The following is a continuation of Commandante Marcos' writings
dated August 1992 which were sent to the national newspaper La
Jornada. As it is a long document I have only included excerpts.
Second Wind
The One From Below
(Chapter 4)
Let them tell how dignity and defiance joined hands in the
southeast and how Jacinto Perez's phantoms and raccoons run through
the Chiapan highlands. Let them also tell of patience that has run
out and of other happenings which have been ignored but have
probable consequences.
These people were born dignified and rebellious, sisters of the
rest of Mexico's exploited people. They are not just the product
of the Annexation Act of 1824 but of a long chain of disgraces and
rebellions. From the time when cassock and armor conquered this
land, dignity and defiance have lived and spread under these rains.
Collective work, democratic thinking, and subjection to the
decisions of the majority are more than just traditions in
indigenous zones. They have been the only means of survival,
resistance, dignity, and defiance. These "evil ideas," as seen by
landholders and businesspeople, go against the capitalist precept
of "a lot in the hands of a few."
It has mistakenly been said that the Chiapan rebellion has no
counterpart, that it is outside of the national calendar. This is
a lie. The exploited Chiapan's specialty is the same as that of
exploited people from Durango, Veracruz, or the plateau of northern
Mexico: to fight and to lose. If the voices of those who write
history speak excessively it is because the voice of the oppressed
does not speak...yet. There is no historic, national, or regional
calendar which has documented each and every rebellion against the
system imposed and maintained with blood and fire throughout the
national territory. In Chiapas this rebel voice is only heard when
it shakes the world of the landowners and businesspeople. So
indeed the phantom of indigenous barbarism strikes government
building walls and gains access with the help of revolution,
hiding, trickery, and threats. If the rebellions in the southeast
lose, as they do in the north, center, and west, it is not the
result of bad timing because wind is the fruit of the land, it has
its time and its ripeness in the breasts of those who have nothing
but dignity and rebelliousness. And this wind from below, that of
rebellion and dignity, is not just an answer to the imposition of
the wind from above. It is not just an angry response or the
destruction of an unjust and arbitrary system. Rather it carries
with it a new proposal, a hope of converting rebellion and dignity
to freedom and dignity.
How will they make this new voice heard here and all over Mexico?
How will they make this hidden wind which now blows only in the
mountains and canyons descend to the valleys where the people live
who handle the money and govern us with lies?
This wind will come from the mountains, born under the trees and
conspiring for a new world, so new that it is barely an intuition
in the collective heart which inspires it.
Excerpts from Chapter 5
Antonio dreams of owning the land he works on, he dreams that his
sweat is paid with justice and truth, he dreams that there is a
school to cure ignorance and medicine to scare away death, he
dreams of having electricity in his home and that his table is
full, he dreams that his country is free and that this is the
result of its people governing themselves, and he dreams that he is
at peace with himself and with the world. He dreams that he must
fight to obtain this dream, he dreams that there must be death in
order to gain life. Antonio dreams and then he awakes... now he
knows what to do and he sees his wife crouching by the fire, hears
his son crying, looks at the sun rising in the east, and, smiling,
grabs his machete.
A wind picks up, he rises and walks to meet others. Something has
told him that his dream is that of many and he goes to find them.
The viceroy dreams that his land is agitated by a terrible wind
which rouses everything, he dreams that all he has stolen is taken
from him, that his house is destroyed, and that his reign is
brought down. He dreams and he doesn't sleep. The viceroy goes to
the feudal lords and they tell him that they have been having the
same dream. The viceroy cannot rest. So he goes to his doctor and
together they decide that it is some sort of indian witchcraft and
that they will only be freed from this dream with blood. The
viceroy orders killings and kidnappings and he constructs more
jails and army barracks. But the dream continues and keeps him
tossing and turning and unable to sleep.
Everyone is dreaming in this country. Now it is time to wake up...
THE STORM...
...that which is here
The crash of these two winds will be born, its time has arrived, it
has stoked the fire of history. Now the wind from above rules, but
here comes the wind from below, here comes the storm...that is how
it will be...
THE PROPHECY...
...that which is here
When the storm calms, when rain and fire again leave the country in
peace, the world will no longer be the world but something better.
The Lacandon Forest, August 1992
* Origin: el bbs-point (3:970/4.175)