#SiEstanSolos #Zapatistas #25Years

Twenty five years ago the EZLN broke into our national reality in unimaginable ways, against Salinas, the PRI party and it's military forces. I wanted to document some part of the process. This global rally was created from a need, not new, but more as a resistance against projects developed in the area, resistance against the capitalist notion of territory militarization and intimidation (by kidnapping and killing) of the people in the region.

I was about to stay home but when I saw this post about the "Zapatista Air Force" presence at the National Palace, I thought about the cleverness of the action. What you can listen people chanting in the back is: "Chiapas is not a military barrack, the army must leave!"

By 6 p.m., I arrived to the Zócalo, expecting it to be closed, I walked a few blocks into the main plaza to see a poor congregation of Zapatistas, did I get the date wrong? Nope. Maybe I was late? Or maybe, the #NoEstanSolos (#YouAreNotAlone) hashtag was wrong at least in Mexico City.

 

A man slept over the tarps of the Zapatista movement.

Older men with beards underneath red bandanas looked a bit lost, probably as expectant as I was to watch the crowd grow. By 7 p.m. a woman came along and told us we needed to move, the traffic was about to be open in 5 minutes, the event was over. A stray dog sniffed for food and moved on.

As I looked around, I saw where most of the people's was really at: the "Karaoke at The Zócalo" was melting people softly with romantic songs. Our nation forgets really fast. And the other Mexico, the one that awoke a nation to a parallel, inclusive, indigenous dimension in 1994, seems forever lost.