Seven years ago, Marcos appeared suddenly on the world's stage as the spokesman––either terrorist or hero, depending on one's politics––of an indigenous uprising in the impoverished Mexican state of Chiapas. This eccentric collection of writings, which includes everything from the Zapatistas' declaration of war to magic-realist stories about a beetle named Durito, proves Marcos to be a passionate and surprisingly self-deprecating writer. Most ingenious are his attempts to combat economic globalization in rural Mexico by appealing to trade unionists in Italy and punk rockers in the United States.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker John Charles Chasteen, in the final chapter of his Born in Blood and Fire [BKL Ja 1 & 15 2001], describes the neoliberalism that currently dominates Latin America. Our Word Is Our Weapon displays the most visible and articulate opposition to that neoliberalism and the globalization it serves: the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. The first section of this collection of the writings of Subcomandante Marcos describes conditions in Mexico in the context of the world economy, while the second section includes Marcos' more philosophical writings. The third section gathers Marcos' fables and parables, among them the tales of Don Durito of the Lacandon, a beetle who is a knight-errant, and of Old Don Antonio, a Mayan shaman. In political communiques and poetry, letters to writers and political leaders, and homely celebrations of traditional wisdom, Marcos insists on the dignity and value of an indigenous culture and people. With a foreword by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago. Mary Carroll
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Review
“This is an extraordinary collection of writings, documenting one of the most important grassroots rebellions of our time. It conveys the mind and spirit of the Zapatista movement with eloquence and astonishing immediacy.” –Howard Zinn
“This eccentric collection of writings, which includes everything from the Zapatista's declaration of war to magic-realist stories about a beetle named Durito, proves Marcos to be a passionate and surprisingly self-deprecating writer.” –The New Yorker
“The Zapatistas are an extraordinary example of resistance by the supposedly powerless against the powerful and they have endured for 25 years—and brought us what this book offers, a poetic, sometimes lyrical, sometimes comic, often utterly fresh and insightful, political language, grounded in the natural world, in weather, seasons, plants, animals, growing, harvesting . . .” –Rebecca Solnit
“… Language as strong as dignity and as subtle as love. To read this collection is to discover that rare animal: an original voice.” –Publishers Weekly
“A literary masterpiece that provides an invaluable lens into the Zapatista cosmos and one of the most remarkable minds of our time.” –San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Set against other radical manifestoes of the past … Our Word Is Our Weapon exudes a political timelessness … The tempered words of Subcomandante Marcos read like an instruction manual for future rebellions.” –The Guardian (UK)
“Marcos is the voice for many voices. His words, fashioned from humor and poetry, reveal the deep roots and abundant branches of the Zapatista insurrection in Chiapas. It is an original language for an original movement that is transforming Mexico and is helping to change the world.” –Eduardo Galeano
“Revolt is the mirror in which greed is forced to see itself. Our Word Is Our Weapon reflects the deep soul beauty and determined hearts of deliberately impoverished people as they stand up to the most insatiable giant the world has ever seen. Theirs is a stance of dignity, courage and self-respect. And that is what they inspire in us, even as they suffer.” –Alice Walker
About the Author
SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS is a spokesperson and strategist for the Zapatistas, an indigenous insurgency movement based in Mexico. He first joined the indigenous guerrilla group that would become the Zapatistas in the early 1980s. Marcos is author of several books translated into English, including Shadows of Tender Fury (Monthly Review Press) which featured early letters and communiques, and a children's book Story of the Colors (Cinco Puntos), which won a Firecracker Alternative Book Award.
