This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.
I am a queer NY lawyer interested in learning Spanish for social and activist reasons. I created this course to suit my interests and am sharing it so we can can help each other learn. I built this study plan around a great free program called Language Transfer. We will go through their full first level course, supplemented with other language exercises, games, and cultural and political material with a focus on LGBT communities, law, anti-racist organizing, and US involvement in Latin America.
Find and read three different articles or blog posts about the Zapatistas. Post a comment sharing the three sources you found and at least two things that you learned from the sources.
Hello, first off, I'm Pamela and I love this way of learning. It is nice to meet everyone. I'm a little late in joining, but happy to be here.
Actually, I watched a video at the beginning of January of the silent march. Even the children were silent.. It was an amazing sight to see.
I first read the wikipedia article on the Zapatista's and learned what they are, Zapatista Army of National Liberation. I have heard of them before but never knew what they were or stood for. I learned that a band I love (rage against the machine) was specifically communicating much to benefit and publicize this particular groups struggle.
Then I read an article here about a march done on Dec. 21st, 2012 by the reemerging Zapatista rebels and learned that the group, "all of them (are) descendants of the ancient Maya" Marking not only the end of the mayan calendar but "Dec. 22 also marked the 15th anniversary of a massacre of 45 unarmed Zapatista sympathizers." It also tells of how they took over farm land and built schools and clinics and set up small independent towns making great strides in betterment of the lives of the people who live there but also in the rights of mexican women.
I also found a documentary called "Zapatista" and the film can be found on youtube here broken into parts. There are other documentaries about them but I chose to watch this one and do not want to give away anything by describing it here.
I read one article from Al Jazeera that gave some helpful historical information. For example, I actually had never realized that the revolution began with the signing of NAFTA. The next I read from Counterpunch discussed a conference about the influence on the Zapatistas on other movements. It seems like many people agreed that the Zapatistas created new possibilities for anti-capitalist work outside of Marxism and for indigenous solidarity. Finally, I read a piece from Upside Down World about the participation of the Zapatistas in mass actions against the war on drugs in 2011.
