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Yesterday, 1,700 students from around the world enrolled in the first Zapatistas
school, held at the University of the Peoples Land of Chiapas. (WNV/Moyss
Ziga Santiago)
Last December, tens of thousands ofindigenous Zapatistas mobilized, peacefully and in
complete silence, to occupy five municipal government office buildings in the state of
Chiapas, Mexico. That same day, which coincided with the end of one cycle on the Maya
calendar, Zapatistas released a communiqu, asking, Did you hear it?
It appears that the answer was yes, because this week thousands of people from around
the world are descending on Chiapas for the Zapatistas first organizing school, called la
escuelita de libertad, which means the little school of liberty. Originally the group allotted
for only 500 students. But so many people wished to enroll that they opened an additional
1,200 slots for the weeklong school, which begins on August 12.
Just as the Zapatistas have, for two decades, rejected hierarchical systems, the escuelita
will also eschew traditional teaching models. Instead, it will be an open space for the
community to learn together.
There isnt one teacher, wrote Subcomandante Marcos, the spokesperson for the
Zapatista movement. Rather, it is the collective that teaches, that shows, that forms, and
in it and through it the person learns, and also teaches.
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community and participate both in the school and in the daily life of the community.
Participants will cut wood, work in the cornfields and cook and eat with their host families.
Subcomandante Marcos acknowledged that attending this type of school requires shifting
ones way of thinking about learning and indigenous communities. As he asked in a
communiqu:
Leading up to the school, the Zapatistas published a series of seven communiqus
entitled Them and Us. These essays illustrated the absurdities of those from above
those who hold coercive and repressive power trampling the freedoms of those from
below. The writings also spoke to the need to learn by observing and listening in order to
build an alternative world. But more than abstractions, the seven publications were a
collection of lessons about how everyday life in the Zapatista communities, including how
people resolve problems and how they organize themselves into an autonomousnetworks in which the people rule and the government obeys.
The last installation of this manual, published on March 27, also announced the
upcoming escuelita and outlined three requirements necessary for any applicant: an
indisposition to speaking and judging, a disposition to listening and seeing, and a
well-placed heart.
The Zapatistas are unique not only for challenging power or maintaining their resistance
for nearly 20 years. What sets them apart is their ever-evolving definition of liberty, and
this topic liberty according to the Zapatistas will be the central focus of the school.
According to Subcomandante Marcos, liberty is to govern and govern ourselves
according to our ways, in our geography and in this calendar. But the definition also
shifts from generation to generation, and Marcos explains that new generations must find
their own paths through rebellion and dignity.
The experience of living with Zapatistas and other indigenous families will be another
central part of the school. Some students will stay with families living in autonomous rebel
Would you attend a school taught by indigenous teachers, whose motherWould you attend a school taught by indigenous teachers, whose mother
tongue is typified as dialect?tongue is typified as dialect?
Could you overcome the temptation to study them as anthropologicalCould you overcome the temptation to study them as anthropological
subjects, psychological subjects, subjects of law or esoterism, or history?subjects, psychological subjects, subjects of law or esoterism, or history?
Would you overcome the urge to write a report, interview them, tell themWould you overcome the urge to write a report, interview them, tell them
your opinion, give them advice, orders?your opinion, give them advice, orders?
Would you see them, that is to say, would you listen to them?Would you see them, that is to say, would you listen to them?
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families. These hundreds of families have all agreed on a votn, a person who, in the
Zapatista movement, represents a guardian and the heart of the community. The
will translate for the families and the foreign students, although Marcos acknowledges
that translation itself is an imperfect process.
In legal cases, do cultures translate? he questions. In that sense, one understands thatwhat they call equality under the law is one of the greatest travesties of justice in our
world.
As for final evaluations, the school wont, unsurprisingly, have an exam, a thesis, or a
multiple-choice test. Rather, as Marcos explained, the school will make its own reality,
and the results will be a mirror.
The school began after three days of festivals in rebel communities to celebrate the
10-year anniversary of the councils of good governance, the Zapatistas autonomous
governing system in which the community makes decisions and the government carries
them out. During the celebrations, one could see empty buses and vans parked along the
streets to Ocosingo and Palenque, waiting to transport the 1,700 students from San
Cristobal de Las Casas into the rebel communities the following morning.
Earlier this summer, the Zapatistas announced that future escuelitas in the Zapatista
communities will be held this coming winter.
Related Posts
Urgent message from the Zapatistas of San Marcos Avils July 27, 2012
Zapatistas: to be heard, we march in silence December 21, 2012
Urgent Need for Zapatista Supporters to Spread Truth January 7, 2011
The Time That Has Come May 19, 2012
The moral and organizational strength of the EZLN December 16, 2012
Israel-Mexico: Military Cooperation to Crush ZapatistasMay 31, 2013
This articleThis article was originally published at Waging Nonviolencewas originally published at Waging Nonviolence
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Ambience of Belonging May 27, 2013
Good Government Under Siege August 31, 2012
Surmounting Cynicism July 27, 2012
Civil Society Versus the State August 11, 2012
Liberation Lexicon January 28, 2013
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