounce/whisper/shout and spread it (and like Shadia Mansour says, rapping in Arabic: “music is the mother tongue of the world”)—Mr. YouTube should work on his damned algorithm (“Oh, the twisted lines of YouTube”i). You know how it goes, you start out looking for videos of the guys from Botellita de Jerez to pay homage to the memory of Armando Vega Gil, or you search for ska from Los de Abajo, or Salón Victoria, or some tracks from Jijos del Mais, or Van T, or Mexican Sound, or LenguaAlerta, or Lirica, or Ely Guerra, or Keny Arkana, or the Batallones Femeninos, or from those masters Oscar Chávez and Guillermo Velázquez and Los Leones de la Sierra de Xichú, and all of a sudden you’re getting bombarded with videos of rodeos, cockfights, Maluma giving classes on how to respect women, or makeup videos (“now we’re going to learn how to do makeup for a ‘no makeup’ selfie”).

It’s not that we’re being fussy—after all, like Inodoro Pereyra said (or was it Mendieta?), “Broad and Alien is the World”ii—but rather that here, bandwidth is about as broad as Trump’s IQ: paltry, in other words.

Given all of the above, if YouTube removes the video because of its soundtrack (like it already did with Princess Mononoke, apparently because Studio Ghibli decided to side with the system instead of with natureiii), we’ll repost the same photo slideshow here but without music, and you can add the music yourselves. In fact, I’ll include the translation from Arabic to Spanish of Shadia Mansour’s rap (based on the contribution from the user qmqz posted on the official music video) [TN: translated here in English]:

“Give me the mic:

Music is the mother tongue of the world
It supports our existence and protects our roots, tying us to greater Syria, Africa, and Latin America
Here I stand with Anita Tijoux
Here I stand with those who suffer, not with those who sold us out
Here I stand with culture, resistance
From the beginning and forever, hasta la victoria siempre!
I am with those who are against, with those who have cooperated, with those not on our side
Way back I did the math and I decided to invest in Banksy after Ban-Ki went bankrupt (Note from SupGaleano: possibly a reference to Ban-Ki Moon, who was Secretary General of the United Nations when this song was recorded, and went “bankrupt” when he refused to condemn the Israeli government’s terrorist actions against the Palestinian people).
As the saying goes, “it’s not that the situation needs a ‘proportionate response’, the situation needs to be stopped”
For every freed political prisoner an Israeli settlement grows
For every civil greeting a thousand homes are destroyed
They use the press to their benefit
But while my sorrow is vetoed, reality insists”

You know what? With or without YouTube, with or without advertising, the Palestinian people and the Mapuche people will achieve freedom. Ten, one hundred, a thousand times they will reach victory.

And if Mr. YouTube takes the whole thing down as part of the “fuck the Zapatistas now” campaign, oh well, we’ll just go back to the good old days of the Zapatista Intergalactic Television System, “the only television channel that you read” (Permit 69, currently being processed by the Good Government Councils, submitted as of 1996 but caracoles move slooooooooowly….).

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Los Tercios Compas
EZLN Sixth Commission
September 2019

i “Los renglones torcidos de Dios” (The Twisted Lines of God) is a novel by Torcuato Luca de Tena.

ii “El mundo es ancho y ajeno,” a 1941 novel by Ciro Alegría narrating indigenous struggle in the Peruvian highlands against land-hungry interests. Inodoro Pereyra is an Argentinian cartoon created by Roberto Fontanarrosa that parodies folklorism through the story of a lonely Argentinean gaucho and his co-protagonist, a talking dog, Mendieta.

iii Princess Mononoke is a Japanese animated period drama written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli which narrates an epic and fantastical struggle between the supernatural guardians or gods of a forest and the humans who consume its resources.

Images from the breaking of the siege I
August 2019.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

Los Tercios Compas.

Sixth Commission of the EZLN.

August 2019.

Communique from the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee—General Command of the Zapatista Army for National Liberation
Mexico

August 17, 2019

To the People of Mexico:
To the Peoples of the World:
To the National Indigenous Congress—Indigenous Governing Council:
To the National and International Sixth:
To the Networks of Support and Resistance and Rebellion:

Hermanos, Hermanas, Hermanoas:

Compañeras, Compañeros, Compañeroas:

We bring you our word. The same word as yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It is the word of resistance and rebellion.

In October of 2016, almost three years ago, during the 20^th anniversary of the National Indigenous Congress [CNI], the sister organizations of the National Indigenous Congress and the EZLN made a commitment to go on the offensive in our defense of our Territory and Mother Earth. Persecuted by the bad government, by caciques, by foreign corporations, by criminals, and by the law, and as we accumulated insults, derision, and dead, we the originary peoples (the guardians of the earth), decided to go on the offensive and circulate the words and actions of resistance and rebellion.

With the founding of the Indigenous Governing Council [CIG] and the selection of its spokesperson, Marichuy, the National Indigenous Congress gave itself the job of taking words of warning and organization to the brothers and sisters of the city and countryside. Meanwhile, the EZLN also went on the offensive in its struggle with its words, ideas, and organization.

The time has come to hold ourselves accountable to the CNI-CIG and its spokesperson so that their peoples can decide if we have lived up to what we promised. But it is not only the CNI-CIG that we are accountable to; we also have a pending debt with the organizations, groups, collectives, and individuals (especially those in the Sixth and the Networks [of Rebellion and Resistance], but not only them) that throughout Mexico and the world concern themselves with our Zapatista peoples. These are people who, whatever their calendars, geographies, and habits may be, disregard the walls, borders, and sieges that are erected to divide us so that their hearts can continue to beat close to our own.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Sonata for Violin in G Minor: MONEY

“The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.”
― Charles Baudelaire in “The Generous Gambler”

I. The Eighth Passenger

Nowhere, or everywhere. A drowsy train drifts off to its own purr. It isn’t coming from or going to anywhere in particular. Or at least not anywhere that matters. A dismal population whose haggard lives seem to hang by a thread nod off on board. In the last car, seven bored, grubbily dressed and solitary passengers, their lives as wretched as their clothes, shift irritably in their seats and lament their situation.

“I’d do anything to turn my luck around,” one says. They were speaking a universal language and the other six passengers nod in silence. Just then the long and battered train enters a tunnel, intensifying the shadows and hiding the passengers’ faces. The door opens and an eighth passenger walks in. The passenger’s clothes practically scream, “I’m not from around here,” but they sit down without a word. The tunnel stretches out the darkness.

A thunderous crack interrupts the silence, like a dry branch breaking but without a storm to blame. A pair of blazing eyes appear in the darkness: “I don’t think I need to introduce myself,” the fiery gaze hisses, “You have all conjured me in one way or another and I’m responding to your call. Make a wish: you pay with your soul. Name your price.”

The first passenger chooses health, to never get sick again. “Done,” Satan responds, picking up the healthy soul and throwing it in his bag.

Another passenger chooses wisdom, to know everything. “Done,” the devil murmurs, picking up the wise person’s soul and tossing it in his bag.

The third passenger opts for beauty, to be admired. “Done,” says the king of hell, tossing the beautiful one’s soul in his bag.

The fourth asks for Power, to rule and be obeyed. “Done,” Lucifer says under his breath, the soul of the new ruler added to his bag.

The fifth wants “pleasure,” to awaken passion at will. “Done,” the demon replies with a contented smile. The hedonist’s soul disappears into the devil’s bag.

The sixth passenger sits up straight and pronounces the desire for fame, to be widely recognized and praised. “Done,” Satan declares without a pause, and the famous soul takes its place among the other prisoners.

The seventh passenger practically sings their request for “love.” “Dooooooone,” the evil one replies with a guffaw, and the lover’s soul goes into the depths of the bag.

The fallen angel looks impatiently at the eighth passenger who hasn’t said anything and is merely scribbling in a notebook.

(Continuar leyendo…)

Adagio-Allegro Molto in E minor: A Possible Reality
(from the Notebook of the Cat-Dog)

“As you know, madness is like gravity…all it takes is a little push.”
The Joker in the role of Heath Ledger (or was it the reverse?)

Nobody knows for sure how it all started. Not even the Tercios Compas [Zapatista media], who took up the task of reconstructing the sequence of events, could pinpoint the exact moment and event in which the story I’m about to tell you began.

According to one version, SubGaleano is responsible for everything. Others say SubGaleano only started it and it was Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés who took it to completion.

See, what happened was that in one of his texts, SubGaleano mentioned a February 2011 program in which the journalist Carmen Aristegui asked if then-president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa was an alcoholic, and added that the nation should be informed about the health of the president. She was fired in retaliation. Up to that point in the story there is no disagreement—and you can confirm that’s what happened by referring to news articles from that time.

The problem really begins when SubGaleano added something like, “Madness, as pointed out by a misunderstood sage of the human soul, is like gravity: all it takes is a little push. To hold Power unlawfully is just that irresistible push that all those above long for, and it begins with three simple words, “I rule here.” If you think anyone in the media is going to question whether the current president is lacking in any of his mental faculties (let’s be clear, he didn’t say “crazy”), don’t hold your breath, because nobody will dare to do so.”

(Continuar leyendo…)

The Overture: Reality As Enemy

“If our epoch thinks this way,” the world says to itself, “who is (no)one to say otherwise”? Who are the politicians to do so if they should obey us? Who are the judges to do so if their decisions are obligated to reflect and please us? Who are the journalists and essayists to do so if their opinions should meld with our own? Who are the thinkers to do so…given that they aren’t even necessary to us? Who are the law makers to say otherwise if they are supposed to establish laws following our dictates?”

–Javier Marias, “When Society Is The Tyrant.” (from El País Semanal, May 13, 2018) *

(*) I don’t know if citing Javier Marías (whose novels A Heart So White and Tomorrow In The Battle Think on Me eased the sleeplessness of the now deceased SubMarcos during the nights after the betrayal which took place in February of 1995) makes me part of the conservatives’ and neoliberals’ “mafia of power.” I mean, I bring this up given the fact that Javier Marias has worked with the Spanish newspaper El País and that he tends to sharply question the evidence when others tend to swallow it hook, line, and sinker without so much as a whimper and that he’s intelligent and can’t (nor do I think that he wants to) hide it. In addition, let’s not forget that that he’s a monarchist because he is king, Xavier I, of the Kingdom of Redonda and a member of the Royal Academy of Spain. All of these reasons are more than enough reason to tag him as a “conservative/neoliberal/enemy of the people and its vanguard which is marching inexorably to the fulfillment of all history,” by the new thought police that we now suffer.

As I’m sure you all know by now, I care a lot about “what people say” about me because I have a reputation to protect. Given this concern I had to think carefully and in all seriousness about this citation…for all of a fraction of a second. At that moment I saw hashtags, trending topics, likes and dislikes, facebook rants, whatsapps, instagrams, morning press conferences, and opinion columns all flash before my eyes filled with condemnations and damning tags.

In my defense, I thought I could mention the fact that along with the Javier Marías books that the now deceased SubMarcos carried during those dark days, you could also find books by Manuel Vazquez Montalbán as well as Miguel Hernandez’s Expert in Moons. I thought I could also bring up the fact that Javier Marías is a fan of (or was a fan of—support for a football team is like love—it’s eternal, until it ends) Real Madrid, that Manuel Vázquez Montalbán is a fan of Barcelona, that Mario Benedetti is a fan of Nacional from Montevideo, Almuneda Grandes supports Atlético Madrid, Juan Villoro backs Necaxa and that I, in contrast, with my provincial chauvinism which is all the rage, support Jaguares from Chiapas.

(N.B.! Instead of using Baseball, the sport that has become the official sport and the sport of officialdom, I prefer to use soccer as my referent. So, make sure to add these additional sins onto my sentence.)

(Continuar leyendo…)

The Opening Act

ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

August 2019.

Testing, testing…

One… two… testing…

Testing one two three… testing…

“¿Hello, hello, hello, how low?”

From the… wait a minute! Did the Sup just quote the Nirvana track “Smells Like Teen Spirit”? What’s he trying to do, address a particular generation Or is he talking to those who regret having promoted what now plagues them? Or is he suggesting that this was Kurt Cobain’s version of the Joker’s “Why so serious?” Or maybe it’s self-criticism because of that “I’m worse at what I do best” thing? A subliminal message for CompArte?

Hmm…Maybe it has something to do with SKA. What? Ska wasn’t around then? Country Rock and Roll? El Piporro with images from that classic of interstellar filmography, The Ship of Monsters?[i] Hmm…an unconscious reference to Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic?[ii] Or a greeting that challenges the wall which the federal government intends to erect on the Mexican Isthmus in order to separate us from the peoples of the north? Nah, must be something else.

For sure, Alakazam the Great[iii]:

Look, ladies, gentlemen, and others
Nothing to see here, nothing to see there, but wait, all of a sudden, boom:

The Zapatista communities (re)appear…

(To be continued)

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
El SupGaleano,
Performing as opening act for Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés, while he drives (SupGaleano that is) fast and furious down the highway to hell, and “for this gift I feel blessed…”[iv]

Mexico, August 2019

[i] “El Piporro” was the nickname of Eulalio «Lalo» González Ramírez (1921–2003), a Mexican actor, comic, musician, songwriter, screenwriter, and film director who starred in La nave de los monstruos (The Ship of Monsters), a 1960 Mexican comic science fiction film. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_of_Monsters

[ii] The name given to the Zapatista film festival held in November 2018, meaning “Caracol of our Life.” Caracol is literally conch shell or a spiral, but also the name for the five seats of Zapatista self-government.

[iii] 1960 Japanese musical anime film, based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West. See the plot line at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alakazam_the_Great

[iv] Lyrics from “Smells like Teen Spirit”: “I’m worse at what I do best, And for this gift I feel blessed…”

Videos:

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Eulalio ‘Lalo’ González «El Piporro» – Ojos De Pancha

AC/DC – Highway to Hell

Communique from the CNI-CIG and the EZLN in Response to the Recent Violence Against Originary Peoples

To the peoples of the world:
To the CIG support networks:
To the national and international Sixth:
To the media:

Neoliberal capitalism is marking its steps with the blood of our peoples as war is intensified against us wherever we refuse to cede our land, our culture, our peace and our collective organization, and because we refuse to give up our resistance or resign ourselves to dying off.

We denounce the cowardly attack on May 31 against the indigenous Nahua community of Zacualpan, which is part of the CNI, in the municipality of Comala, Colima, where narco-paramilitaries fired high-caliber weapons at a group of young people, killing one and critically injuring three more.

We hold all three levels of bad government responsible for this event, in particular the head of public security, Javier Montes García, as it is the bad government that allows these narco-paramilitary groups to operate in the region. We demand full respect for the traditions and customs of the Nahua indigenous community of Zacualpan.

We condemn the aggression and destruction carried out in the early morning hours of May 31 against the Rebollero and Río Minas communities, part of the Binizza community of San Pablo Cuatro Venados in the municipality of Zachila, Oaxaca. There, a group armed with high-caliber weapons and heavy equipment came in firing on the community, destroying dozens of homes and forcing the population, including children, to flee. In all, 24 homes were demolished in the attack and the communities’ corn and other food supplies set on fire, including seeds saved for planting. The group also burned the families’ personal items such as clothing and shoes and stole their livestock, power generators, and water pumps.

We condemn the repression and displacement of our compañeros and compañeras of the Otomí indigenous community who have maintained a temporary encampment at #7 Londres Street in the Juárez neighborhood in Mexico City since the September 19, 2017 earthquake. At 11 am on May 30, they were violently evicted by shock troops sent by the bad government and real estate companies, working alongside hundreds of riot police at the service of Néstor Núñez, mayor of the Cuauhtémoc district.
We condemn the narco-paramilitary siege sustained by criminal groups—supported and protected by the bad government and all of the political parties—against the communities of the Emiliano Zapata Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero (CIPOG-EZ) in the municipalities of Chilapa and José Joaquín de Herrera, who struggle peacefully to build their autonomy.

We call on all the peoples of Mexico and the world to be attentive to and in solidarity with the struggle of the Guerrero communities and to break the violent siege against them which limits their access to food and medicine and is waged in the interests of the capitalist appropriation of indigenous territory. We urge support for the collection of provisions to be sent to the affected communities, including corn, rice, beans, canned chili peppers, sugar, sardines, tuna, toilet paper, diapers, and medicine, to be collected at the UNIOS headquarters in Mexico City, #32 Carmona y Valle Street, Colonia Doctores.

We reiterate that our Mother Earth is not for sale to big capital or to anybody, that our existence is not up for negotiation and thus neither is the resistance of our peoples.

Attentively,
June 2019
For the Full Reconstitution of our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress
Indigenous Governing Council
Zapatista Army for National Liberation

STOP THE NARCO-PARAMILITARY WAR AGAINST THE CIPOG-EZ
Urgent Communique from the CNI-CIG and the EZLN

Today with pain and rage we denounce a new and insidious crime against our compañeros of the Popular Indigenous Council of Guerrero-Emiliano Zapata (CIPOG-EZ).

At approximately 1:30 pm on May 23, near Chilapa, Guerrero, our compañeros Bartolo Hilario Morales and Isaías Xanteco Ahuejote were taken captive. Both were members of the CIPOG-EZ, the National Indigenous Congress, and the Community Police of the Nahua communities of Tula and Xicotlán, with the former serving as Community Police Captain. They were found dead and quartered on May 24.

This crime follows the recent murder of our compañeros Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastián, council member and delegate respectively of the CNI-CIG. We denounce the politics of terror applied by narco-paramilitary groups, with the shameless support of all three levels of bad government, against our brothers and sisters of the CIPOG-EZ and against all of the indigenous territories of Mexico. In this case, the terrible crime was perpetrated by the “Grupo Paz y Justicia”, who are connected to “Los Ardillos”, who in turn rely on the complicity of the Federal Army.

We as indigenous peoples, nations, tribes, and barrios resist not only the megaprojects used by the owners of power to appropriate land and nature, but also the death, fear, and desolation imposed by their armed groups throughout the country. Whether they wear the uniform of “Los Rojos,” “Los Ardillos,” or the repressive forces of the bad government, the power of money and ambition to profit off the suffering of our peoples make them one and the same. Our brothers were murdered by neoliberal capitalism in their struggle to create peace and autonomy for the peoples of Chilapa and the broader region.

This is why our compañeros continue to resist, because that seed of struggle comes from the determination of our peoples who, along with our mother earth, will not give up, give in, or sell out in the battle to not disappear from history in the midst of this total destruction. We will make their struggle, their word, and their determination grow in the collective conscience of those of us who dream of and struggle for a new world.

We demand an immediate halt to the repression against the CIPOG-EZ, justice for our brothers Bartolo Hilario Morales, Isaías Xanteco Ahuejote, Bartolo Faustino, and Modesto Verales Sebastián, and justice for the dignified peoples of Guerrero.

Attentively
May 2019
For the Full Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress
Indigenous Governing Council
Zapatista Army for National Liberation