Inauguration of the Encounter of Women Who Struggle, 2019. Photo: RZ

ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

December 27, 2019

Compañeras and sisters:

Welcome to these Zapatista lands.

Welcome sisters and compañeras from geographies across the five continents.

Welcome compañeras and sisters from Mexico and the world.

Welcome sisters and compañeras from the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion.

Welcome compañeras from the National Indigenous Congress-Indigenous Governing Council.

Welcome compañeras from the National and International Sixth.

Welcome compañeras from the Zapatista Bases of Support.

Welcome compañeras who are milicianas and insurgentas in the EZLN.

Sister and compañera:

We want to report that as of yesterday, December 26, 2019, registration for this second gathering came to:

3,259 women
95 little girls
26 men

From the following 49 countries:

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Program for the First ‘Dance Another World’ Dance Festival

December 16
Location: Tulan Kau

10:00AM: Inauguration

10:30AM: Dance

Venado, Hugo Molina, contemporary.
Se va la vida, compañera, Argelia Guerrero, neoclassical.
La Esperanza es zapatista, Libertad Hernández, neoclassical.
Tlakazkatl, Hugo Molina, contemporary.
Carmen, Victoria Arts, classical.
Chiapaz, Vica Rule, bellydance.
Respirar, Shakti, Butoh.
Sofía Ivy García, performance art and acrobatics.
Leer, escribir y editar también es bailar, discussion by Fabián Guerrero.
Niña de tus ojos, Solo, Barro Rojo, contemporary.
Zapata, Victoria Arts, contemporary.
Zapatista Participation #1
Las aventuras de Trapeador y Cotonete, circus performance, Xutli and the Nandayapa brothers, circus performance for the ‘hood.
Zapatista Participation #2

2:00PM Lunch

Presentation of the book Barro Rojo, el camino by Jorge Izquierdo, Laura Rocha and Fabián Guerrero.

Public workshops:

• Contemporary dance
• Bodily self-expression
• Juggling

December 17
Location: Tulan Kau

10:30AM Dance:

Nosotras, estamos aquí, Diana Betanzos, contemporary.
Oh, Melancolía, Paulina Segura, neoclassical.
Ave María, Victoria Arts, classical.
Performance art, Germán y David López López.
Y no hay otro modo de decirlo, Barro Rojo, contemporary.
Zapatista Participation #3
Xixito de tsií´kbal, participatory action.
Zapatista Participation #4
Zapata, Germán Pizano y Paulina Segura, contemporary.

2:00PM Lunch

Zapatista Participation #5

En el filo, Anadel Lynton, Diana Betanzos, participatory contemporary dance.
Zapatista Participation #6
Paz, Butoh dance.
Public workshops:
– Contemporary dance
– Bodily self-expression
– Juggling
– African dance
– Bellydance

December 18
Location: Jacino Canek

11:00AM: Dance

Tríptico, Miriam Álvarez, FARO Socio-dance Collective, contemporary.
Ave María y Carmen, Victoria Arts, classical.
Esclavo, Trilce López Rascón, FARO Socio-dance Collective, contemporary.
Cempasúchitl, flores de la memoria, GACHO Collective, contemporary dance with fire juggling.
Aerial dance, Marabunta Collective.
Aerial dance, El Puente Circus Collective.

14:00 Lunch

Collective and solo choreographies, Tierra Independiente Dance Company, contemporary.
Ver, observar, percibir para interpretar la danza, presentation-workshop by Jorge Izquierdo.
Public workshops:
– Contemporary dance
– Bodily self-expression
– Juggling
– African dance
– Bellydance

December 19
Location: Jacinto Canek

10:30AM: Dance

Youth theater performance, Marabunta Collective.
Réquiem por un alacrán, Lukas Avendaño, performance art.
Venado, Hugo Molina, contemporary.
Isaura, contemporary dance.
Sin nombre, Dance in resistance, contemporary.
African dance, Marabunta Collective.
Angélica Maia, dark bellydance hip hop fusion.
Liten, M de Mar Dance Company, contemporary.
Páramos, Trilce López Rascón, FARO Socio-dance Collective, contemporary.
María Cecilia Martínez Angulo, modern dance.
Gisela Vuela, dance intervention with mapping.
Zarah Dance Company, bellydance.

16:00 Lunch

Karla Ahau, hula hoop and firedance.
Public workshops:
– Contemporary dance
– Bodily self-expression
– Juggling
– African dance
– Bellydance

December 20
Location: Jacinto Canek

12:00PM: Closing ceremony

Zapata, homage to the 26^th anniversary of the EZLN uprising, Germán Pizano y Paulina Segura.

The Whale Dances

Sixth Commission of the EZLN
Mexico
December 2019

To the National Indigenous Congress-Indigenous Governing
To the individuals, groups, collectives and organizations of the national and international Sixth:
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion:
To those who enjoy dance:

CONSIDERING:
First and only:

The Whale Dances

The illuminated mountain. The echo of cinema, not of a movie, but of cinema itself as a community still lives on in recently lit ocotes, in the nostalgic blue of that horse–Tulan Kaw–, in a glimmer that reads «Welcome,» and finally in that defiant light that spells, «ZAPATISTAS.»

You’ve tried to leave this place but for some reason that you’re unable to explain, you can’t… or you don’t want to. Night has fallen, cold as always. You stroll through the flat open area where, hours earlier, the serpentine path between the stations reminded you of small-town fairs in distant calendars and geographies.

The smorgasbord of posters catches your eye: “Second International Encounter of Women in Struggle,” “Gathering in Defense of Territory and Mother Earth,” “26^th Anniversary,” “Second ‘Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic’ Film Festival,” “First ‘Dance Another World’ Dance Festival.”

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Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Audio por Axel Köhler para RZ

Palabras del Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano en el segundo día del festival de cine Puy ta Cuxlejaltic, 8 de diciembre de 2019.

[podcast]https://radiozapatista.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/PuyTaCuxlejaltic2_GaleanoInauguracion.mp3[/podcast]

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

(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.

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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…)