A-Infos (en) Diez de April, Chiapas, Mexico marks 10 April '98

[Mark Connolly <mark_c@geocities.com>]

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Diez de April, Chiapas, Mexico marks 10 April '98

This report is from an Irish women who briefly
visited the Irish Mexico Groups peace camp at Diez
de April.  This visit happened days before the
army raid there on the 14th (see our web page for
details) but we feel it important to highlight the
spirit of this community as well as the repression
it has suffered.

------

I only spent a very short time in the community of
Diez de April.  However, I feel very fortunate to
have been there at that particular time for a
number of reasons..

Firstly, because I narrowly missed the military
invasion and assault on the community on April 14.
I had travelled with four Norwegians on the three
hour journey from the tourist town of San
Cristo'bel to Diez - unfortunately three of them
were deported four days after arriving in the
community.

Secondly I feel fortunate because I was there
during a festival to commemorate Emiliano Zapata,
(founder of the first Zapatistas) who died in an
Ambush on April 10 1918 (80th anniversary of his
death).  This was the second year of the festival
and it was sponsored by the Irish Mexico Group. To
mark the occasion the people of Diez had two days
of festivals, sport and drama.. The day commenced
with the opening matches of a two day basketball
tournament - 27 teams participated in the event
and the teams comprised of indigenous men and
women from Diez and neighbouring communities. Also
the peace observers entered into the spirit of the
festival by forming a team of their own - I think
the heat must have got to them!

As night began to fall the whole community
gathered around the basketball court which
transformed into an open air theatre - speeches,
dancing, singing and poetry began - unfortunately
my Spanish isn't as good as I would like, but
there was no mistaking the meaning and emotion in
these poems.  One of the performances struck me as
Art imitating Life.  The Patroni sitting on a
chair giving orders to his armed right hand man,
who in turn shouts orders to the men and women
working in the field - work harder, work faster!
This goes on for what appears to be a long time
and then the workers decided enough is enough and
thrown down their tools and grab the gun from the
right hand man and send them both out of the area
to the delight and cheers of the spectators.  The
music continued on well into the early morning,
everyone participated.

The following day starts off with more basketball
matches, several hundred people watch the teams
battle it out, music blares from the speakers
belonging to the Zapatista musicians who had come
from another village for the festival.  By late
afternoon a traditional party game involving the
beating of sweet filled Pinatas with a stick, by
the blindfolded children takes place which
provides a great amount of humour for everyone.
The finale involves the children and some adults
scrambling for the dispersed sweets.

Once again men and women perform dances, recite
poetry, sing traditional songs, prizes are given
out for the winning basketball team.  Once again
the music and dancing went on into the early hours
of the morning.

I left early the next morning and a number of
through went through my mind on the journey back
to San Cristobel.  It struck me how re;axed
everyone had been and how eager to celebrate
despite the threat of military invasion.  It
struck me also that I was leaving behind a lot of
new friends.
---
for more on Diez see
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/diez.html

----
The IMG has a photo exhibition about Diez in the Ilac
Center library in Dublin until the 23rd May.
--
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          Irish Mexico Group
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico.html

Pictures & cartoons about Mexico/Chiapas
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3102/


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