A Different Way of Thinking

I'm on a JustJourney in Chiapas, Mexico, and have just spent four days in an autonomous Zapatista community. The Zapatistas, who started an uprising in 1994, are a group of indigenous people seeking their most basic rights: work, land, health care, independence, liberty, justice, and peace.

Since 1994, Zapatista communities have managed to form their own system of government, develop their own schools, and create their own health care system.

The government, which is housed in Morelia, turns over every eight days. This is a measured effort to prevent corruption and serve its people better. On this trip, we stayed in Morelia, and met briefly with the current government. The government serves both the needs of the Zapatista community and often, the non-Zapatista community.

Because health care was unaffordable and largely inaccessible for the indigenous communities, Zapatistas created their own clinics, their own health promoters, and their own educational promoters, who educate community members on basic health problems. And, health care is often free in the communities.

In 2000, Zapatista communities decided to develop their own schools, feeling that community members were not getting the education they deserved in the governmental school system.

Now, Zapatista communities are far from perfect. They, like most indigenous communities in the state of Chiapas, are struggling with health, education, and land rights. They are under threat by the Mexican government, as well as the rampant paramilitary groups here.

But being in a community and meeting with its leaders, I have seen directly the uniqueness of this movement. Nonviolent, with the exception of the initial 12-day uprising, the Zapatistas have managed to create an entirely autonomous system of work, education, health care, and government, most of which was developed in the last 10 years. It has been so effective that many non-Zapatistas now go to Zapatista communities for their problems, whether they have a dispute over land or a health problem.

Indigenous people in the state of Chiapas are struggling for rights, and the Zapatistas are struggling to address their needs. It's a fascinating thing, seeing a modern political movement firsthand.