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

Zapatista uprising On 1 January 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) coordinated a 12-day uprising in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, in protest against the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The rebels occupied citie ...

in San Cristóbal de las Casas, 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 highlands of Chiapas, 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 Tzotzil pop ...

, a

Maya people Maya () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, 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 w ...

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 (), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico. Since 1994, t ...

(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 , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and

liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

. During the

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

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

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 (, CCRI). Among other things, she cosigned a CCRI communiqué addressed to the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

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 (). This march lasted 37 days, and went from San Cristobal de Las Casas to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

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

indigenous peoples of Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico (), Native Mexicans () or Mexican Native Americans (), are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico before the arrival of Europe ...

. The aim of this march was to defend the San Andrés Accords which committed the Mexican government to recognize indigenous rights and

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...

in the

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

. 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 Tzotzil people Members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation Mexican democracy activists People from Chiapas Women in war in Mexico Living people