Hacia la Autonomia: Zapatista Women Developing a New

World

Melissa M. Forbis

Presented by Paajnyag Yang

1994

Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)

- demanded land, health care, education, and justice

Looked at as a direct threat to Mexico's public restructuring program and the privatization for natural resources.

-only gov't option ---> military retaliation

Zapatista Bases de ApoyoHave to look at not just the armed forces

in the mountains but on women's mobilization and indigenous autonomy at the base.

Focuses on the everyday actions and experiences of indigenous women in the communities in the contextualization of being in larger fields of power.

Cont'd

Zapatista women of the base hold many identities:

indigenous, Mayan, Mexican, campesina, revolutionary, community organizer, woman wife, and mother To understand the context of autonomy, we have to look at what it means and how understanding women's involvement can help us understand the challenges of the Zapatista movement.

Autonomy and Gender DebatesIndigenous autonomy has been a hotly

debated topic in Mexico. o Literature about indigenous autonomy

focuses on it's compatibility with the Mexican state

o Gender usually is absent from this. When it is brought up it often evaluates

the possible negative effects of customary law

These discussions center on charges that customary law and indigenous traditions are patriarchal and will continue to oppress women if indigenous groups are granted autonomy, therefore the state must reject it to protect women

Romantic view - Indigenous autonomy and gender empowerment work seamlessly together since patriarchy and social conflict are the effects of colonization.

• This position characterizes indigenous traditions as static, rooted in the past.

• Fails to acknowledge the role played by capitalist hegemony

A & G Debates cont'd

The Revolution Before the RevolutionWomen's Law - Accepted by the EZLN in

March 1993o Says that women wanted to be part of the

EZLN program such as their right to participate in decision-making, to education, to decide how many children they will have, and so forth.

Unlike other guerrilla movements:o The issues important to women and the

transformation of traditional gender roles were apart of the overall Zapatista strategy since the beginning.

Revolution Cont'd

• Women were forced by necessity to take part in what had traditionally been men's tasks

• In many texts they focus on women insurgents and the equality being forged by military camps in the mountainso About 1/3 holding high ranks, typically

between the age of 14-25o Also important role models to women on the

bases because they would come down and give talks to the communities.

Revolution Cont'd

The EZLN struggle for liberation is for the liberation of all women, but First World nonindigenous discourses often fail to recognize that the liberation of women in rural Chiapas is a process that must include all aspects of their identities.

The Base: Site of StruggleMilpa - referring to the fields farmed by

peasants

Nuevo Centros - social experiment in creating exclusively Zapatista communities. o Not completely comprised of people from the

same ejido, region, or indigenous groupo Serve as a counterpoint to the claim that

autonomy would lead to ethnic strife and forced homogeneity.

Cont'd

Zapatista women have begun to change their lives and transform gendered relations of power within the framework of autonomy and self-government. This includes:

economic rights control of production human rights physical rights to their own bodies a sociocultural right to decide how they will

structure their identities

It is about equality, but with difference

Women on Autonomy

Romelia, a Tzeltzal woman - "I have not been speaking in public for very long and I am afraid that I will give the wrong answer."

"For" autonomy, but don't know what "real autonomy was."

Carmen, a Tzeltal woman with 4 children:

"Sometimes we don't know what autonomy is, but in our deeds, we are doing it"

Cont'd

"Before most women didn't go to meetings, the men wouldn't let their spouses leave, but now it's changing, we are all meeting together. Now we all have rights to participate and say what we want, men and women. But before the men didn't pay attention to us. The government said that women didn't have the right to participate and say things. And the men thought that way too, and didn't open up space for us. Now women know how to participate and know what autonomy is. With those who are making the effort, it is changing."

Cont'd

Changes that have been made to these communities:

• Ban on alcohol

• Women's Law on domestic abuse

Sustainable Resistance

Women play a crucial role in sustaining the autonomy project on a day-to-day basis

Whether that is protecting their communities by fighting off military troops while their men hide or participating in marches.

These women are ready to die for their cause and that is what gives them their strength and courage.

Conclusion

Zapatista women are grounded in their experiences living as women, indigenous, and poor in Chiapas, Mexico

Their voices are the base that underscores the multiple and relational nature of their identities and helps us recognize the significance of "feminisms that may go by other names."

The EZLN autonomy project is linked with women's personal autonomy.

Conclusion Cont'd

Women participate on two levels of autonomy

1) Collective- they are part of a larger struggle and work for the advancement of their vision regionally and nationally

2) Personal - they are creating autonomy at home in their relationships with other men and women in their community

Thank You!