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95-656: The Tzotzil language , like Tzeltal and Ch'ol , is descended from the proto-Ch'ol spoken in the late classic period at sites such as Palenque and Yaxchilan . The word tzotzil originally meant " bat people" or "people of the bat" in the Tzotzil language (from sotz' "bat"). Today the Tzotzil refer to their language as Bats'i k'op , which means "true language". Houses were traditionally built of wattle and daub or lumber , usually with thatched roofs. Traditional men's clothing consists of shirt, short pants, neckerchief, hat, and wool poncho . Traditional women's clothing

190-528: A ceasefire on January 12, peace talks commenced later in the month between Catholic bishop Samuel Ruiz for the Zapatistas and former mayor of Mexico City, Manuel Camacho Solis , for the state. Arrest-warrants were made for Marcos, Javier Elorriaga Berdegue , Silvia Fernández Hernández, Jorge Santiago, Fernando Yanez, German Vicente and other Zapatistas. At that point, in the Lacandon Jungle,

285-574: A decentralized organization. The pseudonymous Subcomandante Marcos is widely considered its leader despite his claims that the group has no single leader. Political decisions are deliberated and decided in community assemblies. Military and organizational matters are decided by the Zapatista area elders who compose the General Command (Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee – General Command, or CCRI-CG). The Chiapas region has been

380-464: A wayhel . The ch'ulel is an inner, personal soul, located in the heart and blood, placed in the unborn embryo by the ancestral gods. It is composed of thirteen parts, and a person who loses one or more of these parts must have a curing ceremony performed by a shaman to recover them. " Soul loss " may be caused by fright of falling down or seeing a demon on a dark night; as a punishment by the ancestral gods for misbehavior; or by being sold into slavery to

475-399: A "classic military war of conquest". He said, "The Palestinian people will also resist and survive and continue struggling and will continue to have sympathy from below for their cause." On December 21, 2012, tens of thousands of EZLN supporters marched silently through five cities in the state of Chiapas: Ocosingo , Las Margaritas , Palenque , Altamirano and San Cristóbal . Hours after

570-468: A bloody war. The document also said that the marginalized groups and the radical left that existed in Mexico supported the Zapatista movement. It also stressed that Marcos maintained an open negotiating track. In April 2000, Vicente Fox , the presidential candidate for the opposition National Action Party (PAN), sent a new proposal for dialogue to Subcomandante Marcos, without obtaining a response. In May,

665-560: A group of civilians attacked two indigenous people from the autonomous municipality of Polhó, Chiapas. Members of the Federal Police were sent to guarantee the security of the area. The Zapatista coordinators and several non-governmental organizations described it as "a clear provocation to the EZLN." Vicente Fox was elected president in 2001 (the first non-PRI president of Mexico in over 70 years) and, as one of his first actions, urged

760-547: A mound of earth located in the ceremonial center. The world rests on the shoulders of the Vashak , analogous to the Four-Corner Gods or Sky-Bearers of the ancient Maya. This cosmic model is reflected in the ceremonial circuits around houses and fields performed by priests, which proceed counterclockwise around the four corners and end in the center, where offerings are made to the gods. The Tzotzil Underworld inhabited by

855-426: A noun phrase or combine with possessive affixes. The composition of attributives occurs in three ways: For colors: The basic word order of Tzotzil is VOS (verb-object-subject). Subjects and direct objects are not marked for case. The predicate agrees in person, and sometimes in number, with its subject and direct object. Non-emphatic personal pronouns are always left out. Since the agreement system in Tzotzil

950-456: A people with "an infinite number of gods; they worshiped the sun and offered sacrifices to it, and to the full rivers, to the springs, to the trees of heavy foliage, and to the high hills they gave incense and gifts .. . their ancestors discovered a stone bat and considered it God and worshiped it" (Ximenez 1929-1931, 360). The Tzotzil conceive the World as a square, at whose center is the "navel",

1045-462: A prefix for nouns is x- , an indicator of a non-domesticated animal: x-tʼel "large lizard" The plural suffixes for a noun change based on whether or not the noun is possessed: Some nouns, such as words for body parts and kinship terms, must always be possessed. They cannot be used without a possessive prefix, or otherwise must be used with an absolute suffix to express an indefinite possessor. The possessive prefixes are: The prefix listed first

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1140-623: A race of dwarfs, created by the gods during their attempts to create mankind. The Sun is "Our Father Heat", and the Moon is "Our Holy Mother". The planet Venus is called "Sweeper of the Path" as it precedes the Sun in his path around the World. Local hills and mountains lare the homes of the ancestral couples, the Totilme'il or "Fathers-Mothers", the most important Tzotzil gods. The next most important deity

1235-523: A specific political ideology beyond left-wing politics. The ideology of the Zapatista movement, Neozapatismo , synthesizes Mayan tradition with elements of libertarian socialism , anarchism , Catholic liberation theology and Marxism . Some authors also draw parallels between neozapatismo and autonomism , while others argue it can be better defined as semi-anarchist. The historical influence of Mexican anarchists and various Latin American socialists

1330-619: Is Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano , previously known as Subcomandante Marcos. The group takes its name from Emiliano Zapata , the agrarian revolutionary and commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican Revolution , and sees itself as his ideological heir. EZLN's ideology has been characterized as libertarian socialist , anarchist , or Marxist , and having roots in liberation theology although

1425-400: Is ergative-absolutive , the subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive verb are marked by the same set of affixes, while the subject of a transitive is marked with a different set of affixes. For example, compare the affixes in the following sentences: In the first sentence, the intransitive verb tal ("come") is affixed by -i-...-otik to show that the subject is

1520-582: Is a Maya language spoken by the Indigenous Tzotzil Maya people in the Mexican state of Chiapas . Some speakers may be somewhat bilingual in Spanish , but many are monolingual Tzotzil speakers. In Central Chiapas, some primary schools and a secondary school are taught in Tzotzil. Tzeltal is the most closely related language to Tzotzil and together they form a Tzeltalan sub-branch of

1615-619: Is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas , the southernmost state of Mexico . Since 1994, the group has been nominally at war with the Mexican state (although it may be described at this point as a frozen conflict ). The EZLN used a strategy of civil resistance . The Zapatistas' main body is made up of mostly rural indigenous people , but it includes some supporters in urban areas and internationally. The EZLN's main spokesperson

1710-472: Is a blouse or long overdress ( huipil ), indigo dyed skirt ( enredo ), cotton sash, and shawl. Based on linguistic and archaeological data, scholars believe that the common ancestors of the contemporary Tzotzil and Tzeltal peoples entered Chiapas between 100 BCE and 300 CE. According to Spanish chronicles, just before the Spanish Conquest the Tzotzil exported quetzal feathers and amber to

1805-430: Is also weakly glottalized in initial position. /kʰ pʰ tʰ/ are more strongly aspirated in final position. /w d f ɡ/ occur but only in loanwords. Aspirated and ejective consonants form phonemic contrasts: kok, kokʼ and kʼokʼ all have different meanings: ('my leg', 'my tongue' and 'fire', respectively). All words in Tzotzil begin with a consonant, which may be a glottal stop. Consonant clusters are almost always at

1900-535: Is apparent in Neozapatismo. The positions of Subcomandante Marcos add a Marxist element to the movement. A Zapatista slogan is in harmony with the concept of mutual aid : "Everything for everyone. Nothing for us" ( Para todos todo, para nosotros nada ). The EZLN opposes economic globalization , arguing that it severely and negatively affects the peasant life of its indigenous support base and oppresses people worldwide. The signing of NAFTA also resulted in

1995-567: Is carried by the CDI 's radio stations XEVFS , broadcasting from Las Margaritas, Chiapas , and XECOPA , based in Copainalá , Chiapas . Zapatista Army of National Liberation The Zapatista Army of National Liberation ( Spanish : Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional , EZLN ), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican Spanish pronunciation: [sapaˈtistas] ),

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2090-465: Is the absolutive marker for 1st person plural inclusive and j-...-tik is the ergative marker for 1st person plural inclusive. Also from the sentence l- i- s- pet -otik "He carried us ( inclusive )" it is possible to see the 3rd person ergative marking s-, which contrasts with the 3rd person absolutive marking Ø in the sentence ʼi- tal "He/she/it/they came." With many nouns, numbers must be compounded to numeral classifiers that correspond to

2185-470: Is the Earth Lord. In modern times, he is pictured as a large fat and rich Ladino living underground, who owns all land and its natural resources. A Tzotzil who uses any of those resources — water holes, trees, mud for his home, limestone for lime — is expected to compensate the Earth Lord with appropriate offerings in a ceremony. The Tzotzil believe that each human being has two souls, a ch'ulel and

2280-721: Is the one used before a root starting with a vowel, the prefix listed second is the one used before a root starting with a consonant. For example, k+ok kok "my foot", j+ba jba "my face" The absolute suffix is usually il but can also have the form el , al , or ol : kʼob-ol "hand (of some unspecified person)" Verbs receive affixes of aspect, tense, pronominal subject and object and formatives of state, voice, mood and number. They can also form compounds in three ways: Attributives are words that can function as predicates, but are neither verbs nor nouns. Often they can be translated into English as adjectives. Unlike verbs, they do not inflect for aspect, and unlike nouns, they cannot head

2375-722: The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán . They also produced salt from wells near Ixtapa and traded it throughout the Chiapas highlands, and continued to do so after the Conquest. The Spanish conquerors met comparatively little resistance in Chiapas. In 1522, the Zinacantán lord Cuzcácuatl sought the Spaniards with an offer of allegiance, and his subjects afterwards helped Spanish commander Luis Marín to subdue neighboring tribes. On

2470-659: The Catholic Church (see Liberation theology ). In the 1970s, through the efforts of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas , most indigenous communities in the Lacandon forest were already politically active and had practice in dealing with governmental agencies and local officials. Specifically in 1974 an indigenous conference brought indigenous peoples from across Chiapas together to discuss their conditions. Promoted and organized by

2565-636: The Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle declaring their principles and vision for Mexico and the world. This declaration reiterated the support for the indigenous peoples, who make up roughly one-third of the population of Chiapas, and extended the cause to include "all the exploited and dispossessed of Mexico". It also expressed the movement's sympathy to the international alter-globalization movement and supported leftists governments in Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, and elsewhere, with whom they felt there

2660-680: The Spanish conquest , under the influence of Catholicism , the Tzotzil have come to associate the Sun with God the Father or Jesus Christ and the Moon with the Virgin Mary. They also revere carved wooden or plaster images and pictures of Catholic saints, dressed in a mixture of colonial- Zinacanteco-style dresses. The Tzotzil are commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Mexican pit viper, Cerrophidion tzotzilorum . Tzotzil language Tzotzil ( / ˈ ( t ) s oʊ t s ɪ l / ; Batsʼi kʼop [ɓatsʼi kʼopʰ] )

2755-590: The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to raise awareness for their rebellion and indigenous rights, and what they claim is the Mexican government's lack of respect for the country's impoverished and marginalized populations. Appealing to the ECOSOC and other non-governmental bodies may have allowed the Zapatistas to establish a sense of autonomy by redefining their identities both as indigenous people and as citizens of Mexico. One of

2850-472: The vanguardist and Marxist–Leninist orientation of the FLN failed to appeal to indigenous locals in Chiapas , leading former members of the FLN in the EZLN to ultimately opt for a libertarian socialist and neozapatista outlook. Over the years, the group slowly grew, building on social relations among the indigenous base and making use of an organizational infrastructure created by peasant organizations and

2945-593: The "Other Campaign" tour would be temporarily halted until all prisoners were released. In late 2006 and early 2007, the Zapatistas (through Subcomandante Marcos ), along with other indigenous peoples of the Americas , announced the Intercontinental Indigenous Encounter. They invited indigenous people from throughout the Americas and the rest of the world to gather on October 11–14, 2007, near Guaymas , Sonora . The declaration for

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3040-422: The 1974 Indigenous Congress laid much of the ideological and often organizational groundwork for the EZLN to unite many indigenous communities under a banner of liberation. Further, many of these indigenous catechists later joined and organized within the EZLN. Anthropologists Duncan Earle and Jeanne Simonelli assert that the liberationist Catholicism spread by the aforementioned catechists which emphasized helping

3135-410: The 1st person plural inclusive "we," but in the second sentence, since the verb pet ("carry") is transitive, it is affixed by j-...-tik to mark the subject as the 1st person plural inclusive "we." From this sentence we can see that the 1st person plural inclusive object "us" is being marked the same as the 1st person plural inclusive intransitive subject "we" using -i-...-otik . Thus, -i-...-otik

3230-630: The Catholic church, this event helped foster an indigenous political identity in the region. In the 1980s, they joined with the Rural Collective Interest Association – "Unión de Uniones", (ARIC-UU). However, disputes over strategy in the Chiapas would lead to the EZLN taking on over half of the ARIC-UU's membership in the early 1990s. The Zapatista Army went public on January 1, 1994, releasing their declaration on

3325-438: The Chiapas highlands. The Zapatistas soon retreated to the forest to avoid a federal military offensive. "The EZLN listed a series of other demands that were a compendium of long-standing grievances of the indigenous communities of Chiapas, but also found echo in broad sectors of Mexican society outside of Chiapas: work, land, housing, food, healthcare, education, independence, liberty, democracy, justice, and peace." Following

3420-655: The Diocese of San Cristobal, Las Abejas is dedicated to nonviolence, but shares sympathies and solidarity for the aims of the Zapatistas. Due to their ties to the Zapatistas, 45 Las Abejas members were killed in the Acteal Massacre in 1997. Once EZLN rebelled in 1994, the Catholic Church was accused of inciting the rebellion; this accusation was confirmed by Zapatistas, who credited local catechists with persuading local indigenous population to participate in

3515-400: The EZLN agreed to select a candidate to represent them in the 2018 Mexican general election . This decision broke the Zapatista's two-decade tradition of rejecting Mexican electoral politics. In May 2017, María de Jesús Patricio Martínez , a woman of Mexican and Nahua heritage, was selected to stand, but she was unable to gather the 866,000 signatures required to appear on the ballot. At

3610-609: The EZLN announced the dissolution of the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities due to growing violence in the region. Later that month, they announced the reorganisation of the MAREZ into thousands of "Local Autonomous Governments" (GAL) which form area-wide "Zapatista Autonomous Government Collectives" (CGAZ) and zone-wide "Assemblies of Collectives of Zapatista Autonomous Governments" (ACGAZ). The neo-Zapatistas did not proclaim adherence to

3705-651: The EZLN reported that there was aggression against indigenous people in El Rosario, Chiapas; The report, signed by Subcomandante Moisés, indicated that the attack occurred that same month and year. In addition, there was a complaint by the Las Abejas Civil Society Organization that stated that an indigenous Tzotzil person was assassinated on June 23 on 2015. In 2016, at the National Indigenous Congress ,

3800-420: The EZLN to enter into dialogue with the federal government. However, the EZLN insisted that it would not return to peace negotiations with the government until seven military positions were closed. Fox subsequently made the decision to withdraw the army from the conflict zone, so all the military located in Chiapas began to leave the area. Following this gesture, Subcomandante Marcos agreed to initiate dialogue with

3895-458: The EZLN until the extensive contact between the Zapatistas and other indigenous organizations during the San Andrés negotiations and use of natural resources normally extracted from Chiapas. It also advocated for protection from violence and political inclusion of Chiapas' indigenous communities. On January 1, 1994, an estimated 3,000 armed Zapatista insurgents seized six towns and cities in

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3990-399: The EZLN's traumatic uprising here on the new year of 1994, received them with care and curiosity, without any expression of rejection. Under the arches of the mayor's office, which today suspended its activities, dozens of Ocosinguenses gathered to photograph with cell phones and cameras the spectacular concentration of hooded people who filled the park like a game of Tetris , advancing between

4085-563: The Earth Lord, through evil witchcraft. At death, the inner soul leaves the body and goes to the Katibak , the world of the dead in the center of the Earth. There it will remain for the same length of time it had been in the human world, reliving his life in reverse, younger and younger, until it is assigned by the ancestral gods to another newborn of the opposite sex. Baptized infants and women who die in childbirth go directly to Winajel, located in

4180-509: The FLN lost its operational capacity. In the early 1980s, some of its militants decided to found a new organization. Thus, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) was founded on November 17, 1983, by non-indigenous members of the FLN from Mexico's urban north and by indigenous inhabitants of the remote Las Cañadas/ Selva Lacandona regions in eastern Chiapas, by members of former rebel movements. Some EZLN leaders have argued that

4275-760: The Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism to help initiate a united platform for other anti-neoliberal groups. The EZLN also called for greater democratization of the Mexican government, which had been controlled by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party, also known as PRI) for 65 years, and for land reform mandated by the 1917 Constitution of Mexico , which had been repealed in 1991. The Zapatistas had mentioned "independence" among their initial demands; however, it received little systematic treatment from

4370-482: The Ladinos. The sense of national pride has become stronger among the Tzotzil since 1940, as natives have increasingly began to occupy local administrative posts and used their cultural identity for political purposes. While sizable Tzotzil communities have appeared in some towns, other Tzotzil towns have been undergoing "reindianization" as the formerly dominating Ladino minorities have migrated to larger cities. With

4465-524: The Land , which adheres to the Sixth Declaration, called in support from other regional and national adherent organizations. " Delegate Zero " and his " Other Campaign " were at the time in nearby Mexico City, having just organized May Day events there, and quickly arrived at the scene. The following days were marked by violence, with some 216 arrests, over 30 rape and sexual abuse accusations against

4560-506: The Mayan language family. Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chʼol are the most widely spoken languages in Chiapas besides Spanish. There are six dialects of Tzotzil with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility, named after the different regions of Chiapas where they are spoken: Chamula , Zinacantán , San Andrés Larráinzar , Huixtán , Chenalhó , and Venustiano Carranza . Centro de Lengua, Arte y Literatura Indígena (CELALI) suggested in 2002 that

4655-542: The Sun. People who have drowned, have been murdered, or were struck by lightning do not go to Katibak. Animals and trees too have ch'ulel soul, which goes through the same cycle. The other soul, the wayjel , is an animal-spirit companion, shared with a chanul , a wild animal. Throughout each person's life, whatever happens to the animal spirit also happens to the person and vice versa. These animal-spirit companions, consisting of jaguars , ocelots , coyotes , and smaller animals such as squirrels and opossums , are kept by

4750-560: The Tzotzil, but their numbers were greatly diminished by diseases and hunger. Many villages were forcibly relocated, and the natives were assigned as vassals to the encomiendas (land grants) given by the Spanish crown to the conquerors. After the Spanish conquest, the Tzotzil were for centuries exploited as laborers, first by the Spaniards and then by the Ladinos (urban Spanish-speaking people of Spanish and native descent) who own most of

4845-573: The Venustiano Carranza region, was analyzed as having two phonemic tones by Sarles 1966. Research by Heriberto Avelino in 2009 was not able to confirm more than an unstable and incipient tone contrast. In Tzotzil, only nouns, verbs, and attributives can be inflected. Nouns can take affixes of possession, reflexive relation, independent state (absolutive suffix), number, and exclusion, as well as agentives and nominalizing formatives. Compounds can be formed in three ways: An example of

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4940-718: The Vicente Fox government, but shortly thereafter demanded conditions for peace; especially, that the federal government disarm the PRI paramilitary groups in the area. The Zapatistas marched on Mexico City to pressure the Mexican Congress and formed the Zapatista Information Center , through which information would be exchanged about the trip of the guerrilla delegation to Mexico City, and mobilizations would be articulated to demand compliance with

5035-688: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation was under military siege by the Mexican Army. Javier Elorriaga was captured on February 9, 1995, by forces from a military garrison at Gabina Velázquez in the town of Las Margaritas, and was later taken to the Cerro Hueco prison in Tuxtla Gutiérrez , Chiapas. The PGR threatened the San Cristóbal de Las Casas' Catholic Bishop, Samuel Ruiz García, with arrest. Claiming that they helped conceal

5130-701: The Zapatistas People with the People of the World was held from December 28, 2007, through January 1, 2008. In mid-January 2009, Marcos made a speech on behalf of the Zapatistas in which he supported the resistance of the Palestinians as "the Israeli government's heavily trained and armed military continues its march of death and destruction". He described the actions of the Israeli government as

5225-696: The Zapatistas enjoyed favorable news coverage from national and international media, particularly via Subcomandante Marcos as its spokesperson. Marcos and the Zapatistas would issue hundreds of missives, hold encuentros (mass meetings), give numerous interviews, meet high-profile public and literary figures including Oliver Stone , Naomi Klein , Gael García Bernal , Danielle Mitterrand , Régis Debray , John Berger , Eduardo Galeano , Gabriel García Márquez , José Saramago and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán , participate in symposia and colloquia, deliver speeches, host visits by thousands of national and international activists, and participate in two marches that toured much of

5320-535: The Zapatistas have rejected political classification. The EZLN aligns itself with the wider alter-globalization , anti-neoliberal social movement , seeking indigenous control over local resources, especially land. Since their 1994 uprising was countered by the Mexican Armed Forces , the EZLN has abstained from military offensives and adopted a new strategy that attempts to garner Mexican and international support. The Zapatistas describe themselves as

5415-636: The Zapatistas' guerrilla uprising, although their activities had been reported years before in Proceso , a Mexican leftist magazine. It is likely however that the Mexican Government knew about the uprising but failed to act. This adversely impacted Holy See–Mexico relations . In response to the siege of the EZLN, Esteban Moctezuma , the interior minister, submitted his resignation to President Zedillo, which Zedillo refused to accept. Influenced by Moctezuma's protest, President Zedillo abandoned

5510-434: The Zapatistas, Subcomandante Marcos, announce that he would be stepping down. The Zapatistas continued to control the Chiapas area through the late 2010s, with around 300,000 people across 55 municipalities. These poor communities run and train their own civic programs (education, health, government, justice) autonomously, with little interference from the Mexican government. The 1994 uprising has led to broader interest in

5605-489: The amendment of Article 27 of the Constitution. The amendment called for the end of land reform and the regularizing of all landholdings, which ended land redistribution in Mexico. The end of land distribution heralded the end of many communities that had been growing of the past decade, as they had been waiting for further distribution that was on an agrarian backlog according to the government. The Zapatistas hosted

5700-440: The ancestral gods in four corrals inside the "Senior Large Mountain" in the east side of the world. If the animal spirit is let out of its corral by the ancestral gods, the person is in mortal danger and must undergo a lengthy ceremony to round up the chanul and return it to its corral. Only human beings have a wayhel soul. Each town is associated to a sacred mountain. The god Manojel-Tojel created humans by leading them out of

5795-442: The anointing of the sick ... Bishop Arizmendi said Oct. 6 that the texts, which took approximately eight years to translate, would be used in his diocese and the neighboring Archdiocese of Tuxtla Gutiérrez . Mass has been celebrated in the diocese in recent years with the assistance of translators — except during homilies — Bishop Arizmendi said in an article in the newspaper La Jornada . Tzotzil-language programming

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5890-414: The area, also known as Zapatourismo . Stores in San Cristóbal capitalize on revolutionary chic, selling balaclavas, music, and shirt souvenirs. Subcomandante Marcos's image and signature balaclava and pipe are widely appropriated in the tourism industry, similar to the iconic status of Che Guevara . Visitors cannot tour the villages but can attempt to visit the caracol administrative centers, subject to

5985-466: The beginning of a word, with a prefix and a root. Roots in Tzotzil occur in the forms CVC ( tʼul "rabbit"), CV ( to "still"), CVCVC ( bikʼit "small"), CV(C)VC ( xu(v)it "worm", the second consonant disappears in some dialects), CVC-CVC ( ʼajnil "wife"), CVCV ( ʼama "flute") or CVC-CV ( voʼne "long ago"). The most common root is CVC. Almost all Tzotzil words can be analyzed as a CVC root together with certain affixes. In normal speech, stress falls on

6080-405: The caves of the original hills. According to myth, each one of the patron-gods "installed himself in a hill, by order of the gods of the four corners of the earth". Yahwal Balamil is a god who lives inside the earth. He rides a deer with serpent bridles , and frees the water-filled clouds from inside the Earth through caves. He announces himself with the croaking of frogs". In the centuries since

6175-401: The collapse of coffee prices in the 1980s, sustainable employment has been hard for many people in the highlands to find. As both population and foreign tourism have risen, the sale of artisan goods has replaced other economic activities. Tzotzils usually sell their products in the nearby cities of San Cristóbal de las Casas , Comitán , and Simojovel . Recently, and increasingly, many Maya from

6270-484: The concentration of some 10,000 participants. Beyond the number of people, the silence with which they marched and the lack of an opening or closing speech were the elements that marked this action. The poet and journalist Hermann Bellinghausen , specialist in coverage of the movement, ended his chronicle in this way: Able to "appear" suddenly, the rebellious indigenous "disappeared" as neatly and silently as they had arrived in this city at dawn that, two decades after

6365-410: The conditions of the EZLN for dialogue. Although Fox had stated earlier that he could end the conflict "in fifteen minutes", the EZLN rejected the agreement and created 32 new " autonomous municipalities " in Chiapas. They would then unilaterally implement their demands without government support, although they had some funding from international organizations. On June 28, 2005, the Zapatistas presented

6460-429: The conference designated this date because of "515 years since the invasion of ancient Indigenous territories and the onslaught of the war of conquest, spoils and capitalist exploitation". Comandante David said in an interview, "The object of this meeting is to meet one another and to come to know one another's pains and sufferings. It is to share our experiences, because each tribe is different." The Third Encuentro of

6555-543: The country. Media organizations from North and South America, as well as from many European and several Asian nations, have granted press coverage to the movement and its spokesperson. The EZLN's writings have been translated into at least 14 different languages and Marcos, according to journalist Jorge Alonso, had by 2016 been the subject of "over 10,000 citations". As EZLN external communications dissipated after 1994, their mainstream coverage similarly decreased, particularly as spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos became critical of

6650-630: The day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect. On that day, they issued their First Declaration and Revolutionary Laws from the Lacandon Jungle . The declaration amounted to a declaration of war on the Mexican government, which they considered illegitimate. The EZLN stressed that it opted for armed struggle due to the lack of results that had been achieved through peaceful means of protest (such as sit-ins and marches). Their initial goal

6745-422: The death of teacher and education promoter "Teacher Galeano" (a self chosen name honoring anti-capitalist author Eduardo Galeano ), who was murdered in an attack on a Zapatista school and health clinic led by local paramilitaries. In the weeks that followed, thousands of Zapatistas and national and international sympathizers mobilized and gathered to honor Galeano. This event also saw the unofficial spokesperson of

6840-584: The end of August 2019, Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano announced the expansion of EZLN into 11 more districts. In response, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that this expansion was welcome, provided it was done without violence. The EZLN has made opposition to mega-infrastructure projects in the region a major priority. In 2020, it announced the Journey for Life and in 2021, Zapatistas visited various activist groups in Europe. In November 2023,

6935-413: The first syllable of the root in each word, and the last word in a phrase is heavily stressed. For words in isolation, primary stress falls on the final syllable except in affective verbs with -luh , first person plural exclusive suffixes, and reduplicated stems of two syllables. Then, the stress is unpredictable and so is indicated with an acute accent. The Tzotzil variant of San Bartolomé de Los Llanos, in

7030-647: The formation of clandestine armed organizations to seek the overthrow of a regime that from their point of view was authoritarian, and thus improve the living conditions of the population. One of these organizations, was known as the National Liberation Forces (FLN). The FLN were founded on August 6, 1969, by César Germán Yáñez Muñoz, in Monterrey , Nuevo León. According to Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro , in his report Subversive movements in Mexico , "they had established their areas of operations in

7125-567: The highlands of Chiapas have found migration to other parts of Mexico and Illegal immigration to the United States a way to break away from subsistence farming and abysmal wages. Issues surrounding social integration persist, especially with the Ladinos. Support for the Zapatista movement, as well as for other non-violent opposition groups such as Las Abejas , is strong among the Tzotzil. A Spanish chronicler described Zinacantán as

7220-569: The land and dominate commerce. During most of this period, a rigid caste system sharply divided the natives from the Ladinos, with very different rights and obligations. The oppression led them to revolt in 1528, 1712, and 1868. The situation of the Tzoltzil worsened considerably in 1863, when laws enacted by Benito Juárez stripped the Indian towns of their corporate lands, forcing many Zinacantecos to become debt-indentured laborers on farms owned by

7315-720: The march, a communiqué from the CCRI-CG was released in the form of a poem, signed by the Subcomandante Marcos . This mobilization, which included the participation of around 40,000 Zapatistas, was the largest since the 1994 uprising. Of this number, La Jornada estimated that half would have marched through the streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas, 7,000 in Las Margaritas and 8,000 in Palenque; for its part El País calculated that San Cristóbal would have seen

7410-487: The media in 1996 and 1997. Zapatista communities build and maintain their own health, education, and sustainable agro-ecological systems , promote equitable gender relations via Women's Revolutionary Law , and build international solidarity through outreach and political communication, in addition to their focus on building "a world where many worlds fit". The Zapatista struggle re-gained international attention in May 2014 with

7505-732: The military offensive in favor of a diplomatic approach. The Mexican army eased its operation in Chiapas, allowing Marcos to escape the military perimeter in the Lacandon Jungle. Responding to the change of conditions, friends of the EZLN along with Subcomandante Marcos prepared a report for under-Secretary of the Interior Luis Maldonado Venegas ; the Secretary of the Interior Esteban Moctezuma; and then President Zedillo. The document stressed Marcos' pacifist inclinations and his desire to avoid

7600-528: The most comprehensive resource on Tzotzil vocabulary to that date. Tzotzil word-lists and grammars date back to the late 19th century, most notably in Otto Stoll 's Zur Ethnographie der Republik Guatemala (1884). In 2013, Pope Francis approved translations of the prayers for Mass and the celebration of sacraments into Tzotzil and Tzeltal . The translations include "the prayers used for Mass, marriage, baptisms, confirmations, confessions, ordinations and

7695-556: The most important tenets of Zapatista ideology was liberation theology , with the Bishop of Chiapas Samuel Ruiz being considered the key figure. The Zapatista movement is outwardly secular, and does not have an official religion. However, the overarching Zapatista movement has been influenced by liberation theology and its proponents. The organization established early on that it "has no ties with any Catholic religious authorities nor authorities of any other creed." Local Catholic clergy

7790-434: The name of the language (and the ethnicity) should be spelled Tsotsil, rather than Tzotzil. Native speakers and writers of the language are picking up the habit of using s instead of z . Tzotzil has five vowels. Before a glottalized consonant, a vowel appears to lengthen and tense, such as a in takʼin "money". / b / is frequently implosive [ ɓ ] , especially in intervocalic or in initial position. It

7885-450: The other hand, the natives from Chamula fought hard against the Spaniards. They and the natives of Huixtlán eventually fled leaving nothing that the invaders could make use of. Unable to obtain service or tribute from those people, the Spaniards returned to the Gulf coast, and the Tzotzil returned to their lands and lifestlyle. Other Spanish incursions in the following decade generally spared

7980-581: The physical nature of the object being counted. This precedes the noun being counted. For example, in vak-pʼej na "six houses" the classifier -pʼej "round things, houses, flowers, etc." is compounded to the number vak "six" and precedes the noun na "house(s)." There are also many Spanish loanwords in Tzotzil, such as: In 1975, the Smithsonian Institution produced a dictionary of Tzotzil, containing some 30,000 Tzotzil-English entries, and half that number of English-Tzotzil entries,

8075-555: The planters with an order that seemed choreographed, to get the platform installed quickly from early on, raise their fist and say, quietly, "here we are, once again". The Zapatistas invited the world to a three-day fiesta to celebrate ten years of Zapatista autonomy in August 2013 in the five caracoles of Chiapas. They expected 1,500 international activists to attend the event, titled the Little School of Liberty. In June 2015,

8170-417: The police, five deportations , and one casualty, a 14-year-old boy named Javier Cortes shot by a policeman. A 20-year-old UNAM economics student, Alexis Benhumea, died on the morning of June 7, 2006, after being in a coma caused by a blow to the head from a tear-gas grenade launched by police. Most of the resistance organizing was done by the EZLN and Sixth Declaration adherents, and Delegate Zero stated that

8265-519: The poor and addressing material conditions in tandem with spiritual ones brought many indigenous Catholics into the Zapatista Movement. Beyond just the Zapatistas, the blossoming indigenous resistance and identity of the late 20th century saw a broader indigenous movement based in indigenous liberationist Christianity. One such group in the broader movement is Las Abejas , an ecumenical Christian organization. Supported, but not controlled by

8360-510: The removal of Article 27, Section VII, from the Mexican Constitution , which had guaranteed land reparations to indigenous groups throughout Mexico through collective land tenure. Postcolonialism scholars have argued that the Zapatistas' response to the introduction of NAFTA in 1994 may have reflected a shift in perception taking place in societies that have experienced colonialism. The Zapatistas have used organizations like

8455-518: The scene of a succession of uprisings, including the "Caste War" or "Chamula Rebellion" (1867–1870) and the "Pajarito War" (1911). The EZLN emerged during the government of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which at the time had ruled Mexico for more than sixty years, in a dominant-party system . The situation led many young people to consider the legal channels of political participation closed and to bet on

8550-551: The states of Veracruz , Puebla , Tabasco , Nuevo León and Chiapas ." In February 1974, a confrontation took place in San Miguel Nepantla  [ Wikidata ] , State of Mexico , between a unit of the Mexican Army , under the command of Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, and members of the FLN, some of whom died during combat, reportedly having been tortured . As a consequence of this confrontation,

8645-477: The uprising. The Zapatista movement was therefore described as one that combines Marxism with traditional, Catholic spirituality. Because of its commitment to Catholicism, the EZLN was able to rally even conservative Catholics behind its socialist cause. The Zapatistas initially focused on the news media as a weak point of the Mexican federal government and turned the Chiapas war from a military impossibility to an informational guerrilla movement. From 1994 to 1996,

8740-609: Was catalytic for the formation of neo-Zapatistas in Chiapas, given the strong position that the Church enjoyed within local indigenous communities. Indigenous catechists that taught liberation theology proved essential in organising the local population, and gave the aura of legitimacy to movements hitherto considered too dangerous or radical. The activity of Catholic socialist catechists in the region allowed FLN to make inroads with local villages and start cooperating with Catholic association Slop ( Tzeltal name for 'root'), whose primary aim

8835-659: Was common cause. On May 3–4, 2006, a series of demonstrations protested the forcible removal of irregular flower vendors from a lot in Texcoco for the construction of a Walmart branch. The protests turned violent when state police and the Federal Preventive Police bused in some 5,000 agents to San Salvador Atenco and the surrounding communities. A local organization called the People's Front in Defense of

8930-656: Was organizing indigenous resistance. Cooperation of FLN with local Catholic activists then gave birth to zapatista EZLN. In the decades preceding the 1994 uprising, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas , guided by the Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia , developed a cadre of indigenous catechists. In practice, these liberationist Christian catechists promoted political awareness, established organizational structures, and helped raise progressive sentiment among indigenous communities in Chiapas. The organization of these catechists and events such as

9025-464: Was to instigate a revolution against the rise of neoliberalism throughout Mexico, but since no such revolution occurred, they used their uprising as a platform to call attention to their movement to protest the signing of the NAFTA, which the EZLN believed would increase inequality in Chiapas. Prior to the signing of NAFTA, however, dissent amongst indigenous peasants was already on the rise in 1992 with

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