Pictures of a Zapatista Community

The River near the town we lived was our source for water, bath, and washing cloths. We, at times, would go to the river with a bunch of naked zapatista kids and have a hoot of a time swimming and laughing.
Nate doing a wash
Our afternoons and early evenings were filled with children.
Rosa, our german compañera, brought a little guitar along. Nate sang a song about a cow in spanish that the kids couldn´t get enough of.
We spent one afternoon with some women inspecting coffee beans before they went for sale. Nearly every wall has some sort of artwork. This one says "Our Education from the heart, our education born from the revolution."
In the mornings, children would bang on our door asking for classes. We were very careful to solely act as sources of information because we were observers and not actual members of the community. Most of the time we just counted beans and drew.
Nate hanging out with some of the kids.
Rosa in our room. She had a hammok. Nate and I slept on pieces of wood.
Counting beans.

A public ceremony celebrating the reclaimation of land. This land is very important for all the local communities. It is their source of water and was in the process of being sold. The sale would have been tragic for the livelihood of these communities. They would literally have dry up. Through much effort the Zapatistas succeeded in getting the land declared a landmark, making it safe from private ownership.
There has been much harrassment of the zapatistas. Cases of dissapearance, accidental deaths, and burning of communities is not rare. As a safety measure they wear masks. The mask, as a result has become a very important symbol in the Zapatista world.
A mural on the side of one of a building within the Junta Del Buen Gobierno, or board of the good government.
A few of the kids with whom we spent a lot of time. One of them is wearing my(Henry) glasses.
Another Mural of interest. The zapatistas have been accused of represing women, and they are working to exemplify the role of women in their culture. Women do play traditional roles, but they are not excluded from any part of decision making. More than half of the governmental officials we met were women.






(bad order)This sign was put up during the celebration of having declared an important water resource reserved. The sign basically says that this land is protected and reserved and the zapatista government systems that are responsible for the upkeep.
Christianity plays an important part in the lives of many Zapatistas.

Some quick notes about the Zapatistas

-Buisness done in the community is decided by the community. Individuals can work on their own, but anything done within the community is shared. It´s kind of like a cooperative that includes the whole town.

-Decisions done by the community and government are always done with unanamous votes. Majority does not rule. In order to make a decision everyone has to agree it's the right move.

-All of these communities are financially very poor. They are farmers that only want the freedom to feel in control of their work and their lives. Before being a part of a Zapatista community most of them were working the fields for pennies a day.

-The land on which most Zapatista communities reside are "reclaimed". Being poor farmers there is no possible way they could earn the money to buy the land, so they took it. It´s a fascinating concept and a source of much conflict. They just decided, with much strong leadership and organization, to claim land they had been working on their whole lives.

-They refuse any government services including health and education. They build their own clinics and schools for their own kids. They also refuse to pay any taxes.

Sorry... there´s a bunch more that´s burning on our brains about the Zapatistas, but we are running out of desire to sit in front of the computer. We just wanted to get something down before we headed back on the road. Wé will add more later as it gets categorized in our heads.

Posted by Nathan Toews and Henry Dick