Visits to the villages of Zapatista Autonomous Municipality 16th February

Our group visited several villages in the municipality, and spoke to the local people. To avoid the information they gave us being used against them, in the low intensity warfare being waged by the Mexican government, we have not identified the villages by name.

Many of the villages are very remote, often only served by a dirt track, which frequently becomes impassable in the rainy season. Some have no road at all, and are only reachable on foot or on horseback along paths winding over the mountains. Hours of travelling are needed to reach many of the villages from the more central parts of the municipality. This isolation causes additional problems for the villagers. It makes it difficult to access health care, for example, or to reach markets for their handicrafts.

Most houses are effectively small wooden huts, with a dirt floor and corrugated iron roofs. Cooking is almost always done over an open wooden fire. One village we visited had no mains electricity, the only source being what could be gathered from a solar panel. In one village the vast majority of the women and girls had no shoes of any kind. People are living in a level of poverty difficult for us to imagine.

Nevertheless, the zapatista villagers make it very clear that through their struggle they are achieving dignity, and that while still suffering dire poverty, things are now better than in the days when they were under the tyrannical control of the landowners.

"We ask that our companeros from Scotland tell and share well the lives and words of the companeros here, that this isn't the first or last time that the companeros visit. As poor people, we cannot leave here, we cannot get to know other countries, but you, as our companeros are able to organise and go to other countries, and together we hope to continue onwards with the twinning, we hope you visit again."

Here we reproduce what we were told.

The First Village

We are quite exhausted when we finally arrive at the village, and are very happy to be offered some beans and maize-drink (pozol)

After a little rest, we go to the meeting room . Very quickly the room fills up with the "bases de apoyo", the zapatista families of the village.

Artesania

The local people had to stop producing handicrafts (artesanias) because they couldn't find any market, and the prices they were getting were lower and lower. When they were still producing, they had to go into debt which was very expensive for them, especially if they could not be sure of selling their products. Still unable to find sufficient markets or decent prices - they ask if it would be possible to find a market in Britain?

The situation in the village - then and now

"We have learned a lot in 13 years about how to organise ourselves."

Some years ago, certainly before 1994, the land in the area belonged to a big estate owner, the "finquero". The people all lived in extremely marginalized conditions. They had to work monday to saturday for the finquero and they did not get paid for it. Sundays they had to look after their own houses/families/collect firewood etc.

They lived in a situation of extreme exploitation. They took over the land and freed themselves from the finquero and that gave them a bit of freedom.

Since then the community has been undergoing changes little by little. The zapatista movement here started in 1995/1996. Zapatasimo originally clandestine, guarding and developing ideas. They learned a lot of how to organize themselves and to work together. They did everything themselves. No-one came to say how to achieve liberty.

With the zapatista movement they learned a lot, that these things, exploitation and humiliation are not right. A lesson for everyone - before unable to open eyes, now able to see suffering, and the possibilities for working collectively. The idea of collective work has been very enriching to them.

There are still, however, a lot of problems. Still lacking a lot of resources etc.

Nothing has changed absolutely, but have learnt a lot, have achieved a lot with the force of the people - how to organise, how to struggle, how to work together

The health situation

There are no health promoters or health centre in the village, but the clinic in Berlin will help a lot. "We can go there if we are ill." There it is possible to buy medicine at an affordable price, not like in the government clinics where it is extremely expensive. There is a government health centre nearby but they do not treat them because they are zapatistas.

The most common illnesses include: cholera, different kinds of chronic coughs including whooping cough, fevers, headaches - the headaches could be due to hard physical work in the extreme heat. Cancer and diabetes are quite common as well. Child mortality of children below the age of 5 exists but is not too common. Those who die, die from cholera and whooping cough.

The women's situation

The women's situation has changed a lot since the zapatista uprising. In village meetings they now have the right to present their views and speak. This has motivated a lot of female comrades to continue the struggle. A lot still needs to be done, but it is already going into the right direction.

The Second Village

At our second village, we received a warm welcome from the local zapatistas. As in most of the other villages in the municipality, some families are zapatistas and some not.

Womens handicrafts co-op

We are involved in the Women's Handicrafts Co-operative, there is one collective for the whole municipality. However we have problems because of our distance from the centre, it costs a lot for us to travel. We have difficulties getting materials.

We have a representative for the women's collective...... It's good you've come here and it's good you can buy our handicrafts.

Health

Women suffer from illnesses. It's very difficult and expensive to travel elsewhere to get medical attention, the road is bad too…..We have a small health house here to treat people locally (casita de salud)

Collective shop

This has been working for a few years. It is a good project, there have been problems but it is continuing to operate.

The land

Everyone works the land, we grow maize, beans and vegetables. We mainly grow the food for our own consumption, but sometimes we sell food to each other, if someone has a food which another doesn't have.

Problems with the government

At present we don't have significant problems with paramilitaries about here, but the Government has been attacking us through its projects, such as its projects to build houses.
(NOTE : since the zapatista uprising the government, who before ignored all the indigenous peoples' needs, have instituted some agricultural and housing projects with the aim of dividing the communities, promising small-scale aid if people abandon the collective struggle)

Towards the end of this meeting, an elderly woman spoke with great emotion and thanked us for our visit, asking us to continue giving them solidarity, and not to abandon them and leave them alone in facing the bad government.

The Third Village

There is a big turn-out of the local villagers to meet us, perhaps 35-40 men, around 25 women, and maybe as many as 80 children.

The zapatista families soon start to speak to us about their situation, describing their problems and answering our questions. They all show a very strong desire to keep fighting and to continue the struggle and at the same time make very clear to us how precarious the conditions are, in which they live.

Almost half of the families in the village are zapatistas while the rest are priistas, supporters of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). There are relatively few political problems between them, for the most part they get along with each other and they go together to church and celebrate religious and other festivities together.

The meeting starts with some of the women saying that they are very pleased that we have come here to visit them, to this isolated place, that we come in person, that it is more than just words. They are certain that we are struggling too, that we are struggling together. Many thanks.

A man says to us

"Many thanks that you have come here to visit the zapatistas. We are satisfied that we are in struggle, faced with this serious situation."

The situation in earlier times - and now

Before, there were the landowners, the finqueros, occupying the mother earth, and ordering the indigenous to work, without any rights to their own house, self-expression or self-determination in their lives or work.

"They made us work for them, we the indigenous people had no rights to rest, to speak, to carry out our own work. We always had to work for the landowner, the finquero, like slaves. This situation changed because of the struggle, we organized in the ejidos, we agreed to struggle against the landowners. We took over the land, we supported each other, in 1981 we ended this slavery when we expelled the landowner."

One elderly women describes how when she was young they had to work daily (monday to sunday) for the landowner, men and women, the women had to get up at 3 in the morning to make tortillas, then afterwards they would go to work in the fields for 13 or 14 hours. The women had to work as hard as the men in the fields - producing maize, coffee, etc. They didn't receive a wage. They didn't have shoes for their feet.

They were paid with fake money which was worthless unless used in the "finquero"'s own shop which sold basic goods at horrendous prices. No-one had time to live peacefully or to work in their own houses, their houses were empty because they always had to work for the landowner.

Before the idea of struggling to improve peoples lives didn't exist, but it grew little by little. We have learned a lot from the zapatista struggle about how to organize ourselves. Thanks be to God the struggle is now big, and it exists in other countries too, on all five continents.

Our coffee doesn't receive a fair price……..There is still a great lack of money and resources, so a lot of suffering. But we have to keep going, we must not become discouraged, we have to keep on going forward… hasta la victoria siempre

The health situation

The villagers describe the health situation as very precarious, they completely lack access to medical services and medications, so many people are ill. - There is no health centre (casa de salud) in this village, however there are 3 health promoters (all men), two at 1st level and one at 2nd level.

The most common illnesses are toothache, headache, heart problems, diahorrea, vomiting, nauseas, rheumatism and, particularly in children, tuberculosis, fevers, flu, many different types of chronic coughs. A lot of children feel weak, without energy. Lack of food is a serious problem, there is a lot of malnutrition. . Man and women affected equally by illnesses.

- One elderly women suffering from rhumatism, feeling very weak, has no will to work or walk or anything, doesn't know if there's possible medication to cure it or not. -

Illnesses are the result of the lack of good medical services, lack of proper sanitation, the lack of hygiene education. Also because there is very little clean drinking water.

"We don't have money, so we are not able to cure our illnesses."

"Almost everyone here is ill, and are suffering from pain."

The Fourth Village

In the packed communal building, with people who couldn't squeeze inside looking in from the door, the local villagers talked of their lives and struggles.

We are grass-roots civilian zapatistas, the bases of support of the EZLN, women, men, children, elderly people, oppressed, marginalised, left in oblivion by the bad government. Thank you very much for helping us in the struggle. We are struggling, walking forward, suffering, this is a difficult struggle, a hard struggle. But we are determined to struggle to win, so that one day there will be justice, democracy and liberty.

Changes are needed, not only in education, but also concerning production. We don't get a fair price for the products we harvest. Meanwhile the rich are benefiting.

There are a lot of needs, a lot of suffering. There is a lack of education. There is a lack of health, it is a long way to reach a clinic. But little by little, we can achieve a lot, together we can reach our goal.

We don't have the resources to buy medicines for our families. The official health clinics are very far away. But as zapatistas our idea is to have good health in our communities, and we see that with your help we are reaching that aim.

We are very content with your struggles, they are a help to us.

Elderly man

Thank you for coming here. We live very far apart but we are all human.

As far as the crops that we grow in the fields are concerned, the situation is getting worse. We can't get a proper price for them, for coffee for example. But the big middlemen dealers (coyotes) sell the coffee at a high price.

When we have to buy maize, the price is going up. In general prices are rising, but the prices of our products we grow and sell, are falling. The coyotes are always making money…

A woman speaks

You are very welcome here. We are isolated here and it is difficult for us to travel to other places. The prices of our products are very low. The buyers impose the price that they want. The prices of the products that the rich sell keep going up. We can't cover the cost of buying the essential things we need.

Women spoke protesting the fact that they can not speak Spanish, that they can not leave their communities, that they lack the words to express their ideas.

Another villager

As grass-roots civilian zapatistas (bases de apoyo del EZLN) we are in resistance.

Before, in earlier times, there were the rich who had the big fincas (estates), we had a very isolated way of life. No-one knew how to speak Spanish or write or read, we were in the hands of the rich.

I wasn't able to study. There isn't a tradition of self-expression, talking and sharing ideas about life. Apologies, it's not that we don't want to share our ideas, it's just that we don't know how to. But we are hoping to continue forwards and to be able to have good discussions.

Health promoter

I have been involved as a health promoter for five years. We are sharing our knowledge, as "multipliers" we are sharing with the new promoters, so we can have more health promoters. ("multipliers" are experienced health promoters who teach new and less experienced health promoters)

However we don't have a "health house" (casa de salud) in this community. We are without medicines and without books to teach health in our community.

At Berlin, in the 16th February clinic, there is some medical equipment, etc, but there is still a lot lacking. At Berlin the autonomous clinic is now working, with shifts of health promoters staffing it.

The final words were-

"Thank you, and we ask that our companeros from Scotland tell and share well the lives and words of the companeros here, that this isn't the first or last time that the companeros visit. As poor people, we cannot leave here, we cannot get to know other countries, but you, as our companeros are able to organise and go to other countries, and together we hope to continue onwards with the twinning, we hope you visit again."

NOTES

As in the other meetings we held, many of those present spoke no or very little Spanish, and thus spoke in their indigenous language of Tzotzil, which was then translated by those who knew Spanish.

The contributions about autonomous education are covered in the specific articles on that subject.