Subcomandante Marcos

Subcomandante Marcos
Subcomandante Marcos, smoking a pipe atop a horse in Chiapas, Mexico in 1996.
Other names	Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, Delegado Cero (Delegate Zero)
Website	http://www.ezln.org.mx/

Subcomandante Marcos or Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, was the nom de guerre used by the main ideologist and spokesman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a Mexican rebel movement fighting for the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Subcomandante Marcos, the character, the constructed persona, the hologram, the "colorful ruse," was created by the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee of the Zapatistas, because "[the outsiders] can only see those who are as small as they are. Let’s make someone as small as they are, so that they can see him and through him, they can see us." Determined by the Zapatistas to have become a distraction, the figure announced it to be destroyed in late May 2014. Resurrecting the name of a fallen Zapatista education promoter named José Luis Solís López, or Compañero Galeano, who was killed in a paramilitary attack against La Realidad, a Zapatista village, also in May 2014, Subcomandante Marcos is now known as Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano. Twenty years prior, on January 1, 1994, when the U.S.–Mexico–Canada free trade agreement became effective, then Subcommander Marcos led an army of Mayan farmers into eastern Chiapas state, to protest what he saw as the Mexican federal government's mistreatment of the nation's indigenous peoples. Marcos is also a writer, a political poet, and an anti-capitalist who advocates the amendment of the Political Constitution of Mexico to formally and specifically recognize the political and the human rights of Mexico's indigenous peoples.

Journalists have described Marcos as both a post-modern and new Che Guevara. In his military capacity as a Subcommander of the Zapatista Army, his nom de guerre Marcos is that of a friend killed at a military road-block checkpoint. In his political capacity, he is known as Delegado Cero (Delegate Zero) for his participation in the affairs of La otra campaña (The Other Campaign), concerning the communitary autonomy and the socio-political rights of los indios de México (the indigenous peoples of Mexico).

On May 25, 2014 at 02:08 he published a letter where he announced that that would be his last public appearance. He mentioned that the Subcomandante Marcos personality has been a hologram and the EZLN does not need his image anymore. The letter is signed by Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano who died a few days earlier in an ambush. It is said that Galeano mentioned that he would have returned in collective form.

Background

As a young man, Marcos was politically radicalized by the Tlatelolco massacre (2 October 1968) of students and civilians by the Mexican federal government; consequently, he became a militant in the Maoist National Liberation Forces. In 1983, he went to the mountains of Chiapas to convince the poor, indigenous Maya population to organize and launch a proletarian revolution against the Mexican bourgeoisie and the federal government. After hearing his proposition, the Chiapanecs "just stared at him", and replied that they were not urban workers, that, from their perspective, the land was not property, but the heart of the communities. In the documentary A Place Called Chiapas (1998), about his early days there, Subcommander 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? ”

There are several rumors that Marcos left Mexico in the mid 1980s to Nicaragua to serve with the Sandinistas under the nom de guerre El Mejicano, and after leaving Nicaragua in the late 1980s to return to Mexico, helped form the EZLN with support from the Sandinistas and the Salvadoran leftist guerrilla group FMLN This story, however, contradicts the view that the first Zapatista organizers were in the jungle by 1983.

Marcos learned the culture of the Maya civilization. After the intramural politics of the FLN, the outlook of the indigenous peasants of Chiapas, and the failure of the initial Chiapas uprising, he modified the social revolution to the actual social, political, and economic conditions of Chiapas and the people; the adaptation parallels the approach proposed by Antonio Gramsci, whose political theories are popular among Mexican intellectuals. A Place Called Chiapas presents some of the powerful political rhetoric of the Zapatistas. Subcommander Marcos addressed the camera only with his eyes and his tobacco pipe, and said, "It is our day, the day of the dead", whereby he revealed that the Zapatistas believe that he is a dead man, as are the other Zapatistas.

Identity

Subcomandante Marcos (center, wearing brown cap) in Chiapas

The Mexican government alleges Marcos to be one 'Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente', born June 19, 1957 in Tampico, Tamaulipas to Spanish immigrants. Guillén attended high school at Instituto Cultural Tampico, a Jesuit school in Tampico, which was, presumably, where he became acquainted with Liberation Theology. Max Appedole, a high school colleague, played a major role when the government revealed his identity.

Guillén later moved to Mexico City and graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) majoring in Philosophy. There he became immersed in the school's heavy Marxist rhetoric of 1970s and 1980s and won an award for the best dissertation (drawing on the then recent work of Althusser and Foucault) of his class. He began working as a professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) while finishing his dissertation at UNAM, but after a couple of years left. It is thought that it was at UAM where Rafael got in touch with the Forces of National Liberation, the mother organization of what would later become the EZLN. Rafael Guillén's brother, Hector Guillén, has said that the last school Rafael Guillén attended was Paris-Sorbonne University in Paris, where he earned a master's degree in philosophy. However, records of Rafael Guillén's alleged stay in Paris are nowhere to be seen.

Guillén's family, while deeply involved in Tamaulipas politics, are apparently unaware of what happened to him and refuse to say if they think Marcos and Guillén are the same person. Guillén's sister Mercedes del Carmen Guillén Vicente is the Attorney General of the State of Tamaulipas, and a very influential member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party which governed Mexico for more than 70 years. During the Great March to Mexico City in 2001, Marcos visited the UNAM and during a speech said that he had at least been there before.

In an interview with García Márquez and Roberto Pombo, Marcos spoke of his upbringing: "It was middle class. My father, the head of the family, taught in a rural school in the time of Cárdenas when, as he used to say, teachers had their ears cut off for being communists. My mother also taught in a school in the countryside, then moved and entered the middle class: it was a family without financial difficulties." His parents fostered a love for language and reading: "In our family, words had a very special value. Our way of approaching the world was through language. We learnt to read, not so much in school, as in the columns of newspapers. Early on, my mother and father gave us books that disclosed other things. One way or another, we became conscious of language—not as a way of communicating, but of constructing something. As if it were a pleasure more than a duty." When asked how old he was, Marcos replied: "I'm 518" and laughed.

Political and philosophical writings

For more details on this topic see Neozapatismo and, see Subcomandante Marcos bibliography.

Flag of the EZLN

Marcos has written more than 200 essays and stories and has published 21 books documenting his political and philosophical views. The essays and stories are recycled in the books. Marcos tends to prefer indirect expression, and his writings are often fables, although some are more 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 as many words as colors and that there are so many thoughts because within them is the world where words are born...And we teach them to speak with the truth, that is to say, to speak with their hearts."

La Historia de los Colores (The Story of Colors) is a story written for children and is one of Marcos' most-read books. Based on a Mayan creation myth, it teaches tolerance and respect for diversity. The book's English translation was to be published with support from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, but in 1999 the grant was abruptly canceled after questions from a reporter to the Endowment's chairman William J. Ivey. The Lannan Foundation stepped in with support after the NEA withdrew.

Marcos' political philosophy is often characterized as Marxist and his populist writing, which concentrates on unjust treatment of people by both business and the State, underlines some of the commonalities the Zapatista ideology shares with Libertarian Socialism or Anarchism. 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, takes 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 Pérez's ghost run through the Chiapas 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' writings may be a way of keeping a distance from the painful circumstances that he reports and protests. In any event, his literary output has a purpose, as stated in a 2002 book title, Our Word is Our Weapon, a compilation of his articles, poems, speeches, and letters. In 2005 he wrote the novel The Uncomfortable Dead with crime writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II.

The Fourth World War

Subcomandante Marcos has also written an essay in which he claims that the neoliberalism and globalization constitute the "Fourth World War." He termed the Cold War the "Third World War." In this piece, Marcos compares and contrasts the Third World War (the Cold War) with the Fourth World War, which he says is the new type of war that we find ourselves in now: "If the Third World War saw the confrontation of capitalism and socialism on various terrains and with varying degrees of intensity, the fourth will be played out between large financial centers, on a global scale, and at a tremendous and constant intensity." He goes on to claim that economic globalization has created devastation through financial policies:

"Toward the end of the Cold War, capitalism created a military horror: the neutron bomb, a weapon that destroys life while leaving buildings intact. During the Fourth World War, however, a new wonder has been discovered: the financial bomb. Unlike those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this new bomb not only destroys the polis (here, the nation), imposing death, terror, and misery on those who live there, but also transforms its target into just another piece in the puzzle of economic globalization."

Marcos explains the effect of the financial bombs as, "destroying the material bases of their [nation-state's] sovereignty and, in producing their qualitative depopulation, excluding all those deemed unsuitable to the new economy (for example, indigenous peoples)." Marcos also believes that neoliberalism and globalization result in a loss of unique culture for societies as a result of the homogenizing effect of neoliberal globalization:

"All cultures forged by nations—the noble indigenous past of America, the brilliant civilization of Europe, the wise history of Asian nations, and the ancestral wealth of Africa and Oceania—are corroded by the American way of life. In this way, neoliberalism imposes the destruction of nations and groups of nations in order to reconstruct them according to a single model. This is a planetary war, of the worst and cruelest kind, waged against humanity."

It is in this context which Subcomandante Marcos believes that the EZLN and other indigenous movements across the world are fighting back. He sees the EZLN as one of many "pockets of resistance."

"It is not only in the mountains of southeastern Mexico that neoliberalism is being resisted. In other regions of Mexico, in Latin America, in the United States and in Canada, in the Europe of the Maastricht Treaty, in Africa, in Asia, and in Oceania, pockets of resistance are multiplying. Each has its own history, its specificities, its similarities, its demands, its struggles, its successes. If humanity wants to survive and improve, its only hope resides in these pockets made up of the excluded, the left-for-dead, the 'disposable.'"

Marcos view's on other Latin American leaders, particularly ones on the left, are complex. He has expressed deep admiration for former Cuban president Fidel Castro and Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, and given his approval to Bolivian president Evo Morales but has expressed mixed feelings for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, whom he views as too militant but still responsible for vast revolutionary changes in Venezuela. On the other hand, he's labeled Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Nicaragua's current president Daniel Ortega, whom he once served under while a member of the Sandinistas, as traitors who have betrayed their original ideals.

Popularity

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"Subcomandante Marcos, a principal member of the Zapatistas in the Chiapas region in Mexico, eludes easy definition, has slipped in and out of media attention, but struggles on in his own small, bloodless, but eloquent ways. He's issued essays, stories, books, and most recently more demands for indigenous rights as part of the 'Other Campaign' decrying Mexico's election-system, a campaign he conducted on a motorbike in honor of (Che) Guevara's travels. Marcos is a post-modern rebel, a local, non-violent guerrilla who's still found many ways, often through technology instead of guns, to short-circuit the dominant network of power."

— Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly

However, most would agree that Marcos is the man responsible for putting the impoverished state of Mexico's indigenous population in the spotlight, both locally and internationally.

On his 3,000 kilometer trek to the capital during the Other Campaign in 2006, Marcos was welcomed by "huge adoring crowds, chanting and whistling." There were "Marcos handcrafted dolls, and his ski mask-clad face adorns T-shirts, posters and badges."

Asked if it was a burden to be Marcos, he responded: "Yes, it's a great burden because the idea is still prevalent that the EZLN's mistakes are Marcos's, and the good ideas come from the communities. Although we've often been lightning rods, among the compañeros this division of labor makes people worry, because they say: 'In any case, if there's an attack, it'll be on you.'" Asked if this threat made him feel vulnerable: "Yes. Mostly when I go out on the Other Campaign. I feel ill at ease because it's not my territory, there's no media, no compañeros, resources.'" Despite the uneasy feeling of being a potential target, Marcos said, "if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing [...] if I did think about changing something, it would be this: I wouldn't have taken such a prominent role in the media."

Subcomandante Marcos knows of the possibility of being assassinated but stands committed to the cause: "We don't fear to die struggling. The good word has already been planted in fertile soil. This fertile soil is in the heart of all of you, and it is there that Zapatista dignity flourishes.'"

Relationship with Inter Milan

Apart from cheering for local Liga MX side Chiapas F.C., which recently relocated to Querétaro, Subcomandante Marcos and the EZLN also support the Italian Serie A club Inter Milan. The contact between EZLN and Inter – one of Italy's biggest and most famous clubs – began in 2004 when an EZLN commander contacted a delegate from Inter Campus, the club's charity organization which has funded sports, water, and health projects in Chiapas.

In 2005, Inter's president Massimo Moratti received an invitation from Subcomandante Marcos to have Inter play a football game against a team of Zapatistas with Diego Maradona as referee. Subcomandante Marcos asked Inter to bring the match ball because the Zapatistas' ones were punctured. Although the proposed spectacle never came to fruition, there has been continuing contact between Inter and the Zapatistas. Former captain Javier Zanetti has expressed sympathy for the Zapatista cause.

See also

• Zapatista Army of National Liberation
• Chiapas
• Anti-globalization
• Global justice movement
• Left-wing politics

Further reading

See also: Bibliography of Subcomandante Marcos

• Anurudda Pradeep (අනුරුද්ධ ප්‍රදීප්) (2006). සැපටිස්ටා : Zapatista. 
• Nick Henck (2007). Subcommander Marcos: the man and the mask. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 
• Mihalis Mentinis (2006). ZAPATISTAS: The Chiapas Revolt and What It Means for Radical Politics. London: Pluto Press.
• 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. 
• Yvon Le Bot (1997). Le Rêve Zapatiste. Paris, Éditions du Seuil. 
• 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. 
• Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (1999). Marcos: el Señor de los Espejos. Madrid: Aguilar. 
• Ignacio Ramonet (2001). Marcos. La dignité rebelle. Paris: Galilée.  Subtitled Conversations avec le Sous-commandant Marcos.
• Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (2001). Marcos Herr der Spiegel. Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach.  German translation of Marcos: el Señor de los Espejos.
• Alma Guillermoprieto (2001). Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America. New York: Knopf Publishing Group. 
• Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (2003). Marcos, le Maître des Miroirs. Montréal: Éditions Mille et Une Nuits.  French translation of Marcos: el Señor de los Espejos.
• Gloria Muñoz Ramírez (2008). The Fire and the Word: A History of the Zapatista Movement. City Lights Publishers.  ISBN 978-0-87286-488-7.

External links

• EZLN and Subcomandante Marcos official web page
• Profile: The Zapatistas' mysterious leader, BBC News
• Subcomandante Marcos tribute web page
• Works by or about Subcomandante Marcos in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• A Place Called Chiapas - a 1998 Documentary by Nettie Wild about the Zapatista movement.
• Narco News: Subcomandante Marcos Pays Homage to Che Guevara and Praises Cuba October 11, 2006.
• Writings of Subcomandante Marcos
• Revolution Rocks: Thoughts of Mexico's First Postmodern Guerrilla Commander by The New York Times
• The Death Train of the WTO: The Slaves of Money and Our Rebellion by Subcomandante Marcos
• From Che to Marcos by Jeffrey W. Rubin, Dissent Magazine, Summer 2002