The
following is a full translation of “The Struggle
for Peace and for Humanity, is Intercontinental. The Story of the Others.”
Originally
published on January 20th, 1998.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zapatista
Army of National Liberation
January
1998.
Planet
Earth.
Brothers and
sisters:
With a
little bit of delay, but even here the news arrived to us about your
mobilizations in Mexico and the world. According to an account that was passed
to us, from December 22nd, 1997 to January 13th, 1998,
there were mobilizations in 130 cities in 27 countries on the 5 continents. In
particular, on January 12th of this year, many acts of different
sizes were realized in our country and in different parts of the planet, with a
single cry: an end to the war of extermination, punishment of those responsible
for the Acteal killing, and fulfillment of the San Andrés Accords.
If this
response letter arrives to you with something of a delay, the same does not
occur with our attitude. That same January 12th, in spite of the
pain that we received with the news of the murder of our compañera Guadalupe López
Méndez, the strong echo of your mobilizations in the capital of Mexico, in
different cities in the country, and on the 5 continents, reached us, and it
was confirmed to us that we do good in enduring, in resisting, and in avoiding
the provocations that today, like yesterday, have the olive-green uniform.
They tell me
that in the mobilizations there was a bit of everything, and I am not only referring
to the fact that there were men, women, children, and elderly people, but to
the fact that there were dances, songs, poetry, marches, graffitis, cries, and
much indignation. I also say that there was a bit of everything because there
were indigenous people, women, young people, housewives, students, feminists,
homosexuals, union-members, peasants, workers, solidarity committees,
intellectuals, artists, undocumented people, etcetera which includes
everything. People that is, named and unnamed people. People of the kind which
say Enough is Enough! and write the history that matters and counts. People who
talk to us, people who we listen to, people who we now write to. People like
you, like us.
Your cries
traveled far, far and strong they were heard, even if they have not reached
Power. There above they only listen to the noise of money and to their advisors
who, veiled or openly, cry for our extermination.
But we did
hear. That is why we are going back to bullfighting and here we are, holding
our cape against artillery helicopters, bomber planes, tanks, and hunting dogs
(trained, they say, to detect the smell of vanilla tobacco; that is why I am
starting now with maple).
Our
interlocutor is not the Mexican government. It, as we said, no longer listens.
Our interlocutors are you, the thousands and thousands of people who in Mexico
and in the world want and seek the end of a system of oppression that is
nothing more than a war against humanity.
The
thousands and thousands who, opposing themselves to the war in Chiapas, oppose
death in Mexico and in the rest of the world; who demand the fulfillment of the
San Andrés Agreements because they demand a new inclusive politics directed at
the poorest; those who demand demilitarization and demand justice in place of
bullets and soldiers.
With respect
to you, our hope grows and makes us better because we have known to listen.
And, Viejo Antonio used to say, he who knows to listen is made great and gets
his walk to continue through time, to travel far, to multiply into many and
other steps.
In the
climate of the mountains, mounted as we are, one can see very far. Over there,
for example, we are able to see that a flag waves as if it were tomorrow. The
flag is seen and many are those who sustain it. “It’s democracy,” someone says
to me. “It’s freedom,” ventures another. “It’s Justice,” affirms a third.
Maybe, I think. Maybe, all three.
Or maybe it
is dignity, that stubborn form of living and walking that in you and us turns into
an addiction.
Over here
things are ever more difficult. It is evident that the new “dialogue
coordinator,” Mr. Emilio Rabasa, again fulfills the decoy work that yesterday
Esteban Moctezuma B. (aka “Guajardo”) performed in 1995. While he talks of “solution
to the conflict” (did you notice that now in the government no one talks of “peaceful
solution to the conflict”?), the soldiers fine-tune the details of the
operations, complete reports, detail maps and distribution of forces.
On the part
of the government we only expect another attack. “The definitive solution,” say
the scribes of Power.
On your part
we expect the usual: an opportunity for life and struggle to be better.
Now, in the
middle of these hours of uncertainty and anguish, we are more than sure that we
will succeed, that the Indian peoples will be recognized and included
respecting their difference, that democracy, freedom, and justice will be for
all. Maybe then we shall not have the best of possible worlds, but we will
indeed have the opportunity to construct it.
Over here
stories and images arrive of the Zócalo in Mexico City on January 12th,
1998. Some and others speak to us of the rage and indignation of all those
demanding justice, of the incredulity in the face of the Department of Justice’s
versions of the Acteal massacre, of Mr. Zedillo’s discredit. It was,
undoubtedly, one of the largest and most moving marches in the history of our
country. Your motive was great: peace with justice and dignity. And great also
were the anger and inconformity of all, great the desire to not remain passive
in the face of unjust death.
With respect
to the mobilizations in 27 other countries of the world, the Mexican government
and that criminal organization called the PRI, are quite annoyed with the “internationalization”
of the conflict that those protests entail. It appears to be that, what they derogatorily
call “a netwar,” has caused headaches in embassies and consulates. You take,
protests in plazas and streets, and thousands of letters demanding justice and
peace, they keep the Mexican government awake and, unexplainably, cause it
sudden bouts of “nationalism” and rejection of all “foreign interference” which
is not, of course, that of great
financial capital. The mobilizations that, demanding peace, democracy, freedom,
and justice, occur on the 5 continents are for the government of Mexico nothing
more than “isolated and small intervention attempts in the internal affairs of
the country.” Because for the government of Mexico, the extermination of
indigenous people that it carries out is an “internal affair.” Will they think
the same after the condemnation of the European Parliament?
But we are
in agreement with you in that the struggle for peace and for humanity, is
intercontinental. Because, as that great and misunderstood internationalist
that was Viejo Antonio used to say: Life without others that are different is
vain and is condemned to immobility. What does this have to do with the
intercontinental struggle for humanity and against neoliberalism? Well, to
explain it to you right I have to tell you…
During the pre-dawn
morning again, beneath the threatening plane the sea tries to read a book of
poetry with the scant help of a candle stub. I scrawl a letter for someone who
I do not know in person, who perhaps speaks another language, has another
culture, probably is from another country, of another color and, it is certain,
has another history. The plane goes by and I stop, a short while to listen and
a long while to give myself time to resolve the problem of writing a letter to
other different ones. In that moment, through the highland fog and unwarned by
the sea, Viejo Antonio arrives at my side and, giving me some pats on the back,
lights his cigarette and…
THE STORY OF
THE OTHERS
“The oldest
of the old who inhabited these lands told that the greatest gods, those who
birthed the world, did not all think alike. In other words they did not have
the same thought, but rather each one had their own thought and among them they
respected each other and listened. The oldest of the old say that it was like
that per se, because if it had not been like that, the world never would have
been born because in sheer fighting the first gods would have passed the time,
because their thought that they felt was different. The oldest of the old say
that that is why the world came out with many colors and forms, as many as
there were thoughts in the greatest gods, the very first ones. Seven were the
greatest gods, and seven the thoughts that each one had, and seven times seven
are the forms and colors with which they dressed the world. Viejo Antonio tells
me that he asked the oldest of the old what the first gods did to come to agreement
and talk to each other if it is that their thoughts that they felt were so
different. The oldest old ones responded to him, Viejo Antonio tells me, that
there was an assembly of the seven gods together with each one’s seven
different thoughts, and that in that assembly they worked out the agreement.
Viejo
Antonio says that the oldest old ones said that that assembly of the first
gods, those who birthed the world, was a long time before yesteryear, that it
was right in the time in which there was still no time. And they said that in
that assembly each one of the first gods said their word and they all said: “My
thought that I feel is different from that of the others.” And so the gods
stayed quiet because they realized that, when each one said “the others,” they
were talking about different “others.” After a while in which they were silent,
the first gods realized that they already had a first agreement and it was that
there were “others” and that those “others” were different from the one that
was. Therefore the first agreement that the very first gods had was to
recognize difference and accept the existence of the other. And what solution
was left for them if they were all gods per se, all first, and they had to
accept each other because there was not one who was more or less than the
others, but rather they were different and had to walk like that.
After that
first agreement the discussion continued, because one thing is to recognize
that there are other different ones and another very different thing is to
respect them. Therefore they passed a good while talking and discussing how
each one was different from the others, and it did not matter to them that they
delayed in this discussion because there was still no time per se. Then everyone
was quiet and each one talked of their difference and each other one of the gods
who listened realized that, listening and knowing the differences of the other,
more and better one knows oneself in what one had of difference. So they all
became very happy and got to dancing and took a long while but it did not
matter to them because in that time there was still no time. After the dance
that they had the gods worked out the agreement that it is good for there to
be others who are different and that we must listen to them to know ourselves. And
then after this agreement they went to sleep because they were very tired from
having danced so much. They were not tired from talking because, per se, they
were very good at talking these first gods, those who birthed the world, and
who were just now learning to listen.”
I was not
aware at what time Viejo Antonio left. The sea now sleeps and of the candle
stub only a small deformed wax stain remains. Above the sky begins to dilute
its black in the light of tomorrow…
That was the
story that Viejo Antonio told me when I was trying to write you this letter.
And I believe that that is the most important thing that we have to tell you,
we listen to you, we recognize you, we respect you.
It may
appear little from a distance, but you will now see that recognizing the other,
respecting it and listening to it, produces things as tremendously
transcendental as a dance.
Thus, to
recognize ourselves, respect ourselves, and listen to ourselves it is that, in
response to the display of January 12th, 1998 where we were invited
to visit Europe to talk to and listen to the world, we say that, as soon as we
stop bullfighting enemies (that is no more than a somewhat complicated form of
dance), we will study the possibility of one or several of the compañeros and
compañeras traveling to Europe, and to wherever it may be, to recognize, to
respect, and to listen.
With regards
to the fact that a Civil Society of the World Observation Committee will travel
to the mountains of the Mexican southeast in the upcoming days, to observe
human rights violations, we tell you that the indigenous communities in
rebellion salute the initiative of the Observation Committee and commit to
respect its work. We also take advantage of the occasion to salute with respect
the work of the independent Mexican organizations, Human Rights defenders, who
have not spared neither force nor dedication in attending to the indigenous
communities, in spite of the governmental contempt, the degree of harassment,
which have been received in not a few cases.
And now that
we are talking about actions in Mexico, the Mexico City Zócalo not only dazzled
us, it also brought us a certainty and a hope: the certainty that in this
country people are infinitely better than those who claim to govern them, and
the hope that all those people may conquer what until now has been swindled
from them, it is to say, the right to live with democracy, freedom, and
justice. The last one will be to live in peace.
Well, that
is all for now. Know always that it is an honor to see you grow and make
yourselves many. And this is something that also grows us and enlarges us.
Vale. Cheers
and, after the promised flower, comes the promised dance (I hope).
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
For the Comité Clandestino Revolucionario Indígena-Comandancia
General
del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico,
January 1998.
P.S. WHICH
INVITES TO KEEP DANCING.- It appears that your protests from the 12th
were not enough. Power has walled-off its ears with thick bales of money and
arrogance, and continues forward in its war. We must walk more, shout more,
move more. Moreover, they say that next January 24th you will again
say your ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We wish you good health for this and for what
follows.
P.S. WHICH CONFIRMS
THE DISREGARD FOR WHAT HAPPENS.- Look how the government shows evidence of what
happens: for the secretary of Government Chiapas is, again, a problem of 4
municipalities; and for the Department of Justice the Acteal killing is, now,
the product of the perverse vengeance of a diabolic and resentful old man who
had the design, the time, and the means to arm 60 paramilitaries with AK-47s
and R-15s, he trained them in techniques of command and planned, with tactic
precision an operation which, it is certain, he learned from his readings about
the war of extermination in Guatemala? Vietnam? Kurdistan?
P.S. WHICH
SUPPOSES.- It could be that the Department of Justice is not mocking everyone
and that, when it says that one of the motives of the Acteal killing would be
personal vengeance, it is referring to Mr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León and to
his animosity against the rebel indigenous communities in Chiapas. I say, it is
a supposition.
English translation copyright © 2014 by Henry Gales. All rights reserved.
