Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

November 7, 2023

Zapastistas El Capitan: 'Do Dead People Sneeze?'


Marcos. Photo by Brenda Norrell

Second Part: Do dead people sneeze?


October 2023

By Captain Insurgent Marcos

Tradução em portugês (Portugués)
Traduzione Italiano (Italiano)
English Translation (Inglés)
Ελληνική μετάφραση (Griego)
Deutsch Übersetzung (Alemán)


SupGaleano died. He died just as he lived: unhappily.

Of course, he took care, before passing away, of returning the name to the one who is flesh and blood inherited from Master Galeano. He recommended keeping him alive, that is to say, fighting. So Galeano will continue walking in these mountains.

In all other regards, it was something simple. He started humming something like “I know I’m piantao, piantao, piantao”, and, just before he expired, he said, or rather asked: “Do dead people sneeze?”, and that’s it. Those were his last words. No sentence for history, nor for a tombstone, nor for an anecdote told in front of a fire. Only that absurd, anachronistic, extemporaneous question: “Do the dead sneeze?”