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Radio Zapatista

(Español) Servilleta para un monero indolente, o por qué oponerse a un tren devastador

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Amanecer en La Realidad, Chiapas, México. Selva Maya. Foto: Radio Zapatista.

Eugenia Gutiérrez, Colectivo RZ.
México, enero de 2019.

No es sólo porque esta democracia fallida no divisa rumbo. No es nada más porque su instrumentación y su funcionamiento estarían en manos de un equipo político ineficiente, sin ideas propias, sin voz, dedicado a cumplir los caprichos de un patriarca. Si nuestra oposición se fundamentara en eso estaríamos coincidiendo en argumentos con una franja social muy amplia que anhela liderazgos y patrones, siempre que éstos le garanticen tener la habilidad para atajar timones con firmeza, sin importar su sello neoliberal y capitalista o precisamente por eso. Para nuestra oposición a proyectos como el ferrocarril peninsular, el corredor transístmico y otras ambiciones de corte neoliberal existen otras razones. He aquí algunas.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Subcomandantes Insurgentes Moisés y Galeano

300, Part II: A Continent as a Backyard, a Country as a Cemetery, Pensamiento Único as a Government Program, and a Small, Very Small, Ever So Small Rebellion.

300.
Part II:
A Continent as a Backyard, a Country as a Cemetery, Pensamiento Únicoi as a Government Program, and a Small, Very Small, Ever So Small Rebellion.

From our analysis of the world we move to the level of the continent.

If we look above…

We see the examples of Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina, where supposedly progressive governments have not only been removed from power but prosecuted, and the governments that have taken their place are ones that have been trained as good overseers—obedient to capital, that is—ready to take on a realignment of the world plantation (though, to be fair, even in their cynicism they’re still pretty clumsy). Take Temer in Brazil, Macri in Argentina, and that guy in Ecuador who was supposed to be good because he was chosen by the now-persecuted Correa (a man of the “citizen’s revolution”, “a leftist” according to the progressive intelligentsia who backed him) but who, it turns out, is actually on the right: Lenin Moreno (yeah, paradoxically his name is Lenin).

Under the watchful eye of the State that has become the policeman of the region—Colombia—threats are issued, destabilization efforts are undertaken and plans are made for provocations that would justify “peace force” invasions. In all of South America, we see a return to the brutal times of the Colonies, now characterized by a “new” extractivism—really just the same ancestral plunder of natural resources, categorized as “raw materials”—but endorsed and promoted among the progressive governments of the region as “Left extractivism”. This is supposed to be something like a Leftist capitalism or a capitalist Left, or who knows what it’s supposed to be because it destroys and dispossesses just the same, only it’s for a “good cause” (??). Any criticism or movement that opposes the destruction of the originary peoples’ territories is written off as having been “promoted by Empire” or “backed by the right-wing”, among other equivalents to being “a conspiracy by the mafia of Power.” In sum, the “backyard” of Capital extends across the continent all the way to Cape Horn.

But if we look below…

We see resistances and rebellions, first and foremost among the originary peoples. It would be unfair to try to name them all since there’s always a risk of leaving some out, but their identities are clear in their struggles. There where the machine encounters resistance to its predatory advance, rebellion dresses in colors so old they’re new again and speaks “strange” languages. Displacement, also disguised as the leasing of lands, tries to impose its commodity logic on those who refer to the Earth as “Mother.” These resistances are accompanied by groups, collectives, and organizations which, while perhaps not themselves composed of originary peoples, share the same effort and the same destiny, that is to say, the same heart. That is why they suffer insults, persecution, imprisonment and, not infrequently, death.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Subcomandantes Insurgentes Moisés y Galeano

300, Part I: A Plantation, a World, a War, Slim Chances.

Words of the EZLN’s Sixth Commission at the Gathering of Support Networks for the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) and its spokeswoman

(Expanded version)

Given time restrictions, we were unable to present these thoughts in full during the gathering. We promised you the full version, and we include the full transcription here, including the parts that were not read at the gathering. You’re welcome. Don’t mention it.

300
Part I:
A Plantation, a World, a War, Slim Chances.

August, 2018.

Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano:

Good morning, thank you for coming, for accepting our invitation and for sharing your words with us.

We are going to begin by explaining our way of doing analysis and evaluation.

We start by analyzing what is happening in the world, then move to what is happening at the continental level, then to what is happening in this country, then to a regional and finally to a local level. From there, we develop an initiative and begin to move back up from a local level to a regional level, then to the national, the continental, and finally the global level.

We think that capitalism is the dominant system at the global level. In order to explain this system both to ourselves and to others, we use the image of a plantation. I’m going to ask Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés to explain this part.

-*-

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés:

Compañeros and compañeras: we interviewed our own compañeros and compañeras who are our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers, some of whom are still alive. The following is what they told us and what they helped us understand: how the rich, the capitalists, want to turn the whole world into their plantation.

(Continuar leyendo…)

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Radio Pozol

(Español) A XV años de los Caracoles y JBG, la “Esperanza Zapatista” continúa

Sorry, this entry is only available in Mexican Spanish. 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.

Altamirano, Chiapas. 9 de agosto. La sonrisa de los abuel@s, la reflexión de las mujeres, las miradas llenas de curiosidad de los niñ@s, son imágenes que sobresalen en el Festival CompArte Zapatista 2018. “Nuestros caracoles floreciendo están”, “Nuestra lucha no va a terminar”, “democracia, justicia y libertad”, se escucha en las melodías que interpretan las y los indígenas chiapanecos en este también XV aniversario en el cual celebran su decisión de organizarse en Los Caracoles y las Juntas de Buen Gobierno (JBG).

Desde el Caracol de “Morelia”, con canciones y obras de teatro situaciones cotidianas son recreadas por niños, jóvenes y adultos Bases de Apoyo Zapatistas, para ejemplificar lo que viven las familias que han decidido estar en “resistencia y rebeldía”.

Los programas asistencialistas del gobierno federal y estatal son una constante en las dramatizaciones de los rebeldes chiapanecos, sobre como el Estado “desmoviliza la resistencia”. Frente al hostigamiento gubernamental las y los indígenas chiapanecos han respondido con organización y propuestas en rubros que van desde la salud, la educación, la justicia, la alimentación, la seguridad, entre otros.

De manera lúdica y profunda, las y los zapatistas exponen en sus obras teatrales problemáticas en las que se ven refleja@s niñ@s, adolecentes, jóven@s, mujeres, ancianos y hombres de la comunidad. Tales situaciones tienen que ver con el consumismo y su repercusión en problemas de salud, económicos, sociales y culturales.

En una de las actuaciones en el CompArte 2018, se escenifica claramente la línea que sigue el sistema capitalista al afectar a las comunidades: la mala alimentación enferma a la población, la cual tiene que solicitar atención médica costosa, lo que lleva a mujeres y hombres a vender sus pocas propiedades y hasta la tierra para saldar sus deudas. En la otra cara que muestran los indígenas en resistencia en sus escenificaciones, la salud es para toda la población y no se necesita grandes sumas para ser atendidos en sus clínicas y hospitales autónomos. Y también se convoca a trabajos colectivos para apoyar al enferm@.

La historia también se hace presente dentro del CompArte Zapatista, y son abordados pasajes desde la Revolución hasta las pasadas elecciones presidenciales del mes de julio. Problemas sociales como el desempleo, la explotación, la represión, la criminalización de la protesta social, se exponen en el encuentro de las y los indígenas chiapanecos con asistentes nacionales e internacionales.

En el mensaje principal de la Comandancia del EZLN, participan l@s niñ@s: Amado, Defensa Zapatistas junto con el Gato Perro, Esperanza Zapatista junto con su Oso, y Pablito. En la mesa también se encuentran los Subcomandantes Moisés y Galeano, así como el mando de la zona, el Comandante Zebedeo. El sub Galeano ejemplifica el proceso actual del zapatismo con el cuento: “La última mantecada en el sureste mexicano” (AUDIO).

“Cuidar la esperanza zapatista”, es el mensaje que enfatizó el EZLN, ante Comandant@s y miles de Bases de Apoyo Zapatistas, así como asistentes nacionales e internacionales. Los rebeldes chiapanecos indicaron que si sus “sueños y aspiraciones”, no caben en un mundo, crearán otro. “El mundo no es uno solo”, enfatizaron y añadieron que no se puede seguir un solo esquema o concepto. El mensaje principal a los “capataces (gobiernos capitalistas) pasados, presentes y futuros”, al final de la participación de los insurgentes, fue la mano en forma de caracol.

INFORMACIÓN RELACIONADA: https://www.facebook.com/EnlaceZap/

El problema con el zapatismo, dice el Sup Galeano, es que “si sus sueños y aspiraciones no caben en un mundo, imaginan otro nuevo y sorprenden con sus empeños por lograrlo” (AUDIO).

Tejiendo organización en colectivo – Encuentro de redes en apoyo al CIG

Texto, imágenes y audios tomados de Radio Pozol.

 

radio

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation denies having any sort of contact with AMLO. Communique from the CCRI-CG of EZLN


Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés

Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Mexico

To the People of Mexico:
To the People and Governments of the World:
To the Free, Alternative, Autonomous, or whatever they’re called Media:
To the National and International Sixth:
To the National Indigenous Congress and the Indigenous Governing Council:
To the National and International Press:

July 17th, 2018.

Since yesterday and during today, media has been running a story backed by declarations of Mister Alejandro Solalinde (who presents himself as a presbyter, priest, clergyman or however its said, christian, catholic, Roman Apostolic), of a supposed approach between EZLN and Mister Andrés Manuel López Obrador and that “the EZLN already agreed to have a first dialogue” (textual words by Mister Solalinde).

About this lie EZLN declares:

First: The CCRI-CG of EZLN, the political, organizational and military directorate of EZLN, hasn’t agreed to a first dialogue with anyone. As its well know by whoever has the minimum knowledge of EZLN and its ways, a matter like this would have been made public well in advance.

Second: EZLN hasn’t received from Mister Solalinde anything but lies, insults, libel and racist and sexist comments, by assuming just like it was done during the days of Salinismo and Zedillismo, that we are poor ignorant indigenous manipulated by the -quoting his own words- “Caxlanes who administer Zapatismo” that don’t allow us to look down and kneel to the mister whose Solalinde considers the new savior.

Third: We understand Solalinde’s need to be on the spotlight and his demand for our submissiveness, but he is wrong about EZLN’s Zapatismo. Not only he is wrong about that. We don’t know much about it, but it seems like one of the church commandments to whom Mister Solalinde supposedly serves, which goes: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, and you won’t lie”.

(Continuar leyendo…)

radio
Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas

(Español) Bases de Apoyo Zapatistas en riesgo de desplazamiento forzado

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El Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas A.C. cuenta con información del desplazamiento forzado de 90 familias tsotsiles de la comunidad de Koko’, municipio de Aldama, Chiapas, México, el pasado 24 de marzo de 2018, por el actuar violento de un grupo armado proveniente de Manuel Utrilla, Chenalhó. Las familias se encuentran dispersas en la montaña, sin condiciones de seguridad ni de asistencia humanitaria que garanticen sus derechos como pueblos indígenas en desplazamiento.

Adicionalmente, familias Bases de Apoyo del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (BAEZLN) de comunidades del municipio de Aldama y del ejido Manuel Utrilla, Chenalhó, se encuentran también en grave riesgo de desplazamiento forzado así como de amenazas a su vida, integridad y seguridad por el mismo grupo armado que provocó el desplazamiento, el 20 de marzo de 2018, de 145 familias tsotsiles de Tabak, Aldama.(1)

Estos hechos son la continuidad de la violencia en la región con la crisis humanitaria por el desplazamiento forzado de 5 023 personas en Chalchihuitán2 y el desplazamiento forzado de 7 familias de Aldama desde mayo de 2016. La ineficacia del gobierno de Manuel Velasco Coello ha generado impunidad en la zona, protegiendo a la presidenta municipal de Chenalhó, Rosa Pérez Pérez, y a los grupos armados que operan en la región.

(Continuar leyendo…)

radio
Radio Zapatista

(Español) Podemos gobernarnos a nosotros mismos – Entrevista a Jerôme Baschet

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Este pasado diciembre el Cideci / Universidad de la Tierra Chiapas publicó el libro Podemos gobernarnos nosotros mismos: La autonomía, una política sin el Estado, de Jerôme Baschet, que explora la posibilidad de la autonomía y el autogobierno en tiempos de la barbarie ejercida por el sistema capitalista en todos los sentidos de la vida.

(Descarga y/o lee el libro aquí.)

Entrevistamos a Jerôme Baschet, quien nos habla sobre el sentido del libro y su relación con la iniciativa del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno (CIG).

Estamos aquí con Jerôme Baschet, platicando sobre el libro Podemos gobernarnos nosotros mismos: La autonomía, una política sin el Estado, que acaba de salir en publicación del Cideci/UniTierra, aquí en Chiapas. Jerôme, tú planteas básicamente dos preguntas en este libro: ¿qué puede ser la política de la autonomía? y ¿qué opciones tenemos frente a la devastación capitalista? ¿Por qué estas dos preguntas, y qué tienen que ver una con la otra?

Bueno, las dos nos llevan a la idea de la autonomía, que es la propuesta de los pueblos indígenas, del CNI y del Concejo Indígena de Gobierno. Y bueno, partiendo quizás del título, “Podemos gobernarnos a nosotros mismos”, es una lección que la maestra de la escuelita zapatista Eloísa nos dejó en ocasión de esta escuelita zapatista en 2013, y pues es como un resumen de esa otra política que no se centra en el Estado. El mensaje central es que hay otra política que no es la que conocemos, que no es la de los partidos políticos, que no es la del Estado y sus instituciones, sino que parte de la capacidad de la gente común para organizarnos, tomar las decisiones y finalmente gobernarnos, y de hacerlo sin las instituciones del Estado o afuera de ellas. En parte es un sueño, porque claro, nosotros sobre todo en los medios urbanos se ve muy difícil, pero sí es posible, y muchos pueblos indígenas, en los territorios rebeldes zapatistas en Chiapas pero también en otras regiones como Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, están demostrando que sí lo pueden hacer, con sus propias formas de organización, su propio sistema político, con sus cargos y los diferentes niveles de gobierno, en el caso de la autonomía zapatista, y eso es una experiencia, un experimento político, que además de ofrecernos un camino para resolver los problemas dramáticos que enfrentamos en el país y en el mundo, también es una aportación a la reflexión sobre qué es o qué podría ser la política, que merecería mucho más atención de toda la gente que se interesa en hacer que el mundo sea menos dramático y caótico de lo que es, y también al nivel de la reflexión de las ciencias políticas tendría que ser un objeto de reflexión absolutamente central.

(Continuar leyendo…)

radio
Rincón Zapatista Querétaro

(Español) Otro Cine en el Rincón Zapatista Querétaro Invita a la proyección del documental: ECO DE LA MONTAÑA, martes 9 de mayo, 6 pm

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Otro Cine en el Rincón Zapatista Querétaro
Invita a la proyección del documental:

ECO DE LA MONTAÑA

Martes 9 de Mayo
6:00 de la tarde

Rincón Zapatista Querétaro
Arquitectos 327, Colonia El Marques

ENTRADA LIBRE

¡JUSTICIA PARA AYOTZINAPA!
¡VIVAN LAS COMUNIDADES AUTÓNOMAS ZAPATISTAS!
¡LIBERTAD A LOS PRESOS POLÍTICOS!
¡VIVA EL EZ★LN!

radio
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés

Organized Coffee Against the Wall – Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés

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Organized Coffee Against the Wall
Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés

Seminar “The Walls of Capital, the Cracks of the Left”
Cideci / Universidad de la Tierra Chiapas
13 April 2017

(Descarga aquí)  

Good afternoon or good morning to those who are listening to us around the world.

What I’m going to talk about, compañeros, compañeras, brothers and sisters who are present here and those who watch us from elsewhere… what I’m going to talk to you about is not what I think, but rather what the compañeras and compañeras who make up the Zapatista Army for National Liberation bases of support think.

We compañeras and compañeras here in front [members of the EZLN comandancia] understand that we serve as support for the thousands of compañeras who are bases of support; we support the thousands of compañeros who are bases of support. That’s how we’ve defined it lately because we pass along to them what we see, what we hear, what we come to know. And what is it that we have come to know or hear about? Trump’s wall.

When we started hearing about this, when we began to understand what was going on, we met with the compañeras and compañeros of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee [CCRI] and began to discuss what is happening to our migrant brothers and sisters who are in the United States.

(Continuar leyendo…)

radio
Subcomandante Moisés, Subcomandante Galeano

EZLN: One House, Other Worlds

Foto: JORGE UZON/AFP/Getty Images
Foto: JORGE UZON/AFP/Getty Images

One House, Other Worlds

July/August/September, 2016

To whom it may concern:

Subject: Invitation to “CompArte and ConCiencias for Humanity.”

Yes, we know. Days and nights go by in which bitterness is the only thing that appears on the horizon. Our steps drag along in pain, rage, and indignation, stumbling every so often over the impertinent gaze of cynicism and our own disappointment; over the stupidity exalted in government positions and polls; over simulation as a way of life; over the substitution of frivolity for culture, art, and science; over the multiple tiers of disrespect for the different (the problem isn’t that the other exists, but that it shows itself”); and over a wholesale resignation in the political market sphere (“oh well, the only option left is to choose not the lesser evil, but the least scandalous”). Yes, things are hard, harder every day. It is as if the night has become longer. It is as if the day has postponed its stride until no one and nothing is left, until the path is empty. It is as if there was no breath left. The monster lies in wait in every corner, countryside, and city street.

Despite all this, or precisely because of it, we send you this invitation.

It may seem that it is not the moment nor the matter at hand, but we Zapatistas invite you to participate in the festivals “CompArte and ConCiencias for Humanity.” So, respecting etiquette, we have to send an invitation. This should be something that details a calendar and a geography, because we know that you have your own path, your own pace, your own company on that path, and your own destiny. And we don’t want to add another difficulty to those that you already confront. Thus, an invitation must include the when and where.

But you know who we are. You know how we are, that is. And the question that we think an invitation must address is not the when and where, but rather the why. Perhaps that is why this invitation does not comply with the etiquette of the occasion and does not arrive on time, but rather too late or too early. But as you’ll see, it doesn’t matter. That is why this invitation is very other, and why it includes as a crucial element this little story:

One House, Other Worlds

It’s more of a legend than a story. That is, there’s no way to confirm the truthfulness of what is told here. This is partly because it details no specific calendar or geography; it could have happened, or not, in any undefined time or place. It is also because the supposed non-protagonist of this story is dead, deceased, done, defunct. If he was alive, we could just ask if he actually said what it says here that he said. And as he was always tenacious in his wanderings through the tree tops, it is likely that he would go on at length to describe this imprecise calendar.

In any case, since we don’t have the exact date, we’ll just say it was more than two decades ago. The geography? The mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

It was Comandante Tacho who told us the story in the wee hours of the morning at the EZLN headquarters. He was describing the house of the system, the home of capital, the storm, and the ark. We were in our headquarters, the headquarters where what would later become the seedbed/seminar was born. We think we took a coffee break… or that we adjourned the meeting in order to continue the next day… to tell you the truth, we don’t really remember. The point is that we were talking to Tacho and it was he who told us what we’re going to tell you now. There is of course a little bit of finagling involved because we have added to and rearranged Tacho’s original words. We did this not out of bad faith, disrespect, or an attempt to mend faulty memories, but because both of us who are writing now knew the deceased quite well and can reconstruct his words and feelings. Here goes:

This is Comandante Tacho speaking:

I don’t remember very well when it was, but it was when the deceased Sup was not yet deceased. He was just the Sup, staying up all night and smoking his pipe. Yes, chewing on the pipe, as usual. We were in the shelter that was the EZLN headquarters, although it wasn’t a shelter because it wasn’t finished yet. That is, it wasn’t EZLN headquarters yet.  Perhaps it was going to be, but not yet.

We were telling funny stories, things that happened in the communities, in the meetings, in the work of the struggle. The Sup was just listening, sometimes laughing, sometimes asking more about what happened. Before I really knew him I didn’t understand why. Later I realized that these accounts would appear later as stories in the communiques. I think he called them ‘postscripts.’ I asked him once why he called an account of what had really happened just a story. He said, ‘The thing is that they don’t believe the accounts, they think I am making things up or imagining things. So I write it like it’s a story because they are not ready to see the reality.’

Anyway, so there we were.

So then he asked the Sup…”

Yes, Tacho has used the third person singular: “he.” In order to clarify we asked him if by “he” he meant the Sup. “No,” he answered us, annoyed, “he asked the Sup.” We didn’t want to insist because we thought, perhaps mistakenly, that that wasn’t the point of the story, or that it was merely one piece of a puzzle still being sketched out. So Comandante Tacho used the word “he.” Not “she,” not “I,” not “we.” He said “he” in referring to the person who was questioning the Sup.

Hey Sup, how come every time we are building a house, you ask if we are building it according to traditional custom or by scientific method?”

Here Tacho took the time to clarify:

“Every time that we built a house, the deceased SupMarcos would come and stare at the beams and rafters. Then he would always ask:

‘That crossbeam that you’re putting there, are you putting it there because it is necessary for the construction of the house?’ Then I would respond, ‘Yes, if you don’t put it there the roof will fall in.’

‘I see,’ the Sup said, ‘but how do you know that if you don’t put it there that the roof will fall in?’

I just looked at him because I knew that wasn’t the real question. It wasn’t the first time he had asked it. He continued, ‘do you put it there because you know scientifically that if you don’t the roof will fall in, or do you put it there because it is traditional custom to do so?’

‘Because it’s traditional custom,’ I answered him, ‘because that is how I was taught. That is how my father built houses, and he learned from my grandfather, and so on going way back.’ The Sup was not satisfied, and always ended up climbing up onto the central beam before the supports were finished and, balancing as if he were riding a horse, would ask, ‘so if I get up here, is the beam going to fall?’ And boom, he would fall. ‘Ouch!’ was the only thing he’d say. He’d take out his pipe from where he landed on the ground, light it, and with his head resting on the broken beam, gaze up at the roof. We would all laugh of course.

So that’s why he asked the Sup why the Sup was always asking about whether something was done by traditional custom or scientific method.  The thing is that it wasn’t just that one time. Every time that our headquarters had to be moved and I had to oversee the construction of a new structure for the headquarters, that is what happened. The Sup would come, he would ask that question, I would respond, he wouldn’t be satisfied, he would climb up on the beam, it would break, and he would fall to the ground.”

(Note: in discussing this between the two of us, we have concluded that the approximate dates for what Tacho is recounting were the first months of 1995 when there was such heavy governmental persecution against us that we had to continually pick up and move our headquarters, accompanying the community of Guadalupe Tepeyac in exile. End of note and Tacho continues):

“I am telling you this so that you understand why he asked the Sup this question. At other times I had also asked him this question, but he hadn’t responded fully. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to respond, but that always at that moment they called him on the radio, or someone came to talk to him. So I wanted to know the answer too.

The Sup took his pipe out of his mouth and put it to one side. We were sitting on the ground. It was very hot like it always is before a hard rain. I knew the answer would take a while, because when the Sup answered quickly, he didn’t even take the pipe out of his mouth; the words would just come out all chewed up.

So then the Sup said… well really, he asked:

‘Hey Tacho, how big is this house?’
‘3 by 4 [meters],’ I answered quickly, because it wasn’t the first time he asked.

‘And if it were 6 x 8, would it need more rafters for support?’ he asked me.

‘It would indeed,’ I responded.

‘And if were 12 x 16?’

I didn’t respond quickly, so the Sup continued:

‘And if it were 24 x 32? Or 48 x 64? What about 96 x 128?’

Then, to tell you the truth, I laughed. ‘That’s a really big house, I don’t know,’ I answered.

‘Correct,’ he said, ‘houses are made according to one’s own or one’s inherited experience. Traditions and customs, that is. To make a bigger house, one would have to ask or try something different.’

‘But let’s say that no one has ever built a house measuring 192 x 256…’

I laughed right before the Sup finished:

‘kilometers.’

‘Umm, who would want a house that big?’ I asked laughing.

He lit his pipe and said, ‘well, let’s make it easier: what if the house were the size of the world?’

‘Ah no, that’s rough. I don’t think we can imagine a house that big, nor what it would be for,’ I said, more serious now.

‘We can,’ he said. ‘The arts can imagine this house, and can put it into words, sounds, images, figures. The arts can imagine what seems impossible and, in this process of imagination, sew doubt, curiosity, surprise, admiration—that is, they make it possible.

‘Ah, okay,’ I replied, ‘but it’s one thing to imagine and another thing to do. I don’t think a house that big can be made.’

‘It can,’ he said, and put the broken pipe aside.

‘The sciences know how. Even if a house the size of the world has never been made, the sciences can say with certainty how a construction that size would be built. I don’t know what it’s called, but I think it has to do with the strength of the materials, geometry, economics, physics, geography, biology, chemistry, and who the hell knows what else.

But even without previous experience, without traditional customs, science can in fact say how many beams, supports, and rafters are needed to make a house the size of the world. Scientific knowledge can determine how deep the foundation needs to be, how high and how long the walls need to be, what angle the roof should have if it is a pitched roof, where the windows should be given the climate, how many doors there should be and where, what material should be used for each part, and how many beams and supports it must have and where.’”

Was the now-deceased already thinking about the transgression of the law gravity and all of the straight lines linked to it? Did he imagine or already know about the subversion of Euclid’s Fifth Postulate? No, Tacho didn’t ask him. To tell you the truth, the two of us wouldn’t have asked either. It is hard to imagine, in those days of no tomorrow, with warplanes shaking the earth and sky, that there was time to think about art, much less science.

Everyone remained silent, Tacho recalls. Us, too. After a moment of silence and tobacco, he continued:

“The Sup took up his pipe again and saw with sorrow that there was no more tobacco. He looked in his pockets. Smiling, he pulled out a little plastic bag with some black strands. It took him awhile to light the pipe, I think because the tobacco was damp. Then he continued:

‘But I’m not concerned about whether the arts can imagine this house, its colors, its shapes, its sounds, where the day comes in, where the night falls, where the rain falls, where the wind blows, where the earth sits.

Neither am I concerned about whether science can solve the problem of how to make it a reality. Of course it can. It has the knowledge… or it will.

What concerns me is that this house that is a world not be the same as the one we live in. The house must be better, even bigger. It must be so big that it can hold not one world but many, those that already exist and those yet to be born.

Of course, one would have to meet with those who do art and science. That won’t be easy. At first they won’t be willing to help, not because they don’t want to but because they will be skeptical. Because we have a lot going against us. Because we are what we are.

Those who are artists think that we will constrain the subject, form, and pace of their work; that their artistic horizon will hold only males and females (never others), members of the powerful proletariat showing off their muscles and bright shining gazes in images, sounds, dances, and figures; that they could not even insinuate the existence of the other; that if they comply they will receive praise and applause, and if not, seclusion or repudiation. In other words, they think we will command that they not imagine.

Those who do science think that we are going to ask them to create mechanical, electronic, chemical, biological, and interstellar weapons of mass (or individual) destruction. They think that we will force them to create schools for exceptional minds where of course one will find the descendants of those currently in power who have a salary guaranteed before they are ever conceived. They think that what will be recognized is political affiliation and not scientific capacity, and that if they comply they will receive praise and applause, and if not, seclusion or repudiation. In other words, they think that we will command them not to do science.

In addition, because we are indigenous peoples, there are some [un@s and otr@s] here and there who think that what they do is art and culture, and that what we do is folk art and ritual. They think that what for them is analysis and knowledge, for us is belief and superstition.

They are ignorant of the fact that we have produced colors that, hundreds of years later, still challenge calendars. They do not know that when “civilization” still believed that the earth was the center of the universe, we had already discovered celestial bodies and numerical systems. They think that we adore ignorance, that our thinking is simple and conformist, that we prefer to believe rather than to know. They think that we do not want advancement but rather regression.

In other words, they neither see themselves, nor do they see us.

The issue then is going to be to convince them to see themselves as we see them, to make them realize that, for us, they are what they are and also something else: hope. And hope, friends and enemies, cannot be bought, cannot be sold, cannot be coerced, cannot be contained, and cannot be killed.’

He fell silent. I waited to see if he would ask something else of the Sup, but since he didn’t say anything, I asked: ‘so what must we do?’ The Sup just sighed and said:

‘Our job is first of all to know that this house is possible and necessary. Then comes the easier part: to build it. For this task we need knowledge, feeling, imagination—we need the sciences and the arts. We need other hearts. The day will come when we will meet with those who make art and science. On that day we will embrace them and welcome them with one sole question: “And what about you?”’

I wasn’t satisfied with this answer though, and I asked the Sup: ‘And after we meet with these people, what are we going to do?’ The Sup smiled and said:

‘Etcetera.’”

_*_

That is where the story or the legend that Comandante Tacho told us that morning ends.  All of this is relevant at the moment because we want to invite you to come, or to be present in some way, in this earth that we are.

We have this curiosity, you could say, that has been nagging at us over the course of many pages of the calendar and we think that perhaps you will accept this invitation and help us to resolve a particular doubt:

What do we need to build a new house, a house so big that it holds not one but many worlds?

That’s all. Or not, depending on you.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.

In the name of the Zapatista children, elders, women, and men,

Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés

Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano

Mexico, July/August/September of 2016.

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