Comments on August 2007 trip

Hello Schools for Chiapas supporters.
It?s now been a couple of weeks since I?ve returned to the land of giant single occupant SUVs. Sigh.
I?m at a bit of a loss trying to write a concise note on my experience in Chiapas.
Perhaps the facts first:

I participated in two delegations, the first focusing on the Health & Education systems, the second focusing on Eco-Agriculture. The two weeks were exhausting, challenging, extremely emotional and absolutely inspirational and necessary. I tend not to show my emotions freely but still well up when thinking about the days spent in the Zapatista communities.

I had been looking for an organization working in Chiapas but did not want to align myself with any faith based group or a pseudo racist ?assistance? group (essays on the ?salvage paradigm? spun through my head). Luckily a friend gave me some links to ?lefty? organizations and Schools for Chiapas was one of them. Upon meeting the S.F.C. members who lead our delegations, Susan, Peter & Erin, and the other delegation members, it became clear to me that they, and now I, were on the right path.

We mainly had meetings, opposed to building things or other physical activities. There were many presentations on what the Zapatista?s current projects are and where they need assistance. The Juntas and other representatives seemed happy to meet us and take time out of their schedule to explain things. A large part of their request was for us to spread word of their struggle to people in our home communities. I have been trying to do that through postering and an email blitz for the upcoming Indigenous Peoples Gathering, uploading lots of my pictures to a public website and inviting as many people as I think would be interested to look, and am working on two writing projects; one a Travel story for the weekly newspaper here, the other is more academic, comparing the Mayan experience with the Mexican public school system with that of the First Nations experiences in Canada. I?ll keep the Schools people up dated on my progress.

Sub Comandante Marcos has said (pardon if I garble his eloquent words) that the solution to neo-liberalism will be different from community to community based on their needs but it must always be inclusive. As a marginalized person who has struggled to find a progressive community, I welcomed Marcos? sentiment and happily found that it is lived in the Zapatista communities. I felt at home with the mix of people we were dealing with; men/women, all age groups and people of various abilities and ethnic backgrounds. Our language differences were easily overcome in the mutual desire to continue ?la Lucha!?.

Knowing that when I go back to Chiapas, I?ll be welcomed as a compañero gives me the energy and drive to keep striving for that better world that is possible. Till then I?ll keep spreading the Zapatista word.

¡Viva la Revolución!
Aaron
Check out my pile of photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaroninchiapas/