Subcomandante Marcos

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (allegedly born June 19, 1957 in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico) describes himself as the spokesperson for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) but, since he is so prominent a figure, he is considered by many to be one of its main leaders.

Background

The Mexican government believes Marcos' name to be Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente. Guillén studied high school at Instituto Cultural Tampico, a Jesuit school in Tampico, Tamaulipas, where he presumably became acquainted with Liberation Theology. He later moved to Mexico City where he graduated from the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), then received a masters' degree in philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and began work as a professor at the UAM. After that he left to begin his revolutionary activity. While Marcos has always denied being Rafael Guillén, Guillén's family are unaware of what happened to him and they refuse to say if they think Marcos and Rafael are the same person or not. During the Great March to Mexico City in 2001, Marcos visited the UAM and during his speech he made clear that he had at least been there before.

Like many of his generation, Guillén was radicalised by the events of 1968 and became a militant in a Maoist organisation. However, the encounter with the outlook of the indigenous peasants of Chiapas transformed the Zapatistas' ideology, and Marcos has embraced an approach to social revolution that has been described by some as post-modernist; others argue that his philosophies and actions are more closely related to the revisionist Marxist ideals of Antonio Gramsci that were popular in Mexico during his time at university.

When asked about his first days in Chiapas in the documentary A Place Called Chiapas, Marcos said:

Imagine a person who comes from an urban culture. One of the world’s biggest cities, with a university education, accustomed to city life. It’s like landing on another planet. The language, the surroundings are new. You’re seen as an alien from outer space. Everything tells you: “Leave. This is a mistake. You don’t belong in this place.” And it’s said in a foreign tongue. But they let you know, the people, the way they act; the weather, the way it rains; the sunshine; the earth, the way it turns to mud; the diseases; the insects; homesickness. You’re being told. “You don’t belong here.” If that’s not a nightmare, what is?

Also in this documentary by Nettie Wild, one is allowed to listen to the powerful rhetoric of the Zapatistas. This is conducted in Spanish, not the native Mayan tongues, however the message is just as effective. With only his eyes and pipe being visible he addresses the film maker: "It is our day, day of the dead". Marcos reveals the Zapatista belief that he is a deadman and so are the Zapatistas,

In the mountains of Chiapas, death was a part of daily life. It was as common as rain or sunshine. People here coexist with death, death of their own, especially the little ones. Paradoxically, death begins to shed its tragic cloak, Death becomes a daily fact. It loses it sacredness. You see it as someone you sit down with at the table, like an old aquaintance. You don't lose you fear of death, but you become familiar with it. It becomes your equal. Death, which is so close, so near, so possible, is less terrifying for us than for others. So, going out and fighting and perhaps meeting death is not as terrible as it seems. For us, at least. In fact, what surprises and amazes us is life itself. The hope of a better life. Going out to fight and to die finding out you're not dead, but alive. And, unintentionally, you realize you are walking on the edge of the border between death and life. You're walking on the edge of the border between them.

The Mayans speak of Marcos as "the man with pale skin [who] came to Chiapas twelve years ago". A Mayan woman and matriarch featured in the documentary says of him,

We don't see his face like we see ours. Ours we see clearly, but his stays covered. We can't see him. Whatever the poor eats, he eats. When he's here, is he going to eat better food? What we eat, he eats. We eat vegetables, he does too. We don't believe he's from the city. We can't believe it.

The Mexican government has speculated that Marcos is a professor of philosophy and communications. Marcos response to everything, government speculation and study, supporters, civilians that the Zapatista movement is more about ideas than bullets. In an interview he says to reporters about their struggle and faceless opponent,

The only way to get their attention is to kill or be killed. If you ask us what's going to happen in the near future, we have no fucking idea. Sorry for using the word 'idea' We are ready to go to war or move on to peace

Subcomandante Marcos in Chiapas

Much of his writings – articles, poems, speeches and letters – have been compiled into a book: Our Word is Our Weapon. In 2005 he wrote a novel called Muertos incómodos (Awkward Dead), in conjunction with crime writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II.

On January 1, 2006 Marcos began a tour of all 31 Mexican states as his particular contribution to the year's democratic presidential elections, which he has stated neither he nor the Zapatistas will participate in. In an interview several years before, Marcos explained his attitude toward the Mexican government:

The State Party System is corrupt, it is involved in drug trafficking, it has a wake of deceit, of lies, and of loss of legitimacy with the Mexican nation.

He is personally travelling on a black motorbike, presumably in remembrance of Che Guevara. During the tour, he also has changed his name to Subdelegate Zero. He appeared on Mexican national television on Tuesday, May 9, 2006. Commenting on a riot that began after police tried to evict flower sellers from their stalls in the town of Texcoco, widely reported in Mexico, Marcos said, "The state police have always been distinguished by their brutality...Enter the state police, and things get out of hand. Enter the federal government, and things get out of hand, and one creates this atmosphere of repression."

Mascot

Subcommander Marcos travels with an animal mascot, a deformed rooster he calls "the penguin." According to a New York Times article of January 6, 2006, Marcos uses the animal as a symbol of the various disenfranchised people he champions. The rooster derives its name from its penguin-like feet; their unusual shape makes it difficult for him to stand correctly. Marcos uses his mascot both for comic relief and as a symbol. From the New York Times article:

Marcos brought guffaws from the crowd as he described his rooster's attempts to find love in the barnyard, which always ended in Penguin falling over before he could mate.

This particular story was told to convince people to accept same-sex relationships, which are typically frowned upon in the Hispanic world.

Political and philosophical writings

From 1992 through 2006, Marcos published more than 200 articles and 16 books in at least 23 total editions, amply documenting his political and philosophical views (see Bibliography). Marcos often prefers indirect expression; many of his writings are fables. Some, however, are earthy and direct. In a January, 2003, letter to Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (the Basque ETA), titled "I shit on all the revolutionary vanguards of this planet," Marcos says "We teach [children of the EZLN] that there are so many words like colors and that there are so many thoughts because within them is the world where words are born...And we teach them to speak the truth, that is to say, to speak with their hearts." One of Marcos's most widely known books, La Historia de los Colores, is a story written for children. Based on a Mayan myth of creation, it teaches tolerance and respect for diversity. The book was to have been published in English translation with support from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, but in 1999 the Endowment abruptly cancelled its grant after questions to its chairman, William J. Ivey, from a newspaper reporter. The Lannan Foundation stepped in with support after the NEA withdrew.

Although Marcos's political philosophy has sometimes been characterized as "Marxist," his broadly populist writings concentrate on unjust treatment of people by both business and government. In a well known 1992 essay, Marcos begins each of his five "chapters" in a characteristic style of complaint:

"This chapter tells how the supreme government was affected by the poverty of the Indigenous peoples of Chiapas and endowed the area with hotels, prisons, barracks, and a military airport. It also tells how the beast feeds on the blood of the people, as well as other miserable and unfortunate happenings...A handful of businesses, one of which is the Mexican State, take all the wealth out of Chiapas and in exchange leave behind their mortal and pestilent mark."

"This chapter tells the story of the Governor, an apprentice to the viceroy, and his heroic fight against the progressive clergy and his adventures with the feudal cattle, coffee and business lords."

"This chapter tells how the viceroy had a brilliant idea and put this idea into practice. It also tells how the Empire decreed the death of socialism, and then put itself to the task of carrying out this decree to the great joy of the powerful, the distress of the weak and the indifference of the majority."

"This chapter tells how dignity and defiance joined hands in the Southeast, and how Jacinto Pe'rez's phantoms run through the Chiapaneco highlands. It also tells of a patience that has run out and of other happenings which have been ignored but have major consequences."

"This chapter tells how the dignity of the Indigenous people tried to make itself heard, but its voice only lasted a little while. It also tells how voices that spoke before are speaking again today and that the Indians are walking forward once again but this time with firm footsteps."

The elliptical, ironic and romantic style of Marcos's writings may be a way of keeping a distance from the painful circumstances that he reports and protests. In any event, his huge output of words has a purpose, as stated in a 2001 book title, Our Word is Our Weapon.

Bibliography

Books by Marcos

Subcomandante Marcos (1994). Mexico: A Storm and a Prophecy. Westfield, NJ: Open Magazine Pamphlet Series.

Subcomandante Marcos (1994). Voice of Fire. Berkeley, CA: New Earth Press. Subtitled Communiques And Interviews From The Zapatista National Liberation Army. With Ben Clarke and Clifton Ross, Editors. Republished 1997, San Francisco: Freedom Voices.

Subcomandante Marcos; et al. (1996). Shadows of Tender Fury. New York: Monthly Review Press. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help) With John Ross, Editor. Subtitled The Letters and Communiques of Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. English translation of unpublished works.

Subcomandante Marcos (1996). La Historia de los Colores. Guadalajara, Mexico: Colectivo Callejero. Illustrated by Domitila Dominguez. Republished 2003, El Paso, TX: Cincos Puntos Press.

Christopher Day, Mariana Mora and Subcomandante Marcos (1998). EZLN Communiques: Memory from Below. Oakland, CA: Regent Press.

Subcomandante Marcos (1999). Desde las Montañas del Sureste Mexicano. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés Editores.

Subcomandante Marcos (2000). Detras de Nosotros Estamos Ustedes. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés Editores.

Subcomandante Marcos (2001). La Historia de los Colores / The Story of Colors. London: Latin America Bureau. Illustrated by Domitila Dominguez. Bilingual edition. Republished 2003, El Paso, TX: Cincos Puntos Press.

Insurgente Marcos Subcomandante (2001). El Correo de la Selva. Buenos Aires: Retorica Ediciones.

Subcomandante Marcos, Elena Poniatowska and Simon Ortiz (2001). Questions and Swords. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. Illustrated by Domitila Dominguez and Antonio Ramirez. Subtitled Folktales of the Zapatista Revolution.

Noam Chomsky, James Petras and Insurgente Marcos Subcomandante (2001). Afganistan. Buenos Aires: Editorial 21.

Lauro Zavala, Carlos Monsivais and Subcomandante Marcos, Ed. (2001). Relatos Mexicanos Posmodernos. Madrid: Alfaguara, Santillana Ediciones Generales.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Republished 2002, Miami, FL: Santillana USA Publishing.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (2002). Nuestra Arma es Nuestra Palabra. Toronto: Siete Cuentos Editorial. With Juana Ponce de Leon, Editor.

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (2002). Our Word is our Weapon. Toronto: Seven Stories Press. With Juana Ponce de Leon, Editor. English translation of Nuestra Arma es Nuestra Palabra.

Atilio Boron, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Insurgente Marcos Subcomandante (2002). Mundo Global Guerra Global?. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Continente.

Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo, II (2005). Muertos Incómodos. Miami, FL: Planeta Publishing. Subtitled Falta lo que Falta.

Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo, II (2006). The Uncomfortable Dead. New York: Akashic Books. Subtitled What's Missing is Missing. English translation of Muertos Incómodos. (Scheduled release September, 2006.)

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (2006). Conversations with Durito. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia. Subtitled Stories of the Zapatistas and Neoliberalism.

Subcomandante Marcos (2006). The Other Campaign. San Francisco: City Lights Books. Subtitled The Zapatista Call for Change from Below. Bilingual edition.

Essays by Marcos

Writings of Subcommander Marcos of the EZLN. Flag, 2005, Struggle Web site

Books about Marcos and Chiapas Zapatistas

John Ross (1995). Rebellion from the Roots: Indian Uprising in Chiapas. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press.

George Allen Collier and Elizabeth Lowery Quaratiello (1995). Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas. Oakland, CA: Food First Books.

Bertrand de la Grange and Maité Rico (1997). Marcos: La Genial Impostura. Madrid: Alfaguara, Santillana Ediciones Generales.

Maria del Carmen Legorreta Díaz (1998). Religión, Política y Guerrilla en Las Cañadas de la Selva Lacandona. Mexico City: Editorial Cal y Arena.

John Womack, Jr. (1999). Rebellion in Chiapas: An Historical Reader. New York: The New Press.

Alma Guillermoprieto (2001). Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America. New York: Knopf Publishing Group.

External links

• EZLN and Subcomandante Marcos official web page
• A Place Called Chiapas - a 1998 Documentary by Nettie Wild about the Zapatista movement.
• Conversations with Don Durito - a collection of Marcos' stories explaining Zapatista resistance through the voice of the beetle Don Durito.