National Indigenous Congress: Declaration of Rights
August 2013
Statement by the Chair “Tata Juan Chávez Alonso” CNI
To the people and governments of the world:
To the national and international Sixth:
To the students of the Zapatista Little School:
In this time and in our history with the mother earth, the people, nations, and indigenous tribes of the Yaqui, Mayo, Náyeri, Wixárika, Rarámuri, O'odham, Nahua, Purépecha, Nañu or Ñuhu, Mazahua, Popoluca, Tzotzil, Chol, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, Zoque, Totonaco, Coca, Mame, Binnizá, Chinanteco, Ikoot, Mazateco, Chontal, Ñu Saavi, Chatino, Triqui, Afromestizo, Mehpa, Nancue Ñomndaa, Ñhato and Peninsular Mayas of the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Veracruz, Durango, Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Morelos, Mexico State, Guerrero, the Federal District, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Yucatán, and Campeche, as well as the Ixil, Quiche, Quechua and Nasa people of Guatemala, Peru, and Colombia, who have walked attentively alongside one another as children of the mother earth, gathered together on August 17th and 18th, 2013, in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, at the CIDECI-Unitierra facilities. We met to remember and to carry on the living word of our elder brother Tata Juan Chávez Alonso, who teaches and guides us and whose memory, one year after his death, has become a source of hope and strength for we as peoples who have re-founded and reconstituted ourselves in deciding to continue being the Indians that we are, to continue speaking the language that we speak, and to continue defending the territory where we live.
