zapatismo

Leslilake1 at aol.com Leslilake1 at aol.com
Wed Mar 14 17:46:52 PST 2001


Eyewitness report from a Japanese friend on zap's arrival in mexico city:

<<found a (relatively) cheap ticket to fly to Mexico City on 10th. And attended the mega-meeting-fiesta with the EZLN in Zocalo there, though got quite groggy standing hours under the unforgivenning burning sunl: apparently the EZLN has no habit of announcing the exact time of their arrival and people just waited and waited since early morning till they finally materialized around 3 pm. It was worht waiting though. Marcos' speach in particular was quite impressive and unusual as a political discourse, it was long but gentle and mesmelizing and more like a poetry than a political agitation. And yet it seems to succeeded to carry a strong political message and arize emotion among the more than 200,000 people that packed and overflowed the Plaza. The WomenLs Network--middle aged rotanda womens of Mexico City lead and organized welcome logistics including the many layers of "human cordons" to protect the EZLN commandantes from possible assassination. Though he himself warns against it, there's apparently personal cult of Marcos being formed among youth in particular seems like. At one time, this rugged, though certainly charming and with a style, man covered in ski mask puffing smoke from his pipe looked like a rock star assaulted by the chant of "Marcos, Marcos." The Mexican left journalism (Journada, Uno mas uno, Processo) have been having their heyday with this caraban and arrival of a new hero in the capital and putting a steady flow of print and publications. For example, the hour-long interview Marcos gave to the founder of Processo magazine and broadcasted in the early morning of 11 was already printed before the EZLN's arrival at Zocalo.



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