17
GeorgeA. Collier is a researchanthropologist who long tought at Stanford Uniuersity.His best-hnownbooks are Fields of the Tzotzil (with J. Collier), Social.
ists of Rural Andalusia, Land Inheritance and Land Use in a Modern Mayx
Community, ond Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas
The stateof a nation'seconomycan hauemajor impacts at the regional and local
Ieuels,and euen that ma.crosystemis subject to the larger forces of international
finance and trade. The emergenceof a generally nnnviolent rebellion in southern Merico in recent years
showshow intimately interwouenare law, politics, ethnicity,accessto wealth, and evenan hi.storicalftgure from far away (Zapata). It is noteworthy that the self-d,esigtutted."peasdnts" (campesinos) chosethc
beginning date of the North American Free Tfad,eAgreemznt for their initial d.ernonstration, and hnue
cannily used thc Internet to communicate their concerns around the uorld in ensuing years. Collier,s
clear and concisearurlysisof compler conpeting forcesat dffirent leuelslays bare both strengthsand.
weaknesses
in that country'sways of dcaling with ethnic minorities,and. with fascinating emergences
at
the "gras sroots" Leuel.
Restructuring Ethnicity in
Chiapas and the World
GeorgeA. Collier
T$o events underscoresubtle but important shifts in the ethnicity of indigenous
populations in Chiapas. On March 19, 1995, several thousand people from dozensof
diverse indigenous communities, among them hotestants and Catholics who have
often beenin conflict with one another,joined in the demonstration in support of liberation theologian Bishop ofSan Crist6bal de Las Casas,Samuel Ruiz. Barely a month
later, on the April 19th eve ofthe scheduledrenewal ofpeace talks between the Mexican government and the Ej6rcito Zapatisla de Liberaci6n Nacional (rzr,N, Zapatista
Army of National Liberation), an equally diverse gathering of representatives of distinct indigenous communities and sometimes competing indigenous organizations
from throughout the region converged on San Andr6s Lanainzar to demonstrate support for the Zapatistas.
Ethnic identity orrced.iui.d.ed
indigenous communities from one another in the Chiapas central highlands. Both recent events underscorea transformation: in the wake ofthe
Zapatista rebellion, peoplesof diverse indigenous background now are emphasizing what
they share with one another in revindication of economic,social, and political exploitation.
How has this shift in indigenous identity come about? This article argues that the
transformation reflects changesin Mexican rural societystemming from fundamental
redirections of Mexico'spolicies for national society and its place in the world order,
marking the ending of an era of Mexican social policy and statescraft.
For decades,Mexico effectivelymanaged peasantsand Indians as distinct sectors
within its "institutionalized revolution," along with workers, ranchers, merchants, and
industrialists, all under policies fostering development of a sheltered national economy.
Mexico'sall-embracingPortido ReuolucionarioInstitucional (pnt,Institutional Revolutionary Party) used a corporatist approach of giving each sector a role in sheltered
national developmentas well as correspondingrewards.As the government developed
rural programs,it focusedon communities,using aglarian reform to shapethem sepaPrepared expressly for Con,emporqry CuLturesand, Societiesof Latin America, Third Edition, based on the
author's article in In d.igenousAffairs 3:22-27, July-September 1995, IWGIA, International Work Group for
Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen.
182
RestructuringEthnicity in Chiapasand the World / Co ier_I7
lg3
rately, and Indianist policiesthat tended to "naturalize" ethnic differencesamongindigenouscommunitieswhile distinguishing them from thoseof nonindigenouspeas;ts.
But in the past twenty years, Mexico'snational leaders have r-eorientedMexican
developmentto global commodity markets and international high finance. More generally, national planners have embracedthe philosophy of structural adjustment that
governmentsthroughout the world are using to shuck off social responsibilities to the
poor.In Mexico,Ieadershave set aside the nation's social contracts*ith the peasantry
and indigenouspeople,abandoninglong-standingprograms of agrarian refo'rm-uniting peasantsand Indians in opposition to the national state.
As the reorientation ripples through the Mexican countryside, the gap has grown
between the better-ofr and the poo4 the powerfrrl and the powerless,and the old srructures of community that once framed ethnicity have eroded, making way for a new and
evocative indigenous discourse voiced by the Zapatistas on behalf of Mexico,spoor. The
Zapatistas, furthermore, speak out from the position ofindigenous peoples'historic subordination to protest problems that beset poor Mexicans everywhere,-blurring the lines
between indigenous,peasant, rural, and urban poor. Tb borrow a metapho4 we might say
that the rebellion is recrafting ethnicity as an ecumenicalrather than parochial disiorr.se,
evokedfrom and spanning society'sbaserather than being articulated from on high.1
Orr, DBru,,oPMENTANDTIIE Cnrsrs IN MEXICANAcnrcur,rurrn
The Zapatistas choseJanuary 1, 1994-the inauguration of Nerra (North American Free Trade Association)-to rebel as a way of protesting the government,s.selling
out" of Mexico to foreign interests. But NAFTArtras only the last link of a chain leadin!
back to Mexico'sdecision,after the oprc crisis of 197i, to sell oil into global markets,
unexpectedly transforrning and destabilizing Mexican agriculture and ultimately
renoving its insulation and protection from the global economy.
For decadesafter President L6zaro c6rdenas nationalized foreign frrms'oil holdings in 1938,Mexico reservedpetroleum as a resourceto tap for the internal needs of
the national economythrough a state-run petrochemicalindustry. To help the depression-era economy recover, c6rdenas subsidized Mexican industry u.nd."o-*ur".,
keeping the price of oil low and erecting tariffs and restricting imports to protect
nascentbusinessesfrom foreign competition. c6rdenas steppedup agrarian reform so
that peasant and indigenousfarming could produceinexpensivefoods,enabling workers to get by on low wagesfavorable to developingMexican businesses.Thoserelationships among oil production, peasant and indigenous agriculture, commerce, and
industry in the shelteredeconomyof "import substitution industrialization" sustained
Mexico through several decadesof growth.
After the opEc crisis raised world petroleum prices in 19?8, Mexico'sdecision to
export oil distorted these relationships. To produceoil for export and notjust for internal consumption,Mexico borrowed massively from the world banking .y.t"*, glutted
at the time with petrodollars from the mid-East and eagerto place loans. Mexico used
credits to frnancenew oil exploration----especially
in the state ofTabascoand along the
coast of the Gulf of Mexico-and to build new infrastructure throughout the country.
In chiapas, the govemment discoveredoil reservesunder what ha" b""o-" the heartland ofthe Zapatista rebellion. It also constructedhundreds of miles ofroads and completed three major hydroelectric dams along the Grijalva River that now supply the
country with about half of its hydroelectric power.
The resulting boom drew labor into construction, commerce,and transport and
began to undercut and transform agriculture. Agriculture declined from about r4vo of
cDPin 1965to about 7voof cnp by 1980.In addition, farmers sousht to cut labor costs
ta4
Part III
Traditional and Modern Cultures
by shifting to chemicarinputs-fertilizers
and herbicides-that reduced labor
wh'e
intensifring production-but that also
;;;
dependent
;;;;;".s
on
credits
and
subsidies' Responding to the crisis in
ugti."lil;;;
the late 1920s, the government
extendedcredits, subsidie;, an1
in an attempt to revive agricul_
11it!t;;;;;r;"""
ture through president L6pez portillo,"
Sirt"^o ni*entario Mexicano (saM,Mexican
Foodstuffssystem). pranrrersworried
that the country had becometoo dependent
corn imported fiom the united states,
on
" tht;;;M"*ico's
sovereignty at a-time when
U.S.politicians spoke of using gr"i""
"" ;of, o. iu"poo, offoreign policy.
But the 1982
debtcrisissiattereanr"r""i il*top-"rt
u"-"-'""Jirr" abilityof
thegovernment
to subsidize t "n"roffir*i*ny*.
colrapseof worldpetroleum
pricesleft Mexicounableto-service
-ttr" u.s.
on the unfulfilledpromiseorol "*poJ". $96biilion or exte"naldebt,mostly'borrowed
ir," r"i".#r""al
bankingsystem'forced
aus_
terity on the Mexicanbudget.c-redits,."r"iai".,
r"a
-arket
supportsbeganto dry up
during the Miguel de ta rra-aaria
pr;;lh;;;;. i;yiu."
rutuapresidentsarinasde Gor_
tari embracedporiciesof liberal i""t**".i"g
"iil. *rri.r, Mexicobeganto sell offor
dissolvestate-controlred
enterprisein variou"s
"*O*"s
;;":.
salinas targetedpeasantagriculture as inefficient,
."-"i"1*
for peasant production,and
redraftingthe agrarianT11lr]*.
codeto bring agra"iin ."'d"- to a hart while
allowingprivati_
zationand saleof indigenousand pe-asint
rr"a, trrrt th";;;;;;;.;'#;f
Rnsrnucrunnvc oF PEASANT
ANDINDrcBNous LANDScapEs
Throughout Mexico'
cfralses prunged peasant and indigenous
,thes,e
agriculture
into crisis' poorer peasants
who rack"eda;;i;;;;"ss
to
credits
needed
purchase
to
fertilizer and herbicidesrbr"d;"J;;r"i"."a'"..llt"d
it
to
wealthie.
"o-put"iot.. h,
many areas of central Mexico, peasants
.od irrdigurous
gave
up
farming and
migrated to seekwork in the urtar p"rtp;;;";;";
-people
the
United
States.
In Chiapas, reliance oo chumical irri;;;;g;;"
differentiate the poor from the
betterofl withiz indigenous communities,
orteffitog
wearthier indigenous erites of
the cabeceras (municipal
i",H:J,iri-,TTn:"""'*
lY-l$r,r."d;"ft
Fl'i:ii,flE:ihi;::f
dnven out of rheir ethnic homelandsor reft
ii" t"i i". ."r"_
nies of easternchiapas and in squatter t" """r. lr,"i, f;;;;;
;;;d;;r
around
the
city
of san crist6bal
de Las casas'others took .,p e-ployment
",
orr"r.iir"a
workers
in
construction
in oil
and Mroelectric-development.After
the 19gt;;l
crisis,
when
austerity curtailed
construction,unskilled workers *to "ut.rmea
t-J
""
longercouldfind employment,swelling
_Cni;;.;;^';,. ;;;.;;;fo
the "urrt" of *r"
impoverished.
r"r"lt' ethnic populationst[.t ""."-iJ
beencommunity-based
---^1: across
1
beganto
spread
the geographicand sociarlands.ape.orroutheastern
fu;;;;;;:.*-gltng with differentindisenous""a
"o"-i"aig""-o*"rural and urban poor,sometimes
evenin new livelihoodslnd- new t irra"
of .o'_*uJties. Many of thosemarsinalized
t^:?^_cT?P"* highland
rndians and peasanrsfrom
.""^*;;;u".1;t""d
other statesflowins into 11a,s;""ir,
the tropical
forest frontilr lands of easternchiapas from
which the Zapatistarebe ion rr^ "i.r"u
u-u.*"a.'tintr" someretained identities of
ethnic origin, othersturned ;d;;;"";;'";iluil
p
motu. settlements,establishing them as communities_of-diveise
*;."il;i;;yt9.*,
Baptist, SeventhDay
Adventist,Mormon,or as catt oiic-ti"r."i
ci*il""]iu""u
'."a
communities.
Even as oil developmentr1{edof-ed p""pf"
identities in this supposedly
remotearea,it left them vull:tl,,.r:
""
credits,
subsidies,and the mar_
keting mechanismsof tr'lue-catr,the -d"f""a"-""V
Mexicancoi* io"titote. Easternchiapas,scoronists (or homesteaders)
atocaied ""; thiJ';";#r
productionto coffeeas a cash
RestructuringEthnicity in Chiapasand the World / Collier-I7
185
crop, another third to livestock, and the remainder to subsistencecrops such as corn
and beans.When austerity and restructuring set in, colonistsmight have been able to
weather the shift in economictides had not the world price of coffeealso plummeted in
1989,further devastating peasant producerswho had invested in coffeeas their principal cash crop. The collapse of coffee prices coincided with Salinas's abrogation of
agtarian reform, dashing colonists'unfulfilled quests for land.
Zapatista condemnation of Narte thus implicitly protests the trade liberalization
and structural adjustnent that began a decadeearlier with Mexico'sdecisionto enter
global petroleum markets. Oil-led developmentthrew agriculture into crisis; it undermined the solidarity of indigenous and peasant communities by differentiating people
within them; it impoverished those made vulnerable to the collapse of credits and
markets neededto survive in a transforming rural economy.Little wonder,then, that
Chiapas's rural poor, no longer protected by the solidarities of old ethnic cornmunities,
should embrace the protest voiced by the Zapatista rebellion.
FKou GoIDnsrxc
BY PACT To EXCLUSION
The restructuring of ethnic identities in Chiapas respondsas well to a fundamental shift of the Mexican goverrrment away from social policies that drew pacts among
and support from the various different sectors of Mexican society. Increasingly, the
government and its ruling party, the PRI, have opted for policies that favor only the
"modernizingl sector linked to international high finance, with waning commitment to
other sectors.Many Mexicans,including most of those in peasant and indigenouscommunities, now feel excludedfrom the government'ssocial contract. Somehave joined
parties and organizationsopposedto the ruling party.
For decades,beginning with the 1934-40 presidency of Lfaarc C{tdenas, the ruling
party successfully managed public policy to give different sectors of society a sensethat
each had a voice in a political system that would mediate their sometimes-conllicting
interests. In the countryside, the ruling party gave political access to peasants and
Indians as well as to ranchers and cottrttrercial farmers; urban labor and industry also
could count on being heeded. The government claimed to sustain a social contract
acknowledging the legitimacy and needs of each sector. Mexico's relative social peace,
and the willingness of the peopleto allow the endorsement of ruling party candidates in
decadeafter decadeof managed elections, reflected the successof government by pact.
Pacting reached into agrarian landscapes and evoked a style of indigenous and
peasant leadership in which, for the most part, local leaders worked through the
framework of municipal institutions and through those of the ruling party, the enr, to
help extract state resources for their followers in return fpr delivering the vote for ruling party candidates.The successof agrarian reform and Indianist policies in conforming ethnicity to municipal institutions matched the relatively strong loyalties of
peasant and indigenous leaders to the government's ruling party.
Austerity, forced on Mexico by the world banking community after the 1982 crisis
of debt, undercut the government'sability to sustain its social contract and sectoral
pacts.Then, as modernizerswithin the PRIembracedthe ideologyof structural adjustment, the government cut subsidiesfor peasant agriculture and social programs for
the burgeoning urban populaceliving in poverty
As a result, the hegemonicsuccessofthe PRIeroded.In the 1988presidential elections, the PRI faced its first serious electoral opposition from the Partido de Acci6n
Nacional (peN,National Action Party) and from supporters of Cuauht6mocCdrdenas,
many of them pRI defectorswho opposedthe policies of structural adjustment promised by Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Under Salinas, government policy ceasedto repre-
186
Part III
Traditional and Modern Cultures
sent all sectors of society Programs such as solidarity, ostensibly intended to assist
the poor, channeled funding behind the scenesto pRI supporters, to the exclusion of
those in the growing opposition.
Peasant and indigenous leadership shifted in style, meanwhile, as rural production concentratedin the hands of pnr-affiliated powerholderswho controlled the capi.
tal and scarcecredits neededto farm with chemicalinputs. Elites who had established
themselvesin power by winning rewards for their followers in return for delivering the
vote for the PRIbegan to monopolizegovernment resourcesfor themselves,using them
to capitalize their own production in the transformed agrarian economy As they no
longer neededthe labor of poorer compatriots in agrarian production, power-holding
elites could cast off economicand political responsibilities to the growing numbers of
expendablelaborers in their own communities.The organic leaders of yesteryear thus
transformed themselvesirfio the caciques(roughly,bosses)of contetttpo.aryti-es.
As support for the ruling party eroded,and as marginalized peasantsand Indians
began to affiliate with the oppositionparties, the pRI resorted increasingly to coercive
tactics to hold onto the peasantvote, withholding funds and seryicesfrom thosewhose
loyalties were suspect.Even in indigenous hamlets, authorities withheld the benefits
of government programs from those who did not support the pRI. such practices further fractured rural communities, sharpening the divisions between powerful elites
and marginalized poor. Increasingly, as a result, organic leadlrship among
rank-and-file peasantsand indigenouspopulations has coalescedarcwd, opjosition to
the PRI,in coalition with political parties of the opposition,with independent organizations, and now with the Zapatistas.Finally, in 2000, pRI lost the presidency.
UrsrTn{cAGATNST
AnsrrRARyAcnenren For,rcrns
Extremely diverse ethnic and religious affrliation marked the colonization that
flowed into ellt€rn chiapas in responseto the restructuring of the agrarian economy
in-the 1970s.what brought peopletogether in a movement that now spans ethnic and
religious diversity was resistance to the arbitrariness of government agrarian policy
in the region.
During the 1970s,President Luis Echeverria openedup eastern chiapas to longdistancecolonizationby modi$ing the agrarian codeto permit peasantsto relocatefar
from their homes, even acrossstate lines. Yet as colonists setlled frontier areas, the
government decreed huge tracts of the colonized land offJimits to them as "bioreselves."The huge Montes Azul Bioreserve,which encompasseddozensofnew frontier
settlements,was "reserved,"it turned out, for government timbering.
Agrarian authorities ordered colonists in the bioreserves to relocate. but mosr
refused. Attempts by the PRI to coopt peasantsin eastern chiapas and to divide followers from dissidents only heightened antagonisms.As colonists resisted continued
p-ressureto relocateduring the 1980s,most ofthem aligned with oppositionto the pRr.
when the government claimed overwhelming electorai support in igss from eastern
chiapas for the pnr's presidential candidate, salinas de Gortari, colonists knew the
electionshad been rigged.
Upon taking office, salinas rewarded colonists allied with the pnr in the Montes
Azul Bioreserveby legitimating their land claims-while denying the claims of dissi
dents and opponents.shortly thereafte4 salinas announced Iegislation to "reform"
Article 27 of the constitution, bringing agrarian reform to a hart. In effect, salinas
broke the nation's historic covenant with the peasantry to honor the hope, if not
always.the reality, of legal agrarian reform. For lhe first iime the Zapatistas, present
in small numbers since 1983 and advocating armed resistance to the national smrc,
RestructuringEthnicity in Chiapasand the World I Collier-t7
Ia7
won recruits among colonists who believed that they had lost legal recourseto their
lands claims.
These arbitrary and contradictory goverrunent agrarian policies unified dissident
colonistsacrosslines of ethnic and religious difference,while forging links to agrarian
activists of other regions in Mexico's south. The Zapatista movement has helped generalize t]nealliances to span indigenous and non-indigenouspeasantsthroughout and
beyondthe area of frontier colonizationin eastern Chiapas'
Nnw EcuwursM rN INDIGENoUsDFCoTIRSErN CHTAPAS
There is a new ecumenism in the ethnicity that is emerging in chiapas as a result
of the Zapatista rebellion---+cumenismwith respect to religious difference as well as
other kinds of difference.
The joining together of Protestants with catholics among the indigenous groups
who have been demonstrating solidarity with Bishop Ruiz's role as intermediary
between the government and the Zapatistas in recent negotiations is an important
developmentbecausereligious differencehad been a sigrrificant axis of conflict among
indigenousgroups in Chiapas in recent decades.I believe that the Zapalista rebellion
furthered the evolution of such ecumenism.
Many analysts believe that ttre lg74Indigenous congtess, organized by Bishop
Ruiz at the request of the governmentof chiapas to commemorateFray Bartolom6 de
Las Casas,laid the foundation for the indigenousmovement that has coalescedin the
zapatista rebellion. The congress pulled together indigenous representatives from
.,ruiioo" linguistic and "tribal" groups, as well as various regions of Chiapas, including
the colonizingregion of eastern Chiapas,allowing them for the first time to articulate
common denands for social change.In the wake of the congress, independent organizing of indigenous and peasant communities in eastern chiapas built upon the networks and channelsof communicationestablishedin the Congress'
one must rememberthat the 1974Indigenous congressbuilt on the catechist networks established by Bishop Ruiz in part to counter the spread of Protestant and
evangelical churchei in easiern Chiapas, where new religions afforded solidarities
needJd to consolidate frontier communities. Even though Liberation Theology galvanized indigenousalliancesin the 19?4Congress,non-Catholicreligious affiliation continued to gto*, "o.o*p"ssing up to Aovoof the frontier population by the 1990s. In
this contei, inclependent o.gunir"." had the advantage over religious organizers of
being able to embracegroups of dilferent religious persuasion into their movements.
The Zapatistas built alinclusive movementin part by disavowing religious alfrliation
while a-ffirmingreligious tolerance,epitomizing an ecumenismthat has since become
more prominent even in Bishop Ruiz's own church efforts.
More generally,the zapatista movementhas adoptedwhat one might characterize
as an ecumenicalstancewith respectto differencesof political persuasionby welcoming diverse groups of civil society into a broad-basedmovement seeking reforms of
Mlxican .o"i"ty r" a whole. As a result, diverse indigenous and peasant organizations
have coalescedin organizationssuch as thleConsejoEstatal de OrganizaciottzsIndige'
nasy Campesirros(CoOrc,State Council of Indigenous a..d CarnpesinoOrganizations)
that echoand reinforce the Zapatistas'challengesto the national state'
Mo\DMENTS
Cournxt oF NEw REGTONAL
Trm ThewsNATroNAr.,
parallels the
The shift of ethnicity in chiapas to transcend,yet embracedifference"borderlands'
emergenceof new regional movernentsin many parts of the world where
188
Part III
Traditional and Modern Cultures
bring distinct curtures together in interaction without
necessarilyerasing their differ_
ences'Global developmentmoves production "offshore'arra
"i..orulJp-"ffi
gooa.,
money,and information in new kinds of translocatronal
spacesshaped by
economic
"oiidentity
restructuring. Peoplesdrawn together in new
ways
confront "-uigriiti",
"ihey
and polyvalent sensesand possibilities of
being.
experiment with guises and
roles, and sometimesthey forge, ""fo.-olat",
urri'riobilize ethnic identity to hail new
sympathizers-as the Zapatistas' facelessi"aig""";r
visages have appealedto those
who project their own identities onto thore imuffieJ
behind the Zapatista masks.
"ro span heterogenous peoples i1
, ,co:t"TpoTary chiapas illustrates tro* "uii*.
borderlands without necessar y dissolving tlr"r
drrur".r""s. o -red development trans_
fonned southeasternMexico,drawing th" ;hni;rxy
J;tinctive Indians oot tl- ct up"rt
agrarian economyand thrusting them together
witn non-inaigenous peasants, workers,
independent organizers,and even evangeti".",
i"a **4 politics, and religions not previously open to Lrdians. New alignmentJor *"itrr
*a-power surfaced and sharpened the
basis for a regional indigenousldentitv trt.t "-"rgJ
ls the rerrersalsor M"*i.it-urru.g.y
developmentthrust the resion into "ri:; Tt;-il|ffiLs
tapped the discontent and consol_
idated a movement that llevated irdt";;;r-fi;ifif
out of its old parochial loyarties,
linked to patronage and protection or tir'" "o"po"ut"
"tlt , -to something new, the shared
identitv of those whom poriricians h"d
;;;;fuiilt
orneo-uterat modernizing.
There are other ways rl.which ""*-pu."n!
iru.rsnational poritical and economic
.
systemsreshape and sometimesconsolidatefov"ufti,es
and identities drawn from ethnic landscapes.A new pan-.Mixtec" identity,
f". "..-pf", has spanned il;;;_.ry
lovaltiesto
townshipthat Mixtec"puuru.,Jrr." rr"iJ r" ir* ,i"t"""r6;""*
lr'rro*,
from Mixtec migranls'shared expeiie""u or
to.au. "umps in Tijuana and work in the
tomato fields of carifornia, oregon, Florida,
"trJ oln"r parts of the united states
where transnational aeri-busit ei"s ha" b.;;ght
th;r" seasonally migrant workers
from Oaxacatogether ii new collectiveidentit!.
Regional identities and subnationat popJar
movements also gain support from
one another-much as the Zapatistas have tapped
support from within Mexican civil
society from organizations o? Nrtirru a-".iil".
ii-rraaor"l
;;- A;;;;;;"**.
throughout the continent, from the chi""";;;;;;ent,
and from sympathizers as far
catalunya' They draw support from independeot
o.gu.riraiio". ti"t'.ir"rl*uy
r
lenge the
state and from non-governmentalorganizations
whose resourcesand con_
stituencies transcend nationai controls. whiG-;;;L*porary
nation-states are in
strugglingto reasserttheir primary"tuim" or,"iti"".r"iri!"Ljia""ffLt::tr"*s
trty' they are no longer the onry game in town
in the post cold-war .rra irr.."*irrgry
transnational ordel which is g:iving rise to new,
multivocal solidarities and alliances.
Notes
l For
an analysis ofthe roots ofthe Zapatista rebelion,
seeBAsrA! Land and thn zapatista Reberin chiapas by GeorgeA. cauer a"a ntJauetn
^lion
io*".y"qr*uti"llo
(FoodF.irst Books, r994).
'Even
Mexico's oil sovereignty is falling victim to restruci;ring
as the Ernesro Zedi,o government
contemplatesprivatization of the state-run putro"rt"-ii"i
r"a'stry after h";;;i;r";;ir"""nues to u.s. banks to guarantee repayment
ofthe crinton administration bailout.