2024-01-01 05:35:00
On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation began a long campaign to confront the interests that ignored the indigenous population of Chiapas or sought to enrich themselves at their expense, as happened just that day with the entry into force of the Treaty of North American Free Trade, whose objectives and consequences they questioned.
The force with which they became known and the anonymity of their members gave a unique image to the movement, which was recorded in the Mexican collective imagination of the mid-90s and to this day. This phenomenon inspired many to follow in his footsteps or at least to instill revolutionary ideas, both in youth in general and in many artists.
Music, visual arts and even theater were influenced by what was happening in the south of the country with the men and women in bandanas and balaclavas, but photography was also in charge of portraying what was happening, in an exercise of both journalism as well as creation, which left us images that contributed to the collective impression that the EZLN generated.
Three decades ago, somewhere in the Lacandona Jungle, from the elevations of Chiapas, the Army #Zapatista of National Liberation (#EZLN ) emerged publicly by declaring a war against oblivion to the Mexican State. https://t.co/d2BmoOpOJ5
— National Campaign for Truth and Justice (@HernndezAlpzar)
December 31, 2023
One of the people whose lens contributed to the dissemination and understanding of the movement was the photojournalist Pedro Valtierra, founder of the Cuartoscuro agency, who recalled in an interview with VANGUARDIA that San Cristóbal de las Casas arrived just one day after the uprising, along with dozens of colleagues from different media and from all parts of the country and the world, in an event that would mark not only Mexico, but journalism in particular.
“I was very surprised, in the first place, that a movement with these characteristics occurred in Mexico. I had been in other countries, particularly Central America, but I did not imagine that a movement of that magnitude would occur in Mexico, because I thought that the social conditions were different and furthermore, I did not imagine that it would be there for so long,” shared the photographer, “I was not unaware of the situation in Chiapas, it was one of a lot of marginalization, a lot of poverty, but in any case it did surprise me that there was an armed movement that had been prepared for so many years.”
The EZLN began to organize almost a decade earlier, without attracting the attention of many people, hence its unexpected presence and power when it went public in 1994. For Valtierra, this moment in the history of Mexico allowed journalists an experience without equal, who hardened them in the field.
“As a journalist you have to be ready for any eventuality,” he shared, “I didn’t see the subcommander the first few days, although you always go with the idea of photographing the character. In those first days I went to look for the people who were with him, I went to the jungle to see if I could find him. I more or less knew where he was going, but we never had any luck portraying him in those early days.”
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“I think it was one of the greatest coverages I have seen in Mexico. The deployment of journalists… practically all the reporters from all the newspapers in all the states were there. There we must recognize that Subcomandante Marcos took all the spotlight, an interesting character, who regardless of whether there is sympathy for him or not, is a character who revolutionizes the country. And it was a movement that broke out but not in war, but rather it transferred it to words, to communication, to media spaces and we must recognize that it raises new things, new characteristics of communication and the spaces it occupies.”
Painted in San Cristóbal de las Casa, 1980. PHOTO: COURTESY CUARTOSCURO.
Although in 2006 the EZLN was transformed into a political movement, leaving behind its military aspect, it remains in force and confronts the different situations that affect the indigenous people and peasants in Chiapas, among them the presence of drug cartels in the entity.
“In those years I said, some laughed at me, that this movement was going to last about 40 or 50 years. Because they are slow processes, they require maturation, a struggle that changes, in the long term. I have not seen a revolution happen so quickly. My assessment is that it takes as long as circumstances require. […] There are people who say that they have not benefited because they want to see immediate results, but they are processes that take many years but have contributed to solving the old problems of Chiapas,” he concluded.
#years #uprising #Zapatista #Army