San Andres, an Autonomous Community?
After we had done the readings and seen the documentaries, it was time to see the real thing for ourselves: we took a day trip to the Autonomous Community of San Andres. About one hour away from San Cristobal, San Andres Sakamch'en de Los Pobres is a large village set in misty hills, near the main highway, and next to a couple of army bases. It is mostly famous for being the place where the Peace Accords were signed by the Mexican Governement and the Zapatista EZNL in 1996. Today, it is mostly a poor, sleepy, fairly unremarkable village village.
When we went there, we first visited a friend of the owner of the school, a lady who had a little store and the main street and also did some traditional weaving. One of the positive sides of Zapatism in indigenous communities, they say, is that women are given a chance to achieve much better lives there...
As we walked up the main street, we watched a about dozen men and young teenagers drinking beer and posh (a local cheap alcohol), some of them semi-passed out on the side of the road. It was about 10 o'clock in the morning.
We then moved on to see the church where most of the peace negotiations had taken place (the local church was very involved in the process, mostly on the side of the Zapatistas), and where you can now see indigenous people practicing their blend of Catholic and Mayan rituals, with a lot of candles, incense, and this time we even saw bags full of food offerings. On the main square in front of the church, many people were hanging out in traditional clothing, including men, a relatively rare sight.
We then made our way to one of the town halls. San Andres, it turns out, is now pretty firmly divided between the Zapastistas and the "official government" of the PRI party. The town has not only two different administrations, but also two separate markets, two schools, etc. Our little group was invited to talk to two officials on the Zapatista side, who apparently were number two and three in the administration after the mayor. This was a fascinating, if mildly depressing, experience.
Both of them were farmers, dressed in somewhat raggy clothes, and with a relatively weak command of Spanish. We asked them questions about how they ran the town, the problems they had, the demands and expectations they had, the things they had achieved, etc. To our surprise, the only answers we got were that the government was bad and corrupt, and they were keeping on fighting for the people, and for the rights of the indigenous people. They also expressed that they were poor, and they showed us the poor state of repair of everything they had (which they had seized from the city years ago).
As you will see in the pictures, part if the roof of the city hall had collapsed, which didn't stop them from using it, in fact they were cooking food in it as we walked in. The vans and trucks (also seized) were proudly labeled Zapatista, but not running, as they couldn't afford to maintain them...
What has been happening a lot, we were told, is that the PRI party, whic is supported by the army, has slowly been buying off or coopting the Zapatista leaders, or anybody with a little eduction within the communities, offering them better opportunities for them and the families in other places. What is left is poor farmers, who can tell you all you want to know about crops, but don't have the education to manage a village, and only know enough about politics to repeat a few worn out slogans (it sounds paternalistic, but it is true).
We left feeling pretty sad, not only because of the poverty we saw there, but also because of the sad condition of the Zapatista movement. The Autonomous municipalities are still around, it is true, but are the people in those villages better off, less marginalized than before? Probably not.
February 19th, 2010 - 11:27
Such is human nature. SOME so did better it for themselves, right?