Critical Social Inquiry 0152 - Zapatismo

On December 21, 2012 the Zapatistas again surprised a world whose eyes were on Mexico anticipating a historical rupture from one time into another, the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world. Forty thousand Zapatistas marched in total silence on four of the seven towns they had taken on the first day of their uprising January 1, 1994, 18 years before. They issued a brief communique: ?Can you hear it? It is the sound of their world ending, and ours surging anew,? thereby interpreting the Mayan prophecy in an unexpected, political manner. Since that date, the Zapatistas have issued a stream of communiques breaking nearly four years of silence, and again from Japan to Greece, Argentina to the US, groups of Zapatistas are forming or reforming to read and interpret these playful yet serious, poetic and sharply analytical missives from the mountains of the Southwest of Mexico. Why have so many found the Zapatista messages exciting? What have been and are the contributions of the Zapatistas to the contemporary historical turning point in world politics signaled by the Arab Spring, the European revolts against neoliberal austerity (Greece, Spain, England), the Latin American student movements (Chile, Columbia, Mexico), and even to the Occupy movements in the US?

Power, Community and Social Justice Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.