Chiapas

After a week in the program, school seems to be going well. The students and teachers have gotten to know each other, and we have all gotten sick together, and from this point we now seem ready to fully engage ourselves in the task at hand. The program itself is an ambitious one, and probably unmatched in terms of accredited collegiate study abroad programs.
The idea is to take a group of American students, who preferably have an interest in grassroots organizing, and introduce them to the world of organizing in México, so that they may be better served in their work when they get home. On top of this, the students receive a solid base in theory (of the economic and political sense) while having the opportunity to learn these things from lifetime activists in the field.
Tom, the director and lead professor, has pretty amazing credentials to teach the class. Currently working on his PhD at one of México’s most well-known public universities, Tom has been active in México, and particularly Chiapas since the eighties. It is not uncommon to have a conversation with Tom and have him casually mention that he has had several personal one-on-one conversations with Fidel in his Presidential office.
It did surprise us, however, to learn that our easy-going smile-prone Spanish teacher (who happens to be Tom’s wife) was one of the founding members of the EZLN (the military wing and predecessor to the Zapatistas) and still has many of the Zapatista bank accounts in her name.
The way that we found this out, of course, is that she just had her banks accounts closed by the second bank in a short time. Both banks have closed these accounts, knowing of the political aspect of them, without any explanation. In response, she and a group of Zapatista sympathizers have been forced to go to México City to have press conferences to draw attention to the actions of these banks. After all, there are only six national banks in México, and at this rate there won’t be anywhere for the Zaps to put their money very soon.
The students have become accustomed to this constant realization that the people we are meeting and working with are very serious accomplished people, living in a country where the rule of law is really more of a suggestion than a rule. We watched a movie where we found out our teacher had been convicted of being a Zapatista in 1995 (when the relationship between the government and the EZLN was very tense), before having the conviction thrown out because the confession had been forced out by torture. Or, on a lighter note, having of the students ask, in the middle of class, if we could ask the guy in the next room turn down his music, only to have our teacher explain that the reason he listens to it so loud is so that the government can’t hear his conversations when he has company.
The person in question, Raymundo, is the founder of the Universidad de la Tierra, where we are living and having class for the first month of the program. Located on the outskirts of San Cristobal de las Casas, the school serves indigenous youth (13-22, roughly), giving them political and historical education (of the rather leftist sort) but focusing more on vocational training of the student’s choice. Since the school is viewed as more of a social work than a normal school, there is an ethic of preservation and sacrifice abundant on campus. Almost everything on campus is built by the students, using techniques that minimize cost and waste. Much of the food is provided by students studying farming and animal husbandry, and even the waste produced by the animals is carefully converted into fertilizer for the agriculture program.
Of course, to make the school affordable, and because funding for such a school is not easy, the accommodations are a little rustic. Most students are slowly getting used to no hot water or heating, slightly “firmer” beds, and so on, leading to widespread feelings of pamperedness/homesickness.
Warming the atmosphere are the quaint little effects, such as the bleating of the sheep and goats who graze freely on campus, or the picture of the virgin of Guadalupe in the dining hall that has her face covered by a red bandana.
UniTierra is one of several places that you find open support for the Zaps around San Cristobal. Throughout town you can see pictures, T-shirts, graffiti, and so on, although the vast majority of it seems to exist solely because the tourists are so eager to buy it up. Even this, though, belies a tension in the town. In general, San Cris is a conservative town, and it is safe to say there is a large portion who do not support them or any of their counterparts. In fact, one of the most famouns churches in San Cris was nearly burned down by a large mob upset by the church’s support of the EZLN. These people, ostensibly, were angry that the Zapatistas had brought warfare into their town. Of course, from the EZLN’s point of view, they were only bringing to town the war they had been fighting for 500 years. But who knows.
Hopefully I will be able to illustrate these issues a little better in the coming weeks, as we learn more and more about the Zapatistas, and prepare for our month of living with them in one of their autonomous communities. I’ll keep you posted.