Reading A Video (Part Six): Six Advances
26/08/2004
- Opinión
Since colonial times, the Indian peoples of Mexico have
suffered under conditions of extreme poverty. Despite having
been the social class which contributed the most in the
fight for independence, in the wars of resistance against
North American and French invaders, and in the Mexican
Revolution (and, if you'll allow me, in the current
democratization of the country - even though it's the
politicians and media who fight for the "limelight"), the
nation's debts to them have just kept piling up. If anyone
has given their lives and deaths so that this country which
is called Mexico could rise up as a sovereign, free and
independent nation, it has been the indigenous.
No movement has turned around to see how they were after the
victories or defeats. Whoever won, the Indian peoples lost.
Those who offered them improvements ended up enslaving them
on the haciendas. Those who offered them a free patria ended
up leaving them aside. Those who offered them democracy
ended up imposing governments and laws on them. But, as long
as Mexico's destiny has been at stake, the indigenous did
not hesitate, and they contributed the only thing they had:
their blood.
It has been almost 200 years since the independence of
Mexico. Two hundred years, and there are indigenous peoples
who are working and dying in conditions similar to those of
colonial times. The lands they had have been stripped from
them, sometimes violently, sometimes through deception.
Their color, language, dress, "way", have all been a cause
for shame, for mockery, for contempt. The name "Indian" has
been used as an insult, as a synonym for idler, for lack of
intelligence, for incompetence, for submission, for
servility.
After so much, it would have been odd if they had not risen
up in arms. But they did. And, despite having been the
object of ridicule and contempt by those with white skin,
they did not turn their war into a war against a color. And,
despite having been the object of deceptions and subjected
to lies by those who speak "castilla", they did not direct
their war against a culture. And, despite having always been
servants in the houses of those who have everything, they
did not spread destruction. They made a war, their war. They
are making it still. A war against the forgetting.
This country is lucky. Where others destroy, these
indigenous build. Where others separate, these indigenous
join together. Where others exclude, they include. Where
others forget, they remember. Where others are a burden for
everyone, they carry, among other things, our history. And
the EZLN is lucky for having been enveloped by these
peoples. If not...
If someone were to turn around and look at us, they would
see human beings, full of mistakes, defects, weaknesses,
stumbles, in sum, imperfect. And there's the problem,
because if they were supermen and superwomen, fine, then one
could understand what they have done. But since they are
just like anyone else, well then...how can I tell
you?...like someone said: "I also have to do
something...because no one is going to do it for me."
And this is what the zapatista peoples are doing. They're
not waiting for the government to give them charity and
speeches. They are working to improve their living
conditions, and they are achieving that. Paradoxically,
their conditions, although still a long way from being
ideal, are better than those communities which are receiving
federal "aid". And this can be confirmed live (videos, even
when they are being read, are limited), and it can be
investigated.
I am going to talk to now you about these improvements,
which have been possible because of the "third shoulder".
I'll try not to go on and on (I always intend to do that,
and then pages and pages appear, as if it were raining), but
I invite you to learn the details in the reports from each
of the Juntas, and, obviously, by visiting the Caracoles and
the communities and by speaking with the companeros.
Health and Education
Two of the advances have to do with health and education.
The "oversights" of the different federal governments in
these arenas have made "indigenous" synonymous with bad
health and ignorance.
Thanks to help from the "civil societies", the health of the
communities has begun to make a radical shift. Where there
had been death, there is beginning to be life. Where there
had been ignorance, there is beginning to be knowledge. In
sum, where there had been nothing, there is beginning to be
something good.
In Los Altos of Chiapas, for example, the health system is
providing free medical care and, as far as their resources
can reach, medicines are also free. This is possible because
of two things:
One is because of the economic support from civil society
that has allowed medical teams and medicines to be secured.
The other is because, instead of just concentrating on
treating illnesses, the health system is especially aimed at
preventative medicine. The objective is to reduce illnesses
and, therefore, the use of medicines. The free medical
service has been maintained, although with difficulties,
throughout the entire year of operation of the Good
Government Junta in Los Altos.
In the five regions where the Good Government Juntas are
operating, health campaigns are being carried out which
promote the use of latrines and the cleanliness of
dwellings. Campaigns are also being undertaken, although
they are just now becoming widespread, to fight chronic
illnesses (such as leshmaniasis or "chiclero ulcer") and
epidemics and in order to detect cancer in women. In order
to achieve this we have, in addition to financial support
for health projects, the solidarity (and in not a few cases,
heroic solidarity) of specialist physicians and nurses who,
stealing time from their rest, come to this land and
distribute knowledge (to midwives, "bonesetters", health
promoters and laboratory workers) and health to all the
communities.
The Third Shoulder For Raising Up Life.
Regional and municipal clinics are being built, they are
being equipped and companeros and companeras are being
trained to use them. In the Tojolabal region, the first
surgery was done on the first of August, and a laboratory
for processing medicinal plants is being equipped. There are
pharmacies in all the regions, which are being stocked with
money from the projects and donations.
Generally speaking, the Good Government Juntas are seeing to
it, little by little, that each of the Autonomous
Municipalities has a basic community health structure:
health promoters, health campaigns, preventative medicine,
micro-clinics, pharmacies, regional clinics, doctors and
specialists.
Regarding education, they are proceeding as they should
proceed in politics, that is, from below to above. Schools
are being built in all the communities (there were more than
50 this year in the entire region, and they still need
more), and those which already exist are being equipped
(there were some 300 this year), education promoters are
being trained (and they are taking refresher courses),
technological and secondary education centers are being
built (where the historic roots of Mexico will indeed be
taught).
Schoolteachers and builders, teaching specialists, men and
women with everyday names and faces, indigenous with and
without ski-masks, are raising schools and knowledge where
before there was nothing but ignorance.
Come. That way you will be able to see in various
communities in the different regions that a clinic has
appeared, a pharmacy, a school, that there's a lot of hubbub
because a doctor is going to examine the women for their
illnesses, that "Mariya" already knows how to write her name
and she can tell you that the ancient Mexicans had a very
advanced culture and now she wants to go to secondary school
but who knows if they send her, that a dentist is in the
clinic and he's going to pull and fix teeth, that there's a
party over there because the chalkboards and notebooks and
pencils and books have arrived, that Lencho was going to die
but he didn't and he-was-just-going-to-die-but-then-it's-
going-to-be-a-while-yet-then-just-normal, that the school is
really happy now, that the eye doctor has already come, that
Andulio is yelling because no one's found his pencil, that
there's a doctor who's a pediatrician and he's explaining to
a compa that his work isn't curing feet, that Uber is saying
"it wasn't me" and no one has asked him if he was the one
who grabbed Andulio's pencil, that there's a neurologist and
he helps if someone's thinking is bad and they feel faint,
that the children are going to be vaccinated, that those
trucks are carrying promoters who are going to a course in
the Caracol and who knows if the course is about health or
education because "you'll see that others will be going by
any time, and it wasn't like that before, no, before the
only thing you'd find in the roads was cows and oxen, don't
be offended...listen, you're not from here, right?, ah,
then, don't feel bad, I'll explain right now, listen, back
in 1994 all the Indians, or the masses like we say here,
rose up, and the zapatistas and then civil societies
and...listen, don't you want a pozol?, because the
explanation is going to take a while..."
Food, Land, Housing
From the urgent to the immediate. The problem of the
displaced (primarily the ones of Polho') is the one which
most concerns the good government in Los Altos of Chiapas.
Of the almost 3 and a half million pesos which Oventik
spent, approximately 2.5 million were earmarked for Polho'.
But not just for food. A municipal grocery store and a
cooperative for displaced women were built and put into
operation.
The good government sees far and is making progress in a
block-making project ("It's for making blocks for
construction," they explained to me when I asked if it were
for making brains for members of Fox' cabinet - I already
said there were "head-hunters" for the cabinet).
The block making can produce a chain reaction. In addition
to producing income for the compas (who can't go to their
"work" because of threats from paramilitaries), it will
notably reduce the price of construction materials, and they
can go about improving their houses. That's yet to happen,
but Polho''s "block making machine" has already started.
In order to improve everyone's nutrition, throughout the
five regions there have been put into operation cooperatives
for pig production ("No, they don't produce politicians,"
they clarified before I could pose the standard question),
for hens, sheep ("No, they aren't PAN deputies voting for
Lo'pez Obrador's ouster," they told me, and I'm damned if
I'm going to ask anything else), chickens and cattle (cows,
mules and the odd ox - without offending anyone), for
vegetables and for fruit trees.
They inform me from La Garrucha that "agro-ecological
promoters have been trained in our Autonomous Municipalities
so that they can have experience in taking care of the
environment, how to care for animals, how to vaccinate them
and how to make the recovered lands produce better, and
that's why we've made advances in each municipality."
They are carrying out projects for shoemaking workshops, as
well as for rice de-husking, mechanics ("We've already
repaired the tractor, now we just need gasoline"), one
called "sustainable technology, health at home, energy
saving and training" in La Realidad region. In addition to
distributing water tanks, builds energy saving wood stoves.
In several areas there are blacksmithing workshops, potable
water projects, textile workshops and beehive production.
And so, on various flanks and with the help of the "civil
societies", the land, housing and food are improving.
With words from the selva: "Up to this point we have
improved the food a bit thanks to the lands which were
recovered from the great fincas, because we're harvesting
more maize and beans there, and the agro-ecological
projects. Thanks to our organization, we've been able to
greatly reduce alcoholism, which has allowed us to use the
little money we have for food. We've also been able to
improve our houses, though not much, but now we have better
roofs, cleaner houses, with larger spaces for planting fruit
trees, vegetables, flowers and to have animals outside the
house."
Linked with these three things is commercialization.
The "coyotes" have been displaced with regional stores (in
the region of La Realidad, one is called "Everything for
Everyone" - which sounds, to me, like an invitation for
looting - another is called "El Caracolito", another "Don
Durito"; in the Morelia region, they are called "warehouse
centers", and there you can get coffee, brown sugar, crafts,
embroidery, clay pots, ceramic dishes, candles, baskets,
furniture - all produced by the communities and at low
prices - in Roberto Barrios there are 3 regional
warehouses). Included in the project is the acquisition of
transportation for moving goods. In this way the number of
cooperative stores and diners are increasing.
The primary advances made in zapatista autonomy, during the
period of the Good Government Juntas, have had to do with
improvement of living conditions, yes, but not just that...
Governing and Governing Oneself
Perhaps the most important advance which we see is that we
are learning to build, not without failures and stumbling
blocks, a good government:
"We've learned how to resolve our problems, how to
make agreements with other organizations and
authorities, and also with our communities, during
this time, we've learned a lot about governing in
each municipality, and we've learned that that way
it's not easy for the bad government to corrupt
us, because we've learned our form of government
through rotation, with the experience of everyone
and being guided by vigilance.
"This has been a great learning experience
throughout the year that it's not easy to buy us
off with a soft drink.
"Another thing we've learned is to deal with
people from other cultures and other countries...
"We've learned through work, resolving problems,
at first we were nervous, before each municipality
organized themselves how they wanted, now the
municipalities have learned to work together,
fairly, we've also learned to talk with other
people who aren't from our organization. Now we
know that they aren't our enemies, what happens is
that they're being deceived, but we see that
little by little they're starting to learn and
making agreements with us..."
"Each municipal authority takes to his
municipality what he's learned in the junta, some
of us have learned how to make acts of agreement,
to draw up projects, to operate equipment like
computers, the Internet, photo copiers, telephones
and other equipment which we're learning to
operate..."
"We appreciate the fact that politically we have
advantages, we've learned to do the work through
sacrifice. It's changed from before, we've made
mistakes, but that's how we're learning, little by
little.
"The advantages we see: all of us were
governments, we didn't have any leaders, it was a
collective government, so all of us were taught
what each person knows, the projects are fairly
distributed, social organizations came to our
office when their problems weren't being
solved..."
"Inside the Good Government Junta we don't need
translators, we have different languages and so
anyone can come, whether Tzeltal, Tzotzil,
Tojolabal and Spanish, we can understand each
other in our own language..."
These are the advances we have seen and felt in one year of
the Good Government Juntas.
But what if I'm just lying, what if I'm just talking abut
this so you think we've improved.
That's why I'm telling you to come, to walk the villages and
then they will add the audio and image to this video...
(To be continued...)
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, August of 2004. 20 and 10.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, August of 2004. 20 and 10.
https://www.alainet.org/en/active/6729
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