Photo by Alejandro Meléndez Ortiz /Desinformémonos /Resumen Latinoamericano, 30 de diciembre de 2024
Photo by Radio Pozol
Autonomy and Balance, Zapatista Women Feel the Freedom
CHIAPAS -- Zapatista Women spoke of their roles as women and the new autonomy that being Zapatistas has brought them. They spoke of the balance in their lives, of loading firewood, planting and gathering beans and sharing their stories with their partners, during the Roundtable of Zapatista Women at the meeting of Rebellion and Resistance on Sunday.
Zapatista women said that today education is available to them, and some are learning to be surgeons and to operate ultrasounds for sonograms. They are working in health fields for the prevention of diseases. Some were able to travel to Europe on the Journey for Life, and others are working in stores, the grocery, shoe, and fruit stores, while others take care of accounts.
They spoke of the equality of men and women -- in the fields, in the home and raising children -- and identified the enemy they battle as the capitalist system that brings misery to people.
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Our Grandmothers Taught Us to Fight or Our Freedom
"Our grandmothers understood that we must fight for our freedom and for our rights as women that we are. They were the ones, first companions, who made changes in their way of living and work."
Those brave grandmothers faced the Mexican military without weapons.
"Without weapons," she said, "only with their hands, with their voice, with their words."
The grandmothers also faced the Mexican military and guided the families, the pregnant women and the sick children to a shelter in a large cave.
"We must not stop fighting yet. We must continue fighting, because if you stop fighting, those bad times will come again."
"Comrades, repression, persecution, will come."
"Life tells us to organize."
"Our people walked in the cold in the rain, in the mud and on thorns, sharp stones."
"Everything they found mattered because they did the work. That is now recognized because most of our colleagues are from that generation."
"Our companions tell us that we must be strong and organized to confront all the evils that exist."
"There are exemplary comrades like Comrade Commander Ramona and other companions who we know left us the great heritage of knowing this Rebellion of being a woman, and to understand that we have a place in the construction of our lives in this autonomy and within the organization."
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Zapatista Youths: Autonomy in Collectives
During the panel, one young woman said their grandmothers had suffered, but conditions are now different for women.
"We have another life as young people within our struggle, within our organization. We as young people already feel that we have that ability, or that freedom, to hold our own meetings to discuss, give an opinion, propose, and organize some kind of collective work."
"That is also the way we fight as young people because that is where we give ourselves, we realize that it is not necessary to have a large studio because when making art -- it is not just a painting, a song or a play, but it has to represent something within our struggle, whether it is a story of our struggle, our achievements, our changes, because it is how things are happening to us."
"We are destroying the capitalist system in different ways because this is what we have."
"Our mothers gave us the freedom of choosing how to participate in the struggle."
"Now as young women, we decide what it is that we want," she said, describing how women are organizing sports, learning to ride bicycles and motorcycles, and learning to drive cars.
Speaking of autonomy, she said, "We have learned many things in this sense. That is freedom and respect."
Remembering the guidance of the mothers and grandmothers over the past thirty years of exercising this autonomy, and those who gave their lives, she said, "We feel that freedom."
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| Screenshot by Censored News Zapatista women said the work -- the achievements and the changes -- have not been easy. "The work we have done has not been perfect, because it is not easy. There are always failures, errors, and difficulties. We have made errors and we have learned from those errors, we have criticized and self-criticized ourselves to correct mistakes." "There is no book, there is no manual where it tells us how we have to do it." The Zapatista Army of National Liberation began the International Meetings of Resistance and Rebellion in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, on Saturday, Dec. 28, as part of the commemorative activities of their 31st anniversary. The International Meetings of Resistance and Rebellion took place at the Cideci community cultural center, with four discussion tables: The Storm: the crime, the executioner and the victims; The Storm, Mexico chapter; Genealogy of the Zapatista Commons, and The Watchman's Cofa: A long view of yesterday.  |
Enlace Zapatista
Watch all sessions from Saturday and Sunday
Read more:
Censored News Series Day 1
Live from Chiapas: Resistance and Rebellion
Marcos speaks on the history of the past 31 years, the destruction of nature for capitalism, and how the resistance continues. By Censored News.
Day 2
Zapatista Women Feel the Freedom: Autonomy and Balance, Rebellion and Resistance
Zapatista Community Leaders at Rebellion and Resistance
Our Grandmothers Taught us to Fight
by Edgar H Clemente, LaJornada
On the second day of the Resistance and Rebellion meetings, as part of the activities for the 31st anniversary of the armed uprising of the EZLN, the discussion tables Women and The First Steps of the Common Zapatista were held.
“The grandmothers helped us understand that we have to fight for our rights,” they explained. “They faced the Army and the paramilitaries without weapons, with their voice and their word. In times of displacement, they walked through mud and thorns, they guided children and pregnant women through the mountains. They worked so that the people could live,” they recalled.
Fellow sisters, women seekers, for us you are also Zapatistas because you do not give up, you do not sell out and you do not give in , said one of the attendees.
Sunday's Schedule
Sunday, December 29, 2024. Cideci-Unitierra venue. SCLC, Chiapas, Mexico.
Rebellion and Resistance Table Part II. Women.
Participants: Anselma, Otomí comrade from the House of Indigenous Peoples and Communities “Samir Flores Soberanes”. Sylvia Marcos. Women Commanders from CCRI-CG of the EZLN and authorities of the Collective Assemblies of Zapatista Autonomous Governments.
1200 hrs. Cideci-Unitierra. SCLC, Chiapas, Mexico.
Zapatista Rebellion and Resistance Table. Part III.
The First Steps of the Zapatista Common.
Sub Commander Insurgent Moisés, members of the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and health promoters of the Zapatista Autonomous Health System
The Watchtower: Signs towards tomorrow.
Captain Insurgent Marcos.
1700 hrs. Cideci-Unitierra. SCLC, Chiapas, Mexico.
Zapatista Cultural Festival and signatories of the Declaration for Life.
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