The World’s A Stage, And Zapatista Women Are Writing Their Own Story

At the Encuentro (gathering) celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), former leader Subcomandante Marcos prefers to sit in the shadows. During another Subcomandente’s speech, a little girl on a pink bicycle pedals up to Subcomandante Marcos, who leans against a painted wall. With bobbing pigtails and expressive hands, she talks with him for a few minutes, undeterred by the unreadable expression behind a black balaclava and pipe. Her confidence and ease with the former leader highlights that the future of the Zapatistas lies with the boldness of its young women.  

This isn’t the first Encuentro for sociology professor and independent journalist Anna Rebrii, who snapped a photo of the moment. But at this Aniversario, Rebrii witnessed how the Zapatistas continue to evolve three decades after their famous armed uprising on January 1,1994. The movement, which published its manifesto and the Women’s Revolutionary Law on the day of the revolt, is famous for its frontline inclusion of Indigenous women. Over the years, their Encuentros invite international revolutionaries across the globe to engage in dialogues on building alternative futures.

“I often hear my students saying that the current system doesn't work in our favor, but there are no alternatives. The Zapatistas prove that indeed it's possible to build more humane, just alternatives,” Rebrii said. “The women within the movement have been able to secure their rights and freedoms for themselves, despite the overall conservative nature of the communities in which they live. Their dialogue with the global left has expanded the horizon of the women’s struggle, but the women have not just copied what other feminists across the world have been doing. They have used the dialogues to formulate their own vision and vocabulary appropriate for their specific cultural context."

Who Are The Zapatistas?

The Zapatistas formed in the early 1980’s in Chiapas, Mexico, which began as a coalition of leftist intellectuals and Indigenous communities who disagreed with the end of Mexico’s land distribution reforms. They planned their armed uprising the day the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, which they viewed as a threat to Indigenous land sovereignty. 

For several months, battles ensued between the Zapatista insurgents and State-trained paramilitary counterinsurgents. However, since the ceasefire initiated by the Mexican government in 1994, the masked Zapatistas no longer use arms, and instead focus more on supporting Indigenous communities across the state. Today, they occupy autonomous territory and recently announced the rotation of communal ownership with neighboring communities. 

“They’ve chosen the non-violent approach to solving whatever conflicts have emerged as a result of the state’s counterinsurgency war, usually conflicts over land with neighboring communities," Rebrii said. “Dialogue is the first line of defense. They haven’t abandoned their military structure. People still get trained.”

Many trained women choose to work as Milicianas, who protect their communities from harm if necessary, but mainly do organizing work. The Zapatistas are well-known for their organization skills: their autonomous territory consists of self-sufficient communities where women hold leadership positions. They follow the footsteps of Comandente Ramona, who helped pen the Women’s Revolutionary Law and traveled to the capital in 1996 with an EZLN caravan as part of the effort to pressure the Mexican government to accept Zapatista demands of “work, land, housing, food, health, education, independence, liberty, democracy, justice and peace."

“She's an important name in particular for the women's struggle, because she was this uneducated, Indigenous peasant woman whom the movement sent to speak in front of the Mexican government,” Rebrii said. "That was a powerful symbolic choice that also embodied the movement’s feminist principles.” 

The government never met the Zapatistas’ demands besides passing a “watered-down” Indigenous Law in 2001. Fed up, the EZLN decided to take matters into their own hands, building their own free clinics and schools to provide men and women with health and education. According to Rebrii, this was a stark contrast to most Indigenous communities, which did not encourage women’s education and political participation. For 30 years, the women have worked to break traditional gender roles while maintaining their culture. 

“They had to push back against Mexico’s mestiza urban feminists, who wanted them to condemn Indigenous traditions as backwards and patriarchal,” Rebrii said. “The Zapatista women responded, ‘No, sorry. We are Indigenous women. We fight for the autonomy of our Indigenous communities and we want to preserve traditions that we consider to be good while working to get rid of the traditions that we see as bad.’ They have their own way and their own vision and understanding of what gender equality is.”

Unafraid Of Reinvention

The government restructuring, which comes as a response against modern day threats, will change other aspects of daily life. Today the Zapatistas face challenges that include megaprojects like the Maya Train and Trans Isthmus Corridor, alongside rising cartel and paramilitary violence. The EZLN operates in alliance with directly impacted communities through the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), a resistance network formed in the 90s. The CNI even supported Marichuy, the first Indigenous woman to run for president in 2016.

“It's safe to say that the CNI was impacted by the Zapatistas in this regard, and that's why running an Indigenous woman candidate was possible,” Rebrii said. “A friend recently told me that  in the early 2000's, you wouldn't see women speaking on stage or in uniforms protecting the space, and now you do. There's been a huge change if you compare the way things were in the earlier phases.”

While Zapatista men and women more commonly share the labor of childcare, construction, teaching, healthcare, weaving, agriculture, and local leadership, there still remains work to do in achieving full gender equality across the Caracoles. However, Rebrii feels hopeful that the new generations will advance the EZLN into new horizons.

“You can just feel the self confidence that Zapatista women exude, especially young women, you can feel the way they walk and present themselves,” Rebrii said. “The younger generation grew up with the movement. That's the reality they know. That's what they learned at school. [Those are] the role models that they aspire to be. So I think the new generation will definitely take the struggle for gender equality way, way, way farther.”