Major Ana María is the ''nom de guerre'' of one of the first military leaders who led the

Zapatista uprising On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) coordinated a 12-day Zapatista uprising in the state of Chiapas, Mexico in protest of NAFTA's enactment. The revolt gathered international attention. Background Disease, ensla ...

San Cristóbal de las Casas San Cristóbal de las Casas (), also known by its native Tzotzil name, Jovel (), is a town and municipality located in the Central Highlands region of the Mexican state of Chiapas. It was the capital of the state until 1892, and is still consid ...

, in the Southwest of Mexico.

Biography

In 1969, Ana María was born somewhere in the Chiapas Highlands, into the

Tzotzil The Tzotzil are an indigenous Maya people of the central Chiapas highlands in southern Mexico. As cited by Alfredo López Austin (1997), p. 133, 148 and following. As of 2000, they numbered about 298,000. The municipalities with the largest Tzo ...

, a

Maya people The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical reg ...

group. She began participating in peaceful protests when she was only eight years old. After her brother joined 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. Sin ...

(EZLN), the thirteen-year-old Ana María also enlisted, becoming one of the first women to join. She joined the EZLN because she considered it necessary to hold land in order to ensure a better life, especially for indigenous woman. It was within the EZLN that she acquired her political opinions and learned how to use weapons. As one of the first women in the movement, she opened the path for others to join, which led some to create women-only groups of ''compañeras''. To her, the main demands of the EZLN movement were

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

and

liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

. During the

in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Major Ana María commanded a

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

of 1,000 men and led the seizure of the Municipal Palace. As an Infantry Major, she held the highest military rank in her area. She helped to conceive the Women's Revolutionary Law, a feminist law for both indigenous and peasant women. She was also a part of the Indigenous Clandestine Revolutionary Committee ( es, Comité Clandestino Revolucionario Indigena, CCRI). Among other things, she cosigned a CCRI communiqué addressed to the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

calling for dialogue "if the Federal Government removes its troops from the lands controlled by the EZLN". In March 2011, Major Ana María joined the March for the Color of the Earth ( es, "La Marcha por el Color de la Tierra"). This march lasted 37 days, and went from San Cristobal de Las Casas to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. The delegation was made up of 24 EZLN delegates and representatives from many of the

indigenous peoples of Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico ( es, gente indígena de México, pueblos indígenas de México), Native Mexicans ( es, nativos mexicanos) or Mexican Native Americans ( es, pueblos originarios de México, lit=Original peoples of Mexico), are those ...

. The aim of this march was to defend the

San Andrés Accords The San Andrés Accords are agreements reached between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the Mexico, Mexican government, at that time headed by President Ernesto Zedillo. The accords were signed on February 16, 1996, in San Andrés Larr� ...

which committed the Mexican government to recognize

indigenous rights Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of the Indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the rights over their land (includ ...

and

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

in the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

. However, since the signing of the Accords in 1996, it has been up to each state whether or not to recognize indigenous autonomy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:María, Major Ana 1969 births 21st-century Mexican women Date of birth unknown Indigenous Mexican women Maya people Members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation Mexican democracy activists People from Chiapas Women in war in Mexico Living people