The neoliberal laws that tend towards the privatization and fragmentation of natural, educational and cultural resources have a certain virtue, if it can be called that: they set people to thinking about those issues, they lead them to write and to organize themselves.
And so, in this tojolabal community, heavily surrounded by the federal Army, the National Encuentro for the Defense of the Cultural Heritage met, convened by students from the ENAH and by the EZLN.
Last night, Subcomandante Marcos said in his message: "What convenes us today is an alarm, a call to attention, a danger. The evil and the bad are no longer concealed, and they are acting with legislative and executive privilege, they have decided to put everything this country has - which continues to be ours in spite of them - up for sale."
Marcos greeted those present, the anthropology and history workers and students, and, in particular, a group of strikers from the UNAM. The latter, from a dozen schools, but acting in an "individual capacity," as they said, had come here "to resist an enemy who is opening several fronts,' and they threw down a gauntlet to the audience when their representative, who was the first speaker of the opening event, said: "We know that as long as we keep up our struggle, no army, no repressive State, no bad government will be able to crush us."
After reading The History of the Night, Subcomandante Marcos, the last speaker, told the UNAM strikers: "We know the applause we are giving you now will not cure the blows dealt by those who call themselves 'revolutionaries and democrats,' but it will soothe somewhat."
As the representative of the INAH academics said, explaining to the audience about those who "are defending the collective ownership of the cultural heritage," an area where indigenous struggles (in defense of their history) are joined with the academics' positions critical of the Power's decisions.
A handcrafted multicolored pamphlet spoke, from hand to hand, like a Pre-Columbian comicbook: "Without roots, there is no past. Be aware of your memory, so that we can make history." It was not a presentation, but it was an advance. "Made on the Planet Earth by the Renegade Deer and his Madagascar lemurs, a galactic-clandestine organization dedicated to the preservation of cultural diversity and spiritual tolerance in order to demolish the borders of the neoliberal ghetto. Ours is not a dream, it is a bridge to reality."
In that same mood, but with greater conceptual precision, seven discussion tables were held throughout the day. There will be four others tomorrow.
The themes deal with cultural heritage and legislation, cultural diversity and identity, education and the protection and restoration of tangible heritage.
In the light of these assumptions, the hundreds of participants in the encuentro went from criticism to teaching the history of the web of the State's failures to act and its legal deceptions. The natural heritage goes along with those of the stones and archeological riches, and both go for hotel spaces for luxury tourism. Megaprojects and the communities' territorial rights.
Other presenters spoke of "intangible" goods, language, sprituality, the oral tradition, and in general of what specific cultural resources mean.
"To state that our people have no memory and that they are ignorant because they do not keep a written history is to think with an ethnocidal mind," asserted three students from three different universities today, now united.
The Guadelupe Tepeyac salvajes, with Atlante uniforms, played a quick football game in the heat of the sun, against a lineup of students from the capital of the Republic. Then the wind said "blow."
The wind was out of all proportion, and it brought rain down from the depths of the Selva at great speed. In the afternoon the sun shown grey in a few minutes. First the large yellow leaves blowing almost sidewise. Then, rain that seemed to be being violently expelled from Montes Azules. No protective cover from the rain, coming down from all sides.
Everyone ran to protect their things, to secure the ropes well, to grab the clothing. And then, for a few brief moments, the air cleared, and a completely etched rainbow was extended from the west across the mountain, taking in a goodly number of kilometers, a kind of grand portal between the afternoon and the storm. Some of the participants in the encuentro stopped their efforts and set themsleves to contemplating. Wet from the rain, a young man in a beret began playing a drum.
Then the rain was unleashed with great violence. Some of the sheets of the roofs of the Aguascalientes were bent, but they were not blown off. Immediately critical, and not at all impressed by nature's rage, a tojolabal woman, moving up to the kitchen wall, said:
"It's badly put up, that sheet needs to be fixed."
It rained for a time, very hard. Now, one could only walk through mud. Some, most certainly students (it would only occur to them) began dancing in the rain.
When the storm cleared, people returned to their activities. Dusk had not yet fallen when at least a dozen zapatista insurgents arrived, galloping, headed by Subcomandante Marcos and Comandante Tacho. They tied up their horses in the grove, and walked over to the shelter of the grandstand. There, above a row of tables, the opening presidium was set up, where the audience was represented.
There were students from the CGH [General Strike Council] of the UNAM, from the National Anthropology School and from UAM; technical and administrative workers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and from Fine Arts; academics and researchers from those schools, in addition to civil society in general, interested in the cultural heritage.
With natures's fury spent, and after the modest but emotional opening ("being 9:49 PM, southeast time," said Comandante Tacho in his turn), what followed was an extraordinarily clear night above the Aguascalientes esplanade.
A few dozen young persons could not resist having the disorderly constellations and the Milky Way above them, and, to the sound of a tireless drum, they danced for hours, past midnight, until they were asked to be quiet because the others could not sleep.
Finally, those things that provoke audacity in a PAN Senator, not uninterested in the issue. "A legislative proposal that oozes corruption and baseness," said Subcomandante Marcos. And the representative of INAH's administrators, technicians and manual workers expressed his appreciation "for the Mexican indigenous, for giving us a past and a reason for the present."
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada Saturday, August 14, 1999. _______________________ Translated by irlandesa
Encounter in La Realidad's Aguascalientes:
.and the speakers turned into observers of the militarization ______________________________________
Hermann Bellinghausen, envoy to La Realidad, Chiapas, August 15.
In "defense of cultural patrimony," hundreds of students, academics and workers came to meet here, and what they had, in addition to the event they attended, was fully an encounter with the reality of resistance and with the advance of the militarization of this zone.
Upon learning of the unusual Army operation in the distant community of Amador Hernandez, also located in rebel territory, and constituting the most coveted doorway to the biosphere reserve of Montes Azules, the general attitude of the encounter changed drastically.
On top of the seriousness of the topic that brought them here, the majority for the first time, was added the seriousness, even more immediate and urgent, of the state of siege established by the Army (which is expanding its positions around and within the indigenous communities) in Amador Hernandez, at the bottom of the valley of the Perla River.
The encounter revolved around discussion of the (quite debateable) proposed General Law of Cultural Patrimony, which is now being raffled off in the Senate by a PAN-ista legislator interested in the subject. In order to do so, the attendees of the encounter organized themselves in 11 small work groups or tables of discussion during the two days; around 60 of the attendees ended up taking off for the militarized community, forming two civil observation committees. That is, in addition to reading their speeches in La Realidad, they crossed the Jatate River and traveled six hours on foot towards this Tzeltal community, to learn directly about another place where the fate of national sovereignty is in play. Located in the region of Amador Hernandez is a petroleum reserve of large proportions, of known interest to the United States government and diverse transnational corporations in America and Europe.
That is, these young people experienced, in two different tempos and in the space of a few days, how things are in the most sensitive parts of the nation's identity and integrity.
Precisely in the middle of this, a note arrived from the PRD senator Mario Saucedo, in reference to the "instruments of contention and repression" used by the system to impose "savage liberalism:"
"One of these instruments has been, and is, the increase in the number of troops of the armed forces carrying out tasks which do not pertain to their jobs, and the deployment of Army forces in various regions of national territory, especially in zones inhabited by indigenous groups. It is in Chiapas where the highest concentration of troops in the entire history of the nation are now stationed, along with paramilitary groups protected by the authorities, whose job--besides murder--is to create the idea that the indigenous situation in Chiapas is just a problem between indigenous communities, groups or individuals."
Open dialogue by the Indian peoples
Doctor Roman Pin~a Chan sent a speech supporting the ENAH and the INAH, which was received by current and future anthropologists with great interest in this Aguascalientes of the Tojolobal community: "We must defend our institution with whatever means we can: we must think of, and elaborate, a proposal that raises the standards and the standing of the INAH...and begin the 21st century with an invigorated institution, whose mission and philosophy are once again nationalist, but postmodern and democratic, at the service of the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society that constitutes the Mexican nation."
The well-known archeologist shares with everyone here in the rejection of the proposed law of presumed PAN-ista paternity, "since it reflects the neoliberal and globalizing system, applied to the cultural property of the nation."
A reflection of the new perception of national issues is the growing interest in, and commitment to, Mexican indigenous peoples. Their destinies have become explicitly inseparable from the destiny of everyone else. Table number two of the encounter, which was on cultural diversity, concluded: "The Indian peoples can not continue to be a mere object of ethnic research, nor an exhibit under glass. It is through anthropological work, committed to society and their culture, that people can work alongside the peoples, to characterize, define and defend patrimony, in order to recuperate collective memory... Their cosmovision and ways of living have given us an enormous richness on which to reflect, through open dialogue with them. In these new spaces, society has found valuable points of reference by which to understand its identity."
Similar to the reflections of Doctor Pin~a Chan were the thoughts conveyed by a group of students from UNAM's Philosophy and Literature Department: "In defending indigenous rights we are defending our identity as a nation. We think that through the autonomy of the indigenous peoples, they can preserve and retrieve their culture, starting with self-identification and free determination as to the direction their lives will take. Because of this, the indigenous peoples will be better able to preserve their cultures."
In successive presentations, the as-yet unfulfilled San Andres Accords were mentioned as another sensitive and transcendent zone of civil and intellectual resistance, made concrete in the rejection of the proposed law.
Attorney Magdalena Gomez, in a document she sent to La Realidad, asks: "How can we unify the social agenda of those of us who defend a State which continues to fulfill social functions, and the demands of the indigenous peoples? The answer rests on our taking on the construction of alternatives, a process that we must begin by breaking apart cultural hegemony, which excludes multiculturalism."
The concept of cultural patrimony in the proposed law does not hide its developmentalist intention, euphamistically mercantile. "Cultural patrimony is defined as one of the fundamental axes by which national development is promoted," reads the "Motives" section of the controversial proposal.
This is what Felipe Echenique, an academic affiliated with the INAH, considers a "hidden route" towards the deregulation of other historic cultural patrimonies.
The quality and level of contributions was very mixed, but there were many which were notable in their innovation, freshness, and extraordinary interest in the country and its people. People spoke of community museums, respect for religious and spiritual practices of the communities and a true freedom of worship. Discussions were also opened towards the definition of the "hybrid cultures" of urban areas: punks, trashers and others.
Finally, the encounter called on "the organizations of workers of the countryside and the city, unions, grassroots organizations and civil society, to construct a national social front opposed to privatization, in defense of our historical memory and the nation's cultural wealth, which must be for public use, as opposed to serving individual interests. A front which declares itself in defense of national sovereignty."
Unexpected bridges
In his closing message in the name of the EZLN and its support bases, Subcomandante Marcos made continual references, directly and indirectly, to the "bridges" built in these encounters, and which become "unexpected," like the spin the zapatistas put on a donation by the SITUAM, to send to the UNAM strikers for "their tostadas and their posol."
At a panel which included Daniel Acevedo, of the INAH workers' union; Iridia Gonzales, of the ENAH; an UNAM student who participates in the CGH; and Comandante Tacho, Guadalupe Concen, an instructor speaking in the name of the academics of the INAH, said: "Today different movements converge, in defense of natural and cultural patrimony, collective memory, as well as zapatista ideals and demands."
Perhaps that is why this morning, as the participants in the encounter were getting ready to leave, the military helicopter, which made several low-altitude passes over Aguascalientes, provoked an unexpected and spontaneous formation. The young people gathered in the middle of the opening, shaping in long lines the four letters: EZLN. If the helicopter was carrying a camera, it certainly filmed it.
"August is the month of remembering," said Subcomandante Marcos, in a Borgean riff that started with the Popol Vuh and opened into the tale of a "crazy and foolish man" who planted trees: a way of remembering that what is known today as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation was founded 30 years ago. Sometimes fables don't quite hide emotions; at one point in his remembrance of the organization 15 years ago, when the zapatista spokesman joined it, Marcos fell suddenly quiet, and maintained long seconds of silence in homage.
After this fable of real life, reminiscent of the story by Jean Giano of France about the Man that planted trees, the Subcomandante made a reference to the collection of different struggles of resistance that are today being waged, peacefully, throughout the country: the resistance of the SME to the privatization of electricity, the university strike opposing the privatization of education, the growing and progressive rejection of the incipient law to privatize cultural patrimony, and the fulltime resistance waged today in the indigenous communities of Chiapas, and in many other places.
"Although it might seem that what we are defending today is the past, in reality, in La Realidad we have agreed to defend tomorrow," ended Subcomandante Marcos, and so concluded the encounter.
Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada _______________________ Translated by Leslie Lopez La Jornada Monday, August 16, 1999.