New Zapatista Caracol Inaugurated in Mexico City
Article Written by Simon Walker
On October 22, a new Zapatista caracol was inaugurated in the San Esteban neighborhood of Xochimilco, in the southeastern section of Mexico City. Working with collectives that have their roots in both old-school- and neo-Zapatismo, members of the Xochimilco community have made an important step in their ongoing struggle to create alternative autonomous spaces for self-governance.
The caracol, named, “Tecpanpa” (a Nahuatl word meaning “place of the palaces”) is organized and run by La Asemblea de las Tías, or the Grandmothers’ Council. This form of government is based on the generational transmission of authority through women elders, an indigenous practice dating back to pre-colonial times. The product of nearly five years of planning, the Tias hope Tacpanpa will promote and strengthen cultural traditions among children and youth.
According to community member Teodora Alonso, forming the caracol “was really an idea that several women elders came up with, thinking that we had to do something… that Mexico is slipping out of our hands and that the old women, the grandmothers, really need to respect the youth and their parents in order to form another, different Mexico, with a basis in education. [This] is where the most damage is being done, because the young parents no longer want to commit to being good citizens, good Mexicans, and the youth are being lost.”
Caracol Tecpanpa, which has signed on to the EZLN’s Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and the Other Campaign, is evidence of the activity and organizing that these new Zapatista initiatives have sparked throughout Mexico. Xochimilco elder Don José Félix Serdán Nájera, who has fought for Emiliano Zapata’s ideals most of his life stated, “The important thing is that the people are becoming conscious of the fact that only in an organized way can we get out of the submissive misery in which neoliberalism keeps us.”
Source: The Narco News Bulletin
On October 22, a new Zapatista caracol was inaugurated in the San Esteban neighborhood of Xochimilco, in the southeastern section of Mexico City. Working with collectives that have their roots in both old-school- and neo-Zapatismo, members of the Xochimilco community have made an important step in their ongoing struggle to create alternative autonomous spaces for self-governance.
The caracol, named, “Tecpanpa” (a Nahuatl word meaning “place of the palaces”) is organized and run by La Asemblea de las Tías, or the Grandmothers’ Council. This form of government is based on the generational transmission of authority through women elders, an indigenous practice dating back to pre-colonial times. The product of nearly five years of planning, the Tias hope Tacpanpa will promote and strengthen cultural traditions among children and youth.
According to community member Teodora Alonso, forming the caracol “was really an idea that several women elders came up with, thinking that we had to do something… that Mexico is slipping out of our hands and that the old women, the grandmothers, really need to respect the youth and their parents in order to form another, different Mexico, with a basis in education. [This] is where the most damage is being done, because the young parents no longer want to commit to being good citizens, good Mexicans, and the youth are being lost.”
Caracol Tecpanpa, which has signed on to the EZLN’s Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and the Other Campaign, is evidence of the activity and organizing that these new Zapatista initiatives have sparked throughout Mexico. Xochimilco elder Don José Félix Serdán Nájera, who has fought for Emiliano Zapata’s ideals most of his life stated, “The important thing is that the people are becoming conscious of the fact that only in an organized way can we get out of the submissive misery in which neoliberalism keeps us.”
Source: The Narco News Bulletin
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