The Peace House Parties Down in Oventic
The "Festival of the Carocoles" was a wonderfully odd event and Peace House co-founder Colin Bossen and volunteer Brendan Hill were there to witness it. The mix of music, dance, basketball and, of course, communiques gave the event, by turns, the appearance of an outdoor rock concert, sporting event and political rally.
Among the 15,000+ people in attendance were many friends, new and old, and we were pleased to see some faces that we hadn't seen in several years. We also got to meet the good folks from Narco News. It turns out Narco News' webmaster Dan Feder is an old friend of CPHP webmaster Ben Mazuar! Narco News is, incidentally, one of the better sources for information on Latin America that we know. Their coverage of the events at Oventic was excellent.
Highlights of the festival include an indigenous women's basketball tournament, two all night dance sessions, the installation of the junta de buen gobierno and the premier of the Zapatista radio station, Radio Insurgente. At times the be havior of the press bordered on the surreal with hundreds of micro-phones, cameras and video recorders almost blocking the Zapatista authorities as they made their addresses.
The words of the EZLN at Oventic are available in Spanish and English at chiapas.indymedia.org. Copies of the Radio Insurgente broadcast are available through the peace house for a donation of $10, e-mail cbossen@mindspring.com for more details.
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