Words of the Zapatista women at the closing ceremony of the First International Gathering of Politics, Art, Sport, and Culture for Women in Struggle
Source: Enlace Zapatista
Listen here (in Spanish): (Descarga aquí)
Words of the Zapatista women at the closing ceremony of the First International Gathering of Politics, Art, Sport, and Culture for Women in Struggle in the Zapatista Caracol of the Tzotz Choj Zone
March 10, 2018
Good evening, good morning, good afternoon, compañeras and sisters in struggle, wherever you may be.
Sisters and compañeras who have accompanied us in this First International Gathering of Women in Struggle:
We are going to say a few words on behalf of all of us, the Zapatista women of the five caracoles.
We would like to thank the compañeras from the city who worked as part of the support teams: we know very well how fucking hard they worked to handle the emails, registration, organization of transportation, and the scheduling of times and locations for all the activities.
We would also like to send our regards to our Zapatista compañeras who could not come to this gathering, and who stayed behind attending to other tasks so that we could be here.
Similarly, we would like to thank our compañeros who had to stay behind to take care of our families, animals, homes, barracks, and fields, and who were on alert in case the bad governments committed any malicious acts against this gathering.
But our final words are especially for you, sisters and compañeras, women in struggle.
Zapatista Women’s Opening Address at the First International Gathering of Politics, Art, Sport, and Culture for Women in Struggle
Source: Enlace Zapatista
Zapatista Women’s Opening Address at the First International Gathering of Politics, Art, Sport, and Culture for Women in Struggle.
Listen here (in Spanish): (Descarga aquí)
March 8, 2018. Caracol in the Tzots Choj zone.
Good morning, sisters of Mexico and the world:
Good morning, compañeras from the national and international Sixth:
Good morning, compañeras from the National Indigenous Congress:
Good morning, compañeras who are comandantas, bases of support, autonomous authorities, project coordinators, milicianas, and insurgentas:
First, we want to send a big hug to the family of the compañera Eloísa Vega Castro, from the Indigenous Governing Council support network in Baja California Sur, who died while accompanying the CIG delegation this past February 14.
We waited until today to honor the memory of Eloisa so that our embrace could be even bigger and reach even farther, all the way to the other end of Mexico.
This hug and this greeting are huge because they’re from all the Zapatista women and all the Zapatista men on this day, March 8, for that woman who struggled and whom we miss today: Eloisa Vega Castro. May our condolences reach her family.
Sisters and compañeras who are visiting us:
Thank you to all of you who are here at this First International Gathering of Women in Struggle.
Thank you for making the effort to come from your many worlds to this little corner of the world where we are.
We know well that it was not easy for you to get here and that perhaps many women who struggle were not able to come to this gathering.
My name is Insurgenta Erika—that’s how we refer to ourselves when we’re speaking about the collective rather than the individual. I am an insurgenta captain of infantry, accompanied here by other insurgentas and milicianas of various ranks.
