Not since the Sandinista revolution of the 1970s and 1980s in Nicaragua has a Latin American political movement generated such attention in North America as the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas. This latest revolt has captured the attention of many, not only because it has taken place in a neighboring country whose stability and rosy economic future had become almost unquestioned in the months leading up to its integration into the North American Free Trade Agreement (ironically and not coincidentally, the rebellion broke out on the very day Mexico entered NAFTA), but also because it has the cachet of indigenous fighters led by masked guerrillas.
Shadows of Tender Fury, one of several volumes in English on the rebellion to appear in recent months, is a compilation of the 67 rebel communiqués issued to the press between January and June 1994. It also contains a prologue by the guerrilla leader, Subcomandante Marcos, as well as his speech to the National Democratic Convention held in the Chiapas jungle in August 1994. This material, originally published in the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada, was translated into English by the Watsonville, California, Human Rights Committee. In addition, journalist John Ross wrote an introduction to the volume, and Frank Bardacke contributed an afterword.
Shadows offers the reader an interesting and at times amusing look into the thought and ways of the guerrillas; especially Marcos, who clearly comes through as the dominant voice of the insurgents. The communiqués, consisting of prose and a sprinkling of doggerel, deal with a wide range of political and socioeconomic topics. The messages exhibit much wit, humor, and insight on the part of the rebels, as well as a degree of naiveté at times, as they expound their views from isolated redoubts where they have spent the previous decade or more. The Zapatistas’ emotional roller coaster as they play out the military-political drama of the moment is particularly evident. In this day of almost instantaneous worldwide communication, the mere act of sending epistles via secret messenger overland to the press, thereby resulting in lapses of days and even weeks between interchanges, seems almost quaint.
Whatever the merits of Shadows as a primary source, readers interested in a more holistic view of the Zapatista movement should consult other works on the topic, works that Shadows will complement, not supplant. Ross, for example, has written a worthy book on the insurgency, Rebellion from the Roots: Indian Uprising in Chiapas (1995). Another study of merit, by anthropologist George A. Collier, Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas (1994), provides good background information. In Spanish, the works of Antonio Garcia de León are worth seeing.
