Zapatismo and Community-Based Social Change

Abstract

This chapter is based on research conducted for my master’s thesis, in which I used ethnographic research and in-depth interviews to examine the adoption of Zapatismo as a feminist framework in a Latino/a activ­ist and Chicano/a student activist organization. During the two years I spent in the field, I had the opportunity to meet activists outside the two organizations with whom I worked; two of the activists I met from outside organizations spent time in Oventic, the largest of the Zapatista caracoles, or collectives. Working alongside the men and women of the community, these two participants provided firsthand accounts of Zapatista organizing, serving as a wonderful complement to the stories of organizing from their U.S. counterparts; their voices breathe life into this chapter. The goal of this chapter is to share the incredible work of the transnational activists from various social locations who are actively striving to incorporate Zapatismo as a feminist global praxis. Just as the Zapatista caracoles serve as a spiral to the outside world, so do the stories of the men and women in this chapter, who are heralding Zapatismo in a variety of extraordinary ways.