Subcomandante Marcos Essay

The Mission of Subcomandante Marcos
Who Was Subcomandante Marcos?
Subcomandante Marcos was a contemporary Mexican revolutionary leader, active during the 1990s and early 2000s. Marcos was the leader of the Zapatista guerrilla movement in the state of Chiapas, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). The main uprising of the EZLN was in 1994, against the Mexican government and was aimed at forming an alternative government that would represent the exploited indigenous Zapatismo people. By beginning their rebellion on January 1, 1994, the day that the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect, the EZLN called the world’s attention to their protest of the signing of NAFTA. The EZLN was anti neoliberalism, because they felt

it fostered the gap between the rich and the poor.
In Mexico’s 2006 election, Marcos took the position of Delegate Zero, or the anti-candidate. Marcos represented a rebellion against the current Mexican government.

This earned the Zapatistas enemies, and violence from the government. Naomi Klein’s “Zapatista Code Red” describes this aggression from the Mexican government as undermining the Zapatistas by buying their land and giving it to families linked to the notoriously corrupt Institutional Revolutionary Party. These new owners of the land are linked to thuggish paramilitary groups and violence is surging in Chiapas. Marcos brought some damage to the Zapatista people by enraging the Mexican government by leading this “Other Campaign.”

“The Fourth World War Has Begun”
In his 1997 essay “The Fourth World War Has Begun,” Marcos speaks of a new kind of war where globalization takes over the world not only through material destruction, but through historical and cultural destruction. Marcos considers the Cold War misnamed, and that it should be named the Third World War, in which socialism was the loser and capitalism the victor. Marcos says the bomb of World War Four is not nuclear like that of

Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but a financial bomb. These financial bombs target nation-states, wiping out “all those deemed unsuitable to the new economy” (The Fourth, 561). Modern, westernized economies and American thinking will wipe out indigenous and other cultures. Marcos wrote that “all cultures forged by nations—the indigenous past of America, the brilliant civilization of Europe, the wise history of Asian nations, and the ancestral wealth of Africa and Oceania—are corroded by the American way of life” (The Fourth, 562). The Fourth World War is “a war waged against humanity” where a few nations holding the most money and power exploit weaker and poorer nations, stripping them of their indigenous people and using their resources (562). Marcos’ essay employs a metaphor comparing society to a puzzle, divided into seven pieces. Society’s problems are summed up into these seven pieces, such as the imbalance between rich and poor, lack of jobs, displaced immigrants, and organized crime. 4.5 billion of the Earth’s 5 billion people live in poverty, while 500 million live comfortably. Marcos also notes the rapidly rising unemployment rate worldwide, with agricultural and small business jobs nearly vanishing. Marcos’ point in detailing these problems is that these puzzle pieces that make up our world are impossible to put together. Globalization is attempting to assemble them, but will not be successful. Thus, Marcos calls for the building of a new world. This is the only way to fix all the problems that plague society.
Defender of the Indigenous
There is one thing that is impossible to ignore about Subcomandante Marcos. Every article about him, essay that he writes, or speech that he gives mentions the same word: indigenous. Marcos is a fighter for the indigenous people of Mexico, and around the world, when society is trying to destroy them. Laura Castellanos, freelance journalist based in Mexico, frequently reported on Marcos. In an essay entitled “Learning, Surviving: Marcos After the Rupture,” Castellanos said “the EZLN attempted to create a social infrastructure among “the always forgotten: women, indigenous people, youth, and otros amores (gays and lesbians)’” (Castellanos, 34). Marcos represented those who did not get representation from the government. He defended those who have been killed off, exploited, and disrespected. Marcos pointed out in his “The Fourth World War Has Begun” that “the world’s indigenous population (300 million people) inhabits areas containing 60 percent of the planet’s natural resources: “It is not surprising, then, that many conflicts break out in order to take over their lands” (The Fourth, 561). For hundreds of years, since the Spaniards discovered and conquered the Americas in the 16th century, indigenous people have been killed and pushed off of their land. When colonizing the modern day United States, Englishmen robbed Native Americans of their land, pushing them west. To this day, the few Native Americans that remain still have to struggle to defend their territory. For Marcos, this is the root of all that is wrong with society. The take-over of globalization, and the destruction of indigenous lifestyles. Enrique Krauze in an article entitled “The View From La Realidad” described the EZLN movement as “a resurgence of the most ancient of all pasts, the indigenous past” (Krauze, 27). The indigenous are a forgotten people because their ways of life are old and outdated in modern society. However, Marcos still fights to defend them. He reminds the world of their existence and gives them a presence when they seemed to be disappearing. In a 2003 speech to the World Trade Organization during its annual meeting in Cancun, Marcos made a speech entitled “The Slaves of Money—And Our Rebellion.” He spoke about the disparities between the 1 percent and the 99 percent of the world, and those who suffer from this gap. Marcos said “in the complex equation that turns death into money, there is a group of humans who command a very low price in the global slaughterhouse. We are the indigenous, the young, the women, the children, the elderly, the homosexuals, the migrants, and all those who are different” (The Slaves, 60). This quote beautifully sums up, in one sentence, why indigenous people are exploited. They are weaker, poorer, and therefore easier to take advantage of for powerhouse countries.
Marcos’ Impact
In a 2007 interview with Marcos, reporter Laura Castellanos explores a question with Marcos: Was Marcos a mistake for Zapatismo? Marcos’s intentions were good, but did his efforts achieve anything? Marcos said that now, “the Zapatista communities may not be rich, but there is no hunger” (Castellanos, 38). Clinics have been built where people used to die of curable diseases, and mortality rates for infants and children have improved. Marcos’ influence has forged a new generation of guerrillas, who see the military path as the only way to advance. These offshoots of the Zapatista movement have instilled in youth responsibilities of government, healthcare, and education in their towns. An awareness of political happenings is necessary in creating a following generation of potential revolutionaries. Marcos has seen a gradual change in life for the indigenous, and growing young women’s participation in government, “and the question of gender has begun to come up in the community budgeting process” (Castellanos, 38).
While all of these effects are positive, they are not nearly what Marcos set out to do.

His aim for an alternative government option was never successful. In Enrique Krauze’s “The View From La Realidad,” Krauze discusses how realistic Marcos’ hopes were. La Realidad is the name Marcos had given to the small village where his headquarters was. Krauze says that “La Realidad is not the same thing as reality” (Krauze, 32). Recalling the concept of creating a new world that Marcos describes in his essay “The Fourth World War Has Begun,” this new world is what Marcos referred to with the name La Realidad. Changing the outlook of every individual in the world in order to create a new one is impossible and not realistic. While it is an admirable moral standpoint, what does it mean practically? Krauze supposes that Marcos’ accomplishment “is to have transformed identity politics into a revolutionary program” (Krauze, 32). Marcos has successfully stood behind the indigenous people and created a revolution. This in itself is a feat, even though the goal of the revolution itself is unattainable. There is irony in Marcos’ mission because while it begs for transformation and change, the people themselves will stay the same. Krauze says “He wants his people to be saved but to stay the same, to experience a transformation without being transformed” (Krauze, 32). This concept is like calling for a reverse progression, stepping back in time rather than moving forward. It seems Marcos would

like to move back to a simpler time, before the conquest of indigenous people and before globalization. This issue is at the core of why Marcos’ movement was inspiring, but could not have been successful.
Works Cited
Castellanos, Laura. "Learning, Surviving: Marcos After the Rupture." NACLA Report on the Americas. 3rd ed. Vol. 41. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 34-39. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.
Klein, Naomi. "Zapatista Code Red." Nation [New York] 7 Jan. 2008, 286th ed., sec. 1: 9. Print.
Krauze, Enrique. "The View From La Realidad." New Republic. Vol. 225. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 27-33. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.
Marcos, Subcomandante. "The Fourth World War Has Begun." Nepantla: Views from South. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. Durham: Duke UP, 2001. 559-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.
Marcos, Subcomandante. "The Slaves of Money--And Our Rebellion." Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine. 6th ed. Vol. 55. New York: Monthly Review Foundation, 2003. 59-61. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.