Our word is our weapon: selected writings of subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

• Published in: Briar patch Vol. 30; no. 3; p. 29
• Main Authors: Marcos (Subcomandante), Brin, Debra, Ponce de Leon, Juana
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Regina Briarpatch, Inc 01.04.2001; Briarpatch Inc
• Subjects: Native peoples; Chiapas Mexico; Mexico
• ISSN: 0703-8968

"The first gods measured out memory with a small cup in order to parcel it out, and every man and woman came by to receive a measure of memory. But some of the men and women were larger than the others, so the measure of memory seemed not equal to the rest. In the smaller persons, memory shone clearly, and that's why it is said that memory is greatest and strongest in the small people, and it is difficult to find in the powerful. That is why they also say that men and women become smaller and smaller when they grow old, so that memory will shine more brightly. They say that it is the work of the eldest of the elders to make memory great. And they also say that dignity is nothing more than memory that lives." In January 1995 the Chase Manhattan Bank issued instructions to the Mexican government to "eliminate the Zapatistas." Since their emergence one year earlier, the Zapatista National Liberation Army had gained the admiration and support of countless people world-wide and frustrated the elite with a new kind of revolutionary movement. The history, holistic wisdom and sense of democracy of the Indigenous community was combined with the internet savvy, political analysis and military skills of the urban leftists who had arrived in the mountains years earlier. Both groups learned from each other and what emerged was an entirely new form of political-military structure that gained popular support for their steadfast resistance to the new world order and their sense of democracy.