''A Place Called Chiapas'' is a 1998 Canadian documentary film of first-hand accounts of the ''Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional'' (EZLN) the (
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican ), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.
Since ...
or Zapatistas) and the lives of its soldiers and the people for whom they fight. Director
Nettie Wild takes the viewer to rebel territory in the southeastern
Mexican state of
Chiapas, where the EZLN live and evade the
Mexican Army
The Mexican Army ( es, Ejército Mexicano) is the combined land and air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army.
The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National ...
.
Political background
North American Free Trade Agreement
In 1993, the Mexican Federal Government signed the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States, effectively communicating to the Mexican people that allowing unimpeded American business penetration of Mexico's economy would promote Mexico from the
Third-World
The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " Firs ...
to the
First-World. Skeptical of these claims and their resulting implications, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation simultaneously arose in armed insurrection throughout the rural region of Chiapas on New Year's Day 1994—capturing four municipalities (25 percent of the state); to date, Chiapas is economically and politically, socially and militarily unsettled.
The nationalist EZLN insurrection arose in response to the NAFTA-induced "dollarization", and consequent (further) impoverishment, of Mexico's economy; the NAFTA did not provide wage increases or prices decreases. Thus, according to the documentary, Chiapas's indigenous
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
people said: "Basta!
nough! we will take ourselves underground and wait to rise up, like corn". In Mayan traditional lore, the Maya are 'the people born from maize'.
Chiapanec leadership
In 1994, the EZLN's indigenous Chiapanec soldiers marched from the jungle to the towns in armed insurrection to reclaim their land from the elite ruling minority. Thus did the Mexicans of the national Capital and of the provincial states awaken to a New Year 1994 loud with
AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...
gunfire. The EZLN seized six hundred and fifty private ranches that had displaced the native Chiapanecs; afterwards, they controlled a fourth of Chiapas.
In behalf of the EZLN Indian leadership,
Subcomandante Marcos
Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born 19 June 1957) is a Mexican insurgent, the former military leader and spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the ongoing Chiapas conflict,Pasztor, S. B. (2004). Marcos, Subcoman ...
(Sub-Commander Marcos) said in Spanish: "Today there were attacks on four municipalities in Chiapas. This is an insurrection led by our organization, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation".
Federal Army counter attack
The Mexican Federal Army counter-attacked; meanwhile, demanding "Control over our lives and land", the Zapatistas published their social and
land reform
Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
demands on the internet. In the event, after much ruthless fighting, the Mexican Army and the EZLN called an uneasy ceasefire and truce. The Mexican Army surrounded Zapatista communities, villages, and towns to hunt rebel commanders, as in the town of La Realidad; the Mexican Federal Army iterated its presence with twice-daily tank and truck patrols.
Unforeseen by the right-wing, Neoliberal PRI (Mexico's seven-decade-rule party), the Mexican economy collapsed when the NAFTA allowed the importation of very low-priced American corn, depressing the Mexican Peso's value to negative exchange rate levels, thereby provoking Mexico's greatest economic bailout, by foreign (i.e., American) banks to date; U.S. President Clinton authorised $50 billion in loans; Mexico was in hock to foreigners.
Moreover, in an official bank memorandum,
the CHASE Manhattan Bank (a leading bailout financier) told the Mexican Federal Government to "get rid of the Zapatistas" in exchange for full bailout financing. With a U.S. bank ordering the Mexican PRI-Government about, the Zapatistas said "they have no idea with whom they are negotiating" — the lender or the borrower ... Who is owner of México?
El Encuentro
For the Zapatistas, "El Encuentro"
he Encounteragainst
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
and for all of humanity, was a peaceful mode of obtaining international support and resistance aid. Director Wild considers it "a post-Glasnost revolutionary Woodstock, without the Acid". Three thousand people attended ''El Encuentro'', among them Spanish anarchists, Italian communists, Latin American revolutionaries, Chiapanec Indians, and
Superbarrio uper Neighbourhood the caped
professional wrestler
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
and social activist. The ''Encuentro'' demonstrates the importance of civilian support to the Zapatista national liberation movement, whose goals the civilians of the world understand. The ''Encuentro'' featured a dance wherein Zapatistas and guests dance "on the edge of romantic ideals and harsh politics, between those who can leave Mexico and those who cannot"; many Zapatista supporters could not reach the ''Encuentro'' of 1996.
Yet, director Wild says:"A month before the ''Encuentro'' I encountered a group of people
homthe revolution almost forgot. I followed dark rumours of fear and violence to the north of Chiapas, to
Jomajl; here villages are deeply divided, between Zapatista supporters and villagers who work directly with the ruling party and profit from it".
Peace and justice
To wit, paramilitary mercenary groups named "Peace and Justice" fight the EZLN and its civil supporters; "Anyone who opposes them, they call 'Zapatistas'. In northern Chiapas, the paramilitary mercenaries have, at gun-point, forced out thousands of people from their villages, farms, and ranches, thus rendering those Mexicans refugees in their own country. Documentarist Wild questions: "If they go home can or will the Zapatistas help them?"; she comments: "My camera is framing the gap between rhetoric and reality".
A month later, among three thousand people, she watches the horse-mounted Subcomandante Marcos appear from the jungle, holding a flagpole bearing a small red flag, he was "Reminiscent of the hapless
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...
— the fictional Spanish knight who fights for impossible dreams, and can't distinguish reality from what's inside his head".
In press conference, the documentarist Nettie Wild asks Subcomandante Marcos what is the Zapatista plan for their supporters in the north; he replies offensively, but later halts peace talks with the Mexican Federal Government until the north Chiapas refugees are served real peace and justice.
The documentary ''A Place Called Chiapas'' shows the startling reality of what is like to live in contemporary Chiapas, a relatively quiet war zone. The viewer must interpret and determine, for themself, the true nature — social, political, military, of the Zapatista National Liberation Movement and its army, the EZLN.
See also
* ''
A Massacre Foretold''
*
Chiapas conflict
The Chiapas conflict ( Spanish: ''Conflicto de Chiapas'') comprises the 1994 Zapatista uprising, the 1995 Zapatista crisis and ensuing tension between the Mexican state and the indigenous peoples and subsistence farmers of Chiapas from the 1990 ...
*
EZLN
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican ), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.
Sin ...
*
Prodesis
Prodesis was a development project in the Lacandon region of Chiapas, Mexico, that ran from 2004 to 2008.
The aim of the project was to reduce pressure on the rainforest and combat poverty among its inhabitants, most of them being Maya peoples, May ...
*
Samuel Ruiz García
*
Subcomandante Marcos
Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born 19 June 1957) is a Mexican insurgent, the former military leader and spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the ongoing Chiapas conflict,Pasztor, S. B. (2004). Marcos, Subcoman ...
*
Women in the EZLN
Women have been influential in the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) ''Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional'', a revolutionary leftist group in Chiapas, Mexico, by participating as armed insurgents and civil supporters. In the 19 ...
References
External links
*
*
*
A Place Called Chiapas' at the
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
catalog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Place Called Chipas, A
1998 films
Canadian documentary films
National Film Board of Canada documentaries
Documentary films about revolutions
Documentary films about indigenous rights
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Separatism in Mexico
Best Documentary Film Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
1998 documentary films
Documentary films about Mexico
Documentary films about anarchism
Films directed by Nettie Wild
Spanish-language Canadian films
1990s English-language films
1990s Canadian films