Narco News 2001
Day Three
of Zapatista Caravan...
From Puebla,
the City of Angels...
50,000
Chant...
"¡Culeros!"
...at Rock Groups
in TV "Peace Concert"
Carlos Santana Says
He Won't Play For It
Puebla Square "Filled Like Never Before"
...While European Parliament
says:
"Keep Your
Promises, Mr. Fox"
EZLN
ROCKS MEXICO
A Narco News Bulletin
Special Report
By Al Giordano
from Puebla, Mexico
The world is living immediate history through Mexico,
again, because of the Zapatistas, on a 14-day Caravan to Mexico
City to demand indigenous autonomy from the federal Congress.
Last night, Tuesday, February
27th, the Central Square of the City of Angels, Puebla, capital
of the State of Puebla, was filled like never before to greet
the 24 Zapatista Delegates on their way to Mexico City.
The seven indigenous ethnic
groups - comprising one million of the state's five million citizens
- were heavily represented. They came by truck, car, horse and
foot to the state capital, all the ethnic groups: hñahñúes,
tepehuas, popolocas, mixtecos, totnacos, mazatecos y nahuas.
There, they and the Zapatistas were received by tens of thousands
of youths, and a local reception committee dominated by poblanos
(people from Puebla) under thirty, most closer to twenty. And
it was, so far, the best-organized, most heavily-attended act
along the Zapatista Caravan route. About two-thirds of the young
organizers were women.
This is the new Mexico,
and the hope for Mexico's future. Indeed, kind reader, if you
have been reading these pages, then you have at least listened
to the theory that this movement represents all of América's
future.
The future has a name:
Autonomy.
It has a route: Struggle.
It has an engine: Youth.
It has a brain: Experience.
And, most importantly,
it has a heart.
That heart has a history:
Indigenous.
And as Subcomandante Marcos,
born Mestizo, said in the city of Tehuacan, flanked by 23 masked
Zapatista comandantes of the Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Chol and Tojolabal
ethnic groups, before arriving in Puebla's capital: "Who
are the indigenous? The indigenous are those of us who remember...
"
Every victorious revolution
in human history has shared one factor: Youth, at the front lines
of an inter-generational movement. So when the 40-something Subcomandante
Marcos; and the (returned?) fifty-something Zapatista advisor
Fernando Yáñez Muñoz, now coordinating the
indigenous movement's negotations with the federal congress;
and the eighty-something Felix Serdan, guerrilla of the 1950s
and '60s of Zapata's state of Morelos; and a silver-haired indigenous
leader from the Sierra Norte, Rufina; and the young firebrand
of the Indigenous National Congress Cándida Jiménez
(and U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone and Mexican television and movie
actress Ofelia Medina were also alongside the rally stage last
night) are joined - and in fact organized by - the youth of Puebla,
something is happening here.
(Our valued "of counsel"
General at Narco News, the 90-something member of the Indigenous
National Congress, don Andrés Vasquez Santiago, is covering
the events in the state of Hidalgo tonight as we translate and
write this report from last night. We have just heard from him
by telephone, and before we sleep, we will post the exciting
news from the State of Hidalgo, with massive attendance by 20,000
members of an isolated indigenous community supporting the Zapatistas,
even as a rainstorm struck. See page one of www.narconews.com for the next update.)
Meanwhile, this same Tuesday,
the General Strike Committee (CGH) of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM) and other movements, national and
international, offered creative protests against the World Economic
Forum in the Caribbean tourist resort of Cancún. See the
Chiapas
Indy Media page
for the horrible but true facts: Mexico president Vicente Fox
was at the forum, trying to convince the indifferent world economic
tyrants that the Zapatista Caravan was his idea, but contradicted
by his own Federal Preventive Police Force (PFP) that brutalized
peaceful demonstrators gathered against the neoliberal conclave
in Cancún. Journalists were beaten bloody. One demonstrator,
a Oaxaca native, disappeared, Tlalteloco massacre-style, after
being arrested by police. As Fox speaks of "change"
in Mexico, now even the pristine beaches of Cancún are
covered with the blood of of regimes past and present.
As, on this same Tuesday,
the U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher mumbled that
Washington hopes the Zapatista Caravan leads to peace negotiations,
while claiming his government does not meddle in Mexican affairs.
Yet still, the US permits the 1970s dark fixer for Pinochet in
Chile, Jeffrey Davidow, to continue as ambassador to Mexico.
And since Fox's February 16th meeting with US President George
W. Bush in Mexico, his administration has turned newly aggressive
and disingenuous regarding the Zapatista Caravan and the San Andrés
Peace Accords,
yet to be complied with by the government that signed them in
Chiapas. Washington doesn't meddle in Mexican affairs? If anyone
believes that, we would love to publish your opinion as a dissenting
view.
The European Parliament,
however, receiving Mexican
Secretary of State Jorge Castañeda today in Brussels, informed: It wants Fox to comply
with his campaign promises. And it will be sending delegates
to Mexico City March 11th to greet the Zapatista Delegates at
the Zócalo.
There is more, much more,
and the list of "culeros" (it means, roughly, "treasonous
assholes") grows as the Zapatista Caravan disproves, right
here, right now, the lies of years of official propaganda that
claimed Zapatismo is an isolated movement.
Today, Zapatismo roars.
Today, more than at any
commercially-fueled TV concert, the Zapatistas rock.
When, last night, one
of the young organizers of Puebla at the microphone, awaiting
the arrival of the Zapatista Delegates, mentioned the Televisa-Azteca
"Concert for Peace" and the rock groups Maná
and Los Jaguares who will perform at the March 3rd televised
"peace concert," complete with Woodstock-style logo,
as parodied here:
...the youths in the crowd,
tens of thousands, shouted spontaneously: "¡Culeros!
¡Cooooolerooooohhhhs!," again and again. (Televisa
stock, by the way, fell by two percent in the New York Stock
Exchange today, the day after.)
And as icing on the rebel
cake, Mexican-American musician Carlos Santana, who at the Woodstock
1994 concert, in a t-shirt featuring Emiliano Zapata and the
Virgin of Guadelupe, announced, "my heart is with Subcomandante
Marcos and the Zapatistas," was also in Mexico on Tuesday.
He was in his hometown in the State of Jalisco. There, he made
lie of the Televisa-Azteca Maná-Jaguares claim that he
would perform at the
March 3rd televised "peace concert." He handled it diplomatically.
"I've promised my wife and children I would be a full-time
father and husband this year," said the rock legend. But,
still, he broke all illusion, offered by the TV propagandists
and the nefarious business interests that own and direct both
national TV networks, that he would perform at this spurious
event. Not so, said Carlos Santana. ¡Oye Como Va!
Today's steep fall of
Televisa in the New York Stock Exchange cannot be exclusively
blamed on its naked attempt, with "competitor" TV Azteca,
to co-opt the indigenous movement through a televised rock concert
by musicians now seen as culeros by their former fans. In fact,
most Mexican industries fell in the international Stock Markets
today, owing to a statement made by US Federal Reserve Board
chairman Alan Greenspan that the question of interest rates will
not be tackled by the Fed until March 20th. As predicted by Narco News on January
21st, in our translation
of La Jornada columnist Jaime Avilés, the peso would fall
in relation to the dollar during the Zapatista Caravan, as it
fell today, due to a blatant attempt by economic powers to create
chaos in the wake of the immediate history - a lame attempt to
blame the poor for the consequences of the decisions of the rich.
The Zapatista Caravan
has frightened the powerful, so accustomed to giving orders and
to having them obeyed.
In the next few days,
Narco News will begin its "Culero
Watch 2001"
page, listing each
and every of the "treasonous assholes" - hey, we're
just reporting what was said! - who, through their public statements,
have revealed their fear of the writing on the wall: Now is the
moment of arrival for the indigenous movement - and the local
and individual autonomy for which it stands. Or, as Marcos said
in Tehuacan, Puebla, yesterday morning: The San Andrés
Accords, if faithfully complied with, mean "that the indigenous
will no longer take orders from anyone."
The neo-culeros have lately
voiced one last line of defense. They say, "Marcos is not
leading an indigenous movement. He is leading a revolutionary
movement that is aimed at the entire citizenry."
We ask, could there realistically
be any difference between the two?
Here are some translations
and reports from Days Three (and some still from Day Two) of
the Zapatista Caravan, published below.
From somewhere in a country
called América,
That is to say, from the
state of autonomy,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
Originally published in
Spanish by the EZLN
______________________
Translated by irlandesa
Words
of the EZLN in Tehuacan
Indigenous Náhuatl,
Popoloc, Mixtec, Totonac and
Mazatec Brothers and Sisters Who Are Gathered Today
In Tehuaca (Tehuacán), Puebla:
Brothers and Sisters of
Tehuacán Civil Society:
We want to thank all of
you for the honor you are extending us by receiving
us on your lands.
We, the zapatistas, know
the historic role that the indigenous of these
lands have played throughout the history of Mexico, and that
is why we are
all trying now to understand our history as indigenous. And
that is why we
have to search in our memory.
The indigenous of our
lands recount that, a very long time ago, men were
not men, but rather birds of many colors, of varied songs and
of high
flights.
And these birds did many
and varied things.
For example, it was the
birds who touched things in the world and went
about painting their colors. Because in its beginning the world
was gray,
and it was these birds which gifted it with color.
And there were others,
for example, who let loose their song wherever they
went, and they were so beautiful that they turned into other
birds and flew
from one place to the other, singing songs that birthed songs.
Because in
its beginning the world was mute, and it was these birds which
gifted it
with music.
And there were some others
who made trails and they walked them over and
over so they would turn into path, and in that way no one would
lose the
route or destination of their flight. Because in its beginning
the world
had neither route nor destination in its flight.
And other birds were born
and broke the silences. And so they gave sound
and word to the world. Because in its beginning the world had
neither
sounds nor silences, it was only noise.
With the world painted,
the paths drawn, the silences and sounds set, these
birds made themselves men so the thousand colors the world had
painted
could be seen, so the paths with route and destination could
be trod, so
the silences could be heard and spoken and the sounds and words
lived which
had been thought and felt.
Because our most ancient
recount that words are sounds which are lived, not
the noise which fills.
Brothers and Sisters:
We are indigenous, and
many people ask who the indigenous are.
We, the indigenous, are
the guardians of history.
In our memory we guard
all colors, all routes, all words and all silences.
We live so that memory
might live, and, living, not be lost.
We, the indigenous, are
those who, based on the color we are of the earth,
paint the first colors of the many which live in the world.
We, the indigenous, are
those who signal the time from which we came, our
past living today so that it will not be lost and we will not
be lost.
We are also those who
auger tomorrow which is to come, with more and all
colors and the common destiny of all we auger.
We, the indigenous, are
those who make the silence and also those who
unmake it with words which look at both sides. That, and nothing
else, is
what history is.
And if, before, we were
birds of many colors, of varied and high flight,
now we indigenous are guarding that memory so that human beings
might once
again be the great color which all colors contain, the singers
of all
sounds, and those of many and high flights.
And, if someone asks who
we indigenous in Mexico are, all of us shall
respond:
We, the indigenous, are
both those who walk the path and the path itself,
we are those who are walking today so that Mexico shall not become
lost and
so that it can then become, with everyone and in enough time,
the nation of
all colors, the one of multiple songs, the one of high flights.
Thank you Brothers and
Sisters of Tehuacán!
Vivan the Mexican Indigenous!
Vivan All Mexicans!
From Tehuacán,
Puebla.
Clandestine Revolutionary
Indigenous Committee -
General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico, February of 2001.
Words
of the EZLN in Puebla
February 27, 2001.
In Puebla, Puebla.
Indigenous Brothers and
Sisters Gathered Today in
Puebla de los Angeles, Puebla:
Brothers and Sisters of
Puebla Civil Society:
Worker and Campesino Brothers
and Sisters:
Brothers and Sisters from
the Barzón:
Town of Puebla:
Through my voice speaks
the voice of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation.
We wish to say that it
is an honor for us, the zapatistas, to be able to
set foot on the dignified Puebla soil.
Because flourishing on
Puebla soil is the wise struggle of the indigenous,
of the workers, of the campesinos, of the teachers, of the students,
of the
housewives, of neighbors, of honest religious men and women,
of
professional persons, of the employed, of small and mid-sized
business
owners, of debtors, of committed artists and intellectuals, of
homosexuals
and lesbians, of women, of the old ones, of the youth, of the
children.
So much wisdom and so
much dignity will undoubtedly make us, the
zapatistas, better.
That is why we have come
to Puebla.
To learn from you.
Thank you for allowing
us to be students of the great lesson you give those
who walk this land and these times.
Thank you Puebla!
We wish to pay our regards
to the memory of two people from Puebla who died
some time ago in order to give voice to those of us had no voice.
I am
speaking of Julieta Glockner and Francisco Cabrera Huerta.
Brothers and Sisters:
We have reached the gates
of the Valley of Mexico.
From here forward, our
march, the March of Indigenous Dignity, the march of
the color of the earth, will begin to make a circle around the
valley where
the Powers reside.
This circle will be extended
from these Puebla lands, and, tracing their
arch of dignity by the states of Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Querétaro,
Guanajuato,
Michoacán and the State of Mexico, it will be closed in
the lands of our
General Emiliano Zapata, in the state of Morelos.
With the circle complete,
we shall make our entrance into Mexico City.
The final circle of the
March of Indigenous Dignity, the march of the color
of the earth, begins, then, in Puebla.
That is why we have chosen,
at the beginning of this final circle, to have
a word spoken which looks very far ahead.
A word which might not,
perhaps, find its true meaning immediately.
A word which requires
time and wind in order to find its place in the heart
of the all that we are.
A word which speaks tomorrow.
A word which comes from
very far back and, because of that, walks very far
ahead of us.
A word which is greater
than us and which, nonetheless, must be spoken.
A word which is only spoken
together, which demands that everyone walk it
in order for it to be able to be pronounced.
"Dignity" is
how this word speaks.
And dignity is a bridge.
It needs two sides which,
being different, distinct and distant, are made
one by the bridge, without ceasing to be different and distinct,
but
ceasing, then, to be distant.
When the bridge of dignity
is extended, the We that we are speaks, and the
Other which we are not speaks.
The One and the Other
are on the bridge which is dignity.
And the One is not more
or better than the Other, nor is the Other more or
better than the One.
Dignity demands that we
be We.
But Dignity is not our
only being ourselves.
The Other is necessary
for there to be dignity.
Because we are always
Ourselves in relation to the Other.
And the other is Other
in relation to ourselves.
Dignity is, therefore,
a looking.
A looking at Ourselves,
who are also looking at the Other looking at
themselves and looking at us.
Dignity is, therefore,
recognition and respect.
Recognition of what we
are and respect for that which we are, yes, but also
recognition of what the other is and respect for what the other
is.
Dignity is, therefore,
bridge and looking and recognition and respect.
Therefore dignity is tomorrow.
But tomorrow cannot be
if it is not for everyone, for those who are We, and
for those who are Other.
Dignity is, therefore,
a house which includes the Other and Ourselves.
Dignity is, therefore,
a house with one single floor, where we and the
other have our own places - which is what life is - and nothing
else, but
the same house.
Therefore dignity should
be the world, a world where many worlds fit.
Dignity, therefore, does
not yet exist.
Therefore dignity is yet
to come.
Dignity, therefore, is
struggling so that dignity might finally be the
world.
A world where all worlds
fit.
Therefore dignity is,
and it is to come.
It is the path to travel.
Dignity is tomorrow.
Brothers and Sisters:
When we speak of indigenous
dignity, we are speaking of what we are as
indigenous, and of what the other is who is not like us.
Indigenous dignity is
not dominating the other who is not indigenous,
subjecting him, destroying him, humiliating him, ignoring him,
forgetting
him.
Indigenous dignity is
a bridge which needs the other side in order to
extend itself to, an other in order to look at him and to be
looked at.
When we speak of the March
of Indigenous Dignity, we are speaking of the
indigenous who see ourselves as indigenous, without shame, without
embarrassment, without sadness, without the death of what we
are.
When we speak of the March
of Indigenous Dignity, we are also speaking of
the indigenous whom we are being looked at, respected, by the
non-indigenous.
When we speak of the March
of Indigenous Dignity, we are also speaking of
the indigenous whom we are seeing and looking at the non-indigenous,
we are
respecting them.
The March of Indigenous
Dignity cannot be just by the indigenous.
The March for Indigenous
Dignity must be the march of the indigenous and
the non-indigenous.
Only in that way shall
we be able to build the house, which is how it is
called to the world, where all of us who are equal because we
are different
fit.
Brothers and Sisters:
The most ancient indigenous
recount many stories about the world's past.
One of them tells us that,
in the beginning, when time was not yet time in
the course of time, everything was darkness and obscurity and
silence and
sadness in the world.
The people of that time
had already become accustomed to living in that
way.
But then the time did
indeed arrive when time began to walk, and the sun
and music were birthed.
At those times, the sun
would sometimes cover itself up so it would not get
cold, and, since the sun's covers had many holes, pieces of light
pierced
it.
Our most former forebears
called it "day" when the sun went about
undressed.
And "night"
they called the many-holed covers which protected the sun from
the cold.
And "stars"
they called the many holes which pierced the night.
Along with the day and
the night, arrived music and, with it, joy.
That came to pass, as
our most former forebears recount.
And they also recount
how, when that came to pass, there were people who
were afraid, and they set about digging deep holes, or they surrounded
themselves with large rocks.
They did that so their
eyes, accustomed to the dark and to the obscurity,
would not be hurt by the light.
They did that so their
ears, accustomed to the noise of sadness, would not
be pained by the joy of music.
Among these people who
did so, recount the most former forebears, one of
them finally died of sadness, hidden as she was in her holes.
Another died when the
great rocks of arrogance fell on top of her, instead
of protecting her.
There were, however, also
those who learned to see and to listen, not to
the new, because it was already there, but to the good.
Because the world teaches
that things are not good or bad in themselves,
but rather, when we touch them, we make them either good or bad.
The new man is, in reality,
the same old man, but he is made good through
touching things with dignity, with respect.
Brothers and Sisters:
The March of Indigenous
Dignity has caused some to set about digging deep
holes or to trying to protect themselves by closing themselves
off,
surrounded by large rocks.
The fact is they are accustomed
to not looking at the other who we are.
And, therefore, when we
make ourselves light of the shadow we are, we hurt
their eyes, and our word is music which wounds their ears.
But there are those who
are learning to see the good that is this march.
They are learning and
we are learning to look and to look at ourselves, to
speak and to listen, to speak to ourselves and to listen to ourselves.
They are learning, and
we are learning, then, to be dignified.
And so all that remains
is to choose: either we learn, together, to be
dignified, or we shall die and be outraged alone.
Our most sincere condolences
to those who choose not to look at us and not
to listen to us.
Long life to those of
us who, all together, are learning to live.
Because to live without
dignity is to be quite dead.
Salud to ourselves and
to the other!
Salud Puebla!
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
From Puebla de los Angeles,
Puebla.
Clandestine Revolutionary
Indigenous Committee -
General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Mexico, February of 2001.
Originally published in
Spanish by La Jornada
______________________
Translated by irlandesa
La Jornada
Tuesday, February 27, 2001.
Even
Punk Anarchists at Rally for Zapatistas in Oaxaca
Hermann Bellinghausen,
correspondent.
Oaxaca, Oaxaca.
February 26, 2001.
"How fantastic for
those who are up high," the child said, smiling.
In front of the cathedral
filled from one street to the other, with the
zapatista delegation in the grandstand extending to the back,
the child,
who was short, like so many from Oaxaca, and who couldn't see
over the
crowd, was speaking, happily, without any hint of frustration
in his voice,
to an older man, an indigenous like him, but not as short.
He was looking up, at
the eyes of those who were managing to see the
platform, and he was listening, listening carefully, and feeling
the
atmosphere.
"Caps, caps!"
a man selling ski-masks at 30 pesos each had been crying a
little before, among the rivers of people squeezed together.
Indigenous,
mestizos and a variety of foreigners, but most especially indigenous,
had
been gathering since 3 in the afternoon in order to receive the
most
anticipated visitors for many years in old Antequera.
The radio news, the painted
walls, flyers on posts, government statements,
television reality and even Radio Bemba, word of mouth - all
had been
talking of nothing else these last few days. And today it was
the only
issue in the city. From the most spectacular local punk anarchists
to the
thousands of Triquis lined up, brought by the Unifying Movement
of Triqui
Liberation (MULT), the entire gathering to the great disquiet
of the
government, the big caciques, the owning class and their soundboxes.
They
are not, in fact, over the scare yet.
The fact that Subcomandante
Marcos was on the road, that close to three
thousand people were following the EZLN delegation through the
Isthmus and
the Sierra, and that tomorrow the caravan would be heading for
Mixteca:
this was all capturing the attention of the state PRI and the
federal Fox
governments to the highest possible degree. The Government Palace
wasn't
working, today it remained close.
At the close of this edition,
the zapatista comandancia delegation was
spending the night in the Oaxaca Church House, in the Reforma
neighborhood.
A group of shamans and witch doctors went there to perform a
cleansing
ritual for the Comandantes and for Subcomandante Marcos, and
they were
quite serious about cleansing the bad vibrations. Nonetheless,
to the
relief of Governor Murat and the wide network of federal and
state police,
undercover and uncovered, the zapatistas left very early this
morning, and
Oaxaca returned to normalcy.
The Powers: Nerves on
Edge
The hot potato of the
national indigenous mobilization had left Juchitán
early this morning, under the worrisome signal of a new death
threat
denounced by the EZLN. According to a new anonymous note, a
known gang of
thugs would be attacking the zapatistas in Jalapa de Marqués.
When the
caravan passed through that town, a few hours later, hundreds
of smiling
children and young people positioned themselves by the side of
the road in
order to say goodbye to them.
A Federal Preventive Police
helicopter was flying in circles from one side
of the highway to the other. The zapatistas' bus and the trail
of
automobiles belonging to civil society, journalists, Federal
Highway Police
and a number of cops and spies made up the first part of the
caravan.
Separated by a few kilometers
from this group, some 60 buses and trucks
were travelling with indigenous organizations, students, a mixed
bag of
civil society, Italians, US citizens, French persons, chiapanecos,
Tlaxcaltecas and Chilangos, at a less crazed speed. The real
caravan.
The press and the police,
as well as military and Department of Government
intelligence, go out every morning to risk their necks in pursuit
of the
bus, while the Federal Highway Police do not allow anyone to
overtake it.
The highways are always closed to traffic going in the opposite
direction,
and so trailers and trucks wait at the side of the road.
From Tehuantepec, without
making any stops, the caravan plowed through
Oaxaca, disembarking at the Alameda de Leon in the state capital,
where,
according to the local radio station, only absolute cholos, gang
members
and students who weren't in school were waiting for the chiapaneco
rebels,
in addition to members of organizations "which did not represent
Oaxaca
society." People, according to the announcers, "who
still believe in
Communism" and are "mixed-up or manipulated."
Otherwise, what could be the
explanation?
The True Welcome
In Camarón, and
also in Oaxaca, a banner: "Viva Fox! Viva Marcos! Viva
peace!" It was the exception. All the banners, walls and
shouts were for
the EZLN. Children from the schools in the communities along
the route
formed fences at the sides of the asphalt ribbon, cheering the
EZLN and
Marcos.
In Tehuantepec, the Bishop
without a Diocese, Arturo Lona, an essential
figure in the Isthmus and its struggles, had prepared a hundred
students to
cordon off the Comandantes and to cheer them on during the welcoming
event
provided by part of the population in a dance hall. In much
greater
number, another part of the residents spilled out on to the highway,
forming a bridge over the Tehuantepec River (or what's left of
it).
Scenes such as these were
repeated in almost all the towns along the 220
kilometer route. But the zapatistas received the real welcome
in the
Alameda of the capital.
There the presence of
young people was marked. Joining the indigenous of
the Oaxaca towns were students and punks of a variety of styles
and
attitudes worthy of the great urban centers. Marcos' presence
was key for
this segment of the public. They showed their impatience with
the other
speakers and cheered the Subcomandante when he spoke.
But these adolescents
were only accompanying the thousands of campesinos
who were demanding the approval of the indigenous rights and
culture law,
supported by the EZLN. Mixtecs, Triquis, Mazatecos, Zapotecos
from the
Sierra, Chatinos, Chinantecos, Mixes, Amuzgos, had all come here,
despite
the fact that it was the time to plant their fields and to harvest
coffee
in their communities, dispersed throughout the four directions
of the
state.
Comandanta Yolanda said
to them: "The Oaxaca indigenous have made all
indigenous feel proud to be so." Adelfo Regino, a Mixtec
lawyer and member
of the CNI, said: "We are living in privileged times.
A time to have one
single heart." And he expressed his support for the zapatistas
and "the
comprehensive rebuilding of our peoples."
Presented by Tzeltal Comandante
Abraham, Subcomandante Marcos stated the
march's purpose: "So that it is no longer a crime to think
like an
indigenous."
The indigenous peoples
were referred to as a guarantor for the conservation
of the nation and its resources: "There will no longer
be either a
Puebla-Panama Plan, or a Trans-Isthmus Project, or anything which
means the
destruction of the house of the indigenous."
The tree that is Mexico
depends on the strength of its roots. In Marcos'
speech, and in the short tale of the first gods, which he illustrated
in
the Oaxaca manner, the idea emerged of indigenous autonomy as
the nation's
defense.
Dignity
Means Tomorrow