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PRESENT
COLORFUL TRACKS OF DEFIANCE
RESEARCH, SCRIPT AND DIRECTION BY CRISTINA HIJAR GONZÁ***
A territory is not just a patch of land; it's where we sow maize...
...where we are born, where we get married, where we have children...
It's the forests, the animals, the sacred places, the caves, the lakes, the hills.
We, the peoples, are the territory.
The General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation...
...we kindly welcome you...
...to this place where the worlds converge.
One of the dignified corners of our nation...
...now called Caracol of Resistance and Rebellion for Humanity...
...Oventic, San Andrés Sacamch'em de los Pobres municipality...
...Chiapas, Mexico.
Part of the work of the Zapatista peoples...
...is to learn and imagine...
...new things, such as learning...
...to create their own songs...
...music, poetry, plays, and drawings.
They are now the ways...
...used to protest and express oneself...
...especially for the young.
Polito Santo
one never drinks love
and never disposes of it.
As I promised you
I'm keeping it for you
My dear, my heart loves you
because you make it sigh.
No more humiliation and contempt.
We want a world where all worlds fit.
Long live the Zapatistas! Long live the autonomous municipality...
...here in Polhó!
Our fellow women are widows and rebels.
Go forward, true women and men of the Earth!
Listen to this cumbia I am going to sing
Listen to this cumbia I am going to sing
Come, come, come, to fight for culture
Come, come, come, to fight for justice
Come, come, come, because there's lots of democracy
Come, come, come, because there's lots of liberty
We understand that art...
...is knowing how to build our experiences.
You are in Zapatista territory...
...where the people command and the government obeys.
This is the heart. It all began here.
Here live the main characters the insurgents.
Those without a face who shouted "That's enough!"...
...on January 1, 1994.
They are the same from that day; indigenous people and peasants.
But they are new. They have taken back that which was always theirs...
...and they build and walk in resistance.
They are rebel dignity.
You are in Zapatista territory...
...where the people command and the government obeys.
With the indigenous uprising...
...the Zapatista Army of National Liberation...
...and the Zapatista grassroots support...
...in compliance with the Revolutionary Agricultural Law ...
...conduct the reclamation of idle lands and landed estates...
...to be redistributed as collective property...
...among landless peasants and agricultural day laborers.
And also for the building of centers of fair trade and cooperatives...
...of community health services, of free education...
...of entertainment, of services and housing.
As time went by, all of this resulted...
...in the construction of new buildings in Zapatista territory.
Today there are 40 Zapatista rebel autonomous municipalities, MAREZ...
...grouped in the 5 Caracoles, created in August, 2003.
It wasn't only a new geographical and political organization...
...but a symbolic one, too.
From the renaming of communities and municipalities...
...the christening of the Caracoles...
...their corresponding regional governments...
...and, of course, to the mural decoration of the new buildings.
The subjective and objective process of appropriation...
...by the autonomous and in-resistance subject...
...was on its way.
Knowledge production doesn't originate only from analysis and awareness...
...but also from action, from struggle.
The street, jail, the mountain, a strike...
...the ever-present barricade, resistance and rebellion...
...in a context of repression are cognitive too.
Since 1994...
...artists and cultural workers...
...began to arrive in Chiapas to provide the Zapatista movement...
...with their significant skills and resources.
Among others were those who would make up...
...the Metropolitan Convention of Artists...
...and Cultural Workers:
Checo Valdez, Javier Campos...
...internationalist groups and Gustavo Chávez...
...muralist and promoter of more than 50 murals...
...and graffiti in the Chiapas Highlands.
And for example, outside...
...De la Guadalupana, there's a *** Mary...
...to which we drew a neckerchief. People always say...
...that it was the first.
But it seems it was the first *** with a neckerchief.
And they told us that lots of people used to visit...
...the Guadalupana and lit candles and whatnot...
...and they'd perform some rites as they did in Polhó's church.
It's about the local people getting involved.
People from the stores and the cooperatives have to get involved somehow.
People like all of this.
It's very different in the communities.
There's also a strong appropriation of the symbols...
...of the colors, of the production of the images made there.
And also of what each character represents.
It works for them and it's for them.
Regardless of the criticism...
...regardless of it being art or not...
...its the communities' and it's what they want.
Long live Zapata! Long live the EZLN!
Long live the indigenous peoples' dignity!
Long live the hearts' rebellious tenderness!
Another thing we want to share...
...has to do with the murals, which for us...
...are very important...
...because they're another way to recount...
...or to tell our story.
Even though we had problems at the beginning...
...because the brothers and sisters, the painters...
...came and painted what they wanted or what was in their heads...
...but we realized...
...that in the end we didn't understand...
...because only they knew.
Later on, we asked them to work with us...
...to say what we wanted to say.
Then, some teams of muralists...
...began to be created.
Now we, that is, the people...
...say what is it that we want...
...to be painted...
...so that anyone who pays us a visit...
...can be told the meaning of the murals.
We work together.
A different world is possible.
The educational system has the most errands for me...
...and they think...
...the tasks of culture have to be...
...essential for the student profile.
In this specific profile, the authorities consider...
...artistic activities to be essential.
Their purpose is...
...to have an impact on the students' sensitivity...
...for the children's creativity.
Because this revolution has to be creative, doesn't it?
More than stiffly political, it's about it...
...being creative and innovating many things.
So, in the Zapatista rebel school system......
...there's a strong intention for...
...cultural and artistic activities...
...to be essential.
Not dead letter as in our Constitution, but something...
...essential, something strong.
And when we paint the murals the children are there...
...but during the schedule...
...provided for them by the education promoters.
Rubén Jaramillo Autonomous School El Mango, EZLN
Welcome to the Zapatista Municipal School
Municipal Autonomous Zapatista School
I come from the jungle to sing to my friends...
...and fight along their people in search of freedom.
I come from the jungle to sing to my friends...
...and fight along their people in search of freedom.
Because in our nation there's a lot of inequality.
Our peoples suffered for more than 500 years.
I come from the jungle to sing to my friends...
...and fight along their people in search of freedom.
I come from the jungle to sing to my friends...
...and fight along their people in search of freedom.
Zapatista murals are nowadays an important example...
...of community identity.
The communties require them, define them...
...make them their own and use them to mark their territory in resistance.
Aesthetic rebellion. Art as a means of communication...
...and serving the struggling people.
They have an effect and the communities themselves...
...take them up when they notice they can create their own art...
...and that this form of art, mural painting...
...that is communal and rebellious art in the communities...
...is a form of cultural fight and resistance.
Here lies the importance of our work:
Sharing art as you would a delicious bowl of beans.
Because in the rebellious and autonomous areas of Chiapas...
...we eagerly want to participate...
...by filling walls with rebelliousness and polychromatic hope...
...since rebellious and autonomous education is a tough fight against imposed...
...ignorance, silence and death, because...
...the rebel walls are dressing themselves in colors...
...and creating a dynamic culture...
...that authors its own ways of seeing and making life...
...a culture of dignity and of struggle for freedom.
Our walls are not for oppressing and locking up people.
They are for giving color to life and freedom, EZLN.
That's why the work goes on like this.
We don't give it up.
That's how it's going to be for the ones being raised.
I'm already withering...
...I'm old, so...
...it's the young ones who have to think...
...this will be their job.
This job won't go away...
...everything's been built and ready for them to work.
We only want them...
...to work happily.
Those who are growing up, all of this is for them.
We have set everything....
There are jobs already.
The new seed that bears fruit.
Democracy, liberty, justice. EZLN.
Radio Resistencia's mailbox.
The typical cultures of the peoples...
...are an important part of the autonomy...
...and the resistance of the communities...
...and the autonomous municipalities.
Culture is also a right, and it's culture...
...what defines us as indigenous peoples...
...as the Mayan peoples that we are.
We can see the horizon...
Postcript:
Our male and female comrades are being attacked.
We who have waged war know how to identify...
...the way it works and comes.
The signs of war on the horizon are clear.
Anyway, that's how it is.
Maybe now the tone of "I entrust this to you" will be understood.
Subcommander Marcos December 2007