Zapata Lives!

This richly detailed study chronicles recent political events in southern Mexico, up to and including the July 2000 election of Vicente Fox. Lynn Stephen focuses on the meaning that Emiliano Zapata, the great symbol of land reform and human rights, has had and now has for rural Mexicans. Stephen documents the rise of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas and shows how this rebellion was understood in other parts of Mexico, particularly in Oaxaca, giving a vivid sense of rural life in southern Mexico. Illuminating the cultural dimensions of these political events, she shows how indigenous Mexicans and others fashioned their own responses to neoliberal economic policy, which ended land reform, encouraged privatization, and has resulted in increasing socioeconomic stratification in Mexico.

Mixing original ethnographic material drawn from years of fieldwork in Mexico with historical material from a variety of sources, Stephen shows how activists have appropriated symbols of the revolution to build the contemporary political movement. Her wide-ranging narrative touches on the history of land tenure, racism, gender issues in the Zapatista movement, local political culture, the Zapatista uprising of the 1990s and its aftermath, and more. A significant addition to our knowledge of social change in contemporary MexicoZapata Lives! also offers readers a model for engaged, activist anthropology.

This richly detailed study chronicles recent political events in southern Mexico, up to and including the July 2000 election of Vicente Fox. Lynn Stephen focuses on the meaning that Emiliano Zapata, the great symbol of land reform and human rights, has had and now has for rural Mexicans. Stephen documents the rise of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas and shows how this rebellion was understood in other parts of Mexico, particularly in Oaxaca, giving a vivid sense of rural life in southern Mexico. Illuminating the cultural dimensions of these political events, she shows how indigenous Mexicans and others fashioned their own responses to neoliberal economic policy, which ended land reform, encouraged privatization, and has resulted in increasing socioeconomic stratification in Mexico.

Mixing original ethnographic material drawn from years of fieldwork in Mexico with historical material from a variety of sources, Stephen shows how activists have appropriated symbols of the revolution to build the contemporary political movement. Her wide-ranging narrative touches on the history of land tenure, racism, gender issues in the Zapatista movement, local political culture, the Zapatista uprising of the 1990s and its aftermath, and more. A significant addition to our knowledge of social change in contemporary MexicoZapata Lives! also offers readers a model for engaged, activist anthropology.

Contents
List of Maps, Illustrations, and Tables
Acknowledgments
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Preface
Part I. The Political and Historical Contexts of Zapatismo
1. Introduction: The "Fields" of Anthropology, Human Rights, and Contemporary Zapatismo
2. Government Construction and Reappropriation of Emiliano Zapata
3. Ethnic and Racial Categories in Mexican History
Part II. Zapatismo in Eastern Chiapas
4. The Historical Roots of Indigenous Struggle in Chiapas
5. The New Zapatismo in the Lacandon Jungle
6. Zapata Vive! Lacandon Zapatismo and Its Translation to Larger Mexico
7. Conversations with Zapatistas: The Revolutionary Law of Women and Military Occupation
Part III. New and Old Zapatismo in Oaxaca
8. The Historical Roots of Land Conflict and Organizing in Oaxaca
9. The Story of Santa María del Tule: Zapata, Cárdenas, and "Good Guy" Officials
10. The Formation of the Ejido of Unión Zapata
11. Contradictions of Zapatismo in Rural Oaxaca
Conclusion: Reclaiming the Mexican Nation for the Poor and the Indigenous South
Notes
References
Index