The Overture: Reality As Enemy
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.)
The Opening Act
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