The women's movement was overtaken by the Zapatistas!
Julieta Hernandez is a member of Democracia Radical (Mexican section of the Fourth International). She participated in the recent discussions with the government as a representative of the 'civic Zapatista' movement..
• What brought you to Chiapas?
Ten years ago, student and feminist militants like me did not know how to insert ourselves in the society. We wanted to leave the university milieu, and 'do something' as a feminist movement, but we never knew what exactly. It was through contacts with the organisations of indigenous people (Indians') that we were able to make our dream real. A handful of us who left the university with a burning desire to do work 'at the base' were able to break out from the university elites and their discourse, and build something. On a class basis, not just
I spent three years working with an indigenous women's organisation. They were working in the villages. And they were involved in the Zapatista movement. This experience showed me that we were mistaken in the feminist movement, thinking that you could not talk to indigenous women about abortion and contraception, because their cultural milieu restricted the possibilities. When we began to talk to these women, they told us about their use of medicinal plants to provoke abortion. Many were interested in finding out about contraception (though some refused to discuss it, considering that it was women's role to give life and protect life, and particularly to protect their culture and ethnic group). We also realised that, if these women had ten children, it was because they knew they would loose three or four of • So how did women end up in the Zapatista army?
It took ten years to establish the Zapatista army. During this time, we did not just build a military organisation in the forest. There was intense discussion on a range of questions, including the role of women in the common struggle. If women now form one third of the Zapatista army, this shows that they have already integrated one of their rights: the right to participate in politics, and if necessary, in a war.
There were other factors too. For example, a number of Christian 'base communities' and nuns have been working for years to increase the self-consciousness of indigenous women.
After the uprising (1 January 1994), women were massively present in the demonstrations for a ceasefire. In the towns and the EZLN base communities, it is overwhelmingly women who manage day- to-day life.
It is important to continue building the feminist struggle. Women present other revolutions and social movements. But without a programme, without their own demands. In Chiapas, we integrated this specific dimension from the very beginning
Discussions among women in the EZLN from
March 1993 onwards led to the development of the
"Revolutionary Law on
Women"
which diffused at the end of
January
1994/ This mobilised us women from the towns. It was a real contribution to our way of looking things, our expectations and struggle.
The feminist movement was overtaken by the initiatives of Zapatista women! Just like the rest of
Their demands seem simple. But they are fundamental. Declaring that a woman has the right to chose the man she will marry, and the age at which she sill marry, decide how many children she will have, in politics, join the army, are themes which mobilise in the rural communities and have a real impact in the towns.
For example, in San Cristobal, there are many women's groups which are against violence. Others work with indigenous women, who are frightened of violence, but reluctant to talk about the problem. The adoption of the "Revolutionary Law on
Women" provoked a convergence of all the women's groups, and all the individual feminists, in order to get hold of the law, to discuss it and to diffuse it. A very stimulating period. A dynamic developed whereby we began to seek real consensus in order to give force to the movement, and generate new initiatives.
This was what led us to propose amendments to Article Four of the Constitution, which mentions the rights of the Indian peoples, and guarantees "respect for communal customs." We said we agreed with respect for those customs which did not affect our rights as women! And we began asking women which customs they wanted to maintain and 'have respected, and which they would rather see fade away. This was a very interesting period of reflection, and a process which should continue. • Has the Zapatista movement really had an influence on the life of indigenous women?
International Viewpoint n°275 17