in their own tongue: bats'i' k'op zapatista JaNuky 171604 SAN CRISTORAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS daybreal Thousands of indigenous people descend from their communities in the mountains and take over seven city centers of Chiapas, Mexico. They carry a black flag embroidered with a single star and the letters EZLN: Zapatista Army of National 3 Foop WORK =\ LAND HOUSING ~/ HERLTHOARE pore oy EDUCATION JUSTICE Pepce DEMOCRREY They declared that they would not stop fighting until these demands were met. That day and the next, the Zapatistas took over more than 500 ranches and freed more than 230 prisoners from four state prisons. Many of us are more or less familiar with this story. The Zapatistas themselves have released thousands of commpuniqués explaining each step of their now nearly“24 years of above-ground struggle. It is natural to take these words and judge them according to our own frameworks of guerrilla warfare and national revolutions; to read words Like Justice' and ‘peace) and think that they are saying the same thing that couptless revolutionaries have said before them. ‘HowWever, when we read the words of the Zapatistas, we are receiving a translation of a language with fundamentally different precepts than our own (whether Spanish or English). We are familiar with the figure of the late Subcommander Marcos (rebirthed in 2014 as Subcommander Geleano) and his pipe. % It 35 common for anarchists to mark him as a vanguardist guerrilla leader and judge the otherwise entirely indigenous movement for placing a blue-eyed mestizo intellectual from the city at its forefront. However, understanding the role that SubMarcos played and Why it has been necessary can help us understand our own relationship to the Zapatistas. Originally inhabiting the fertile lowlands, the Mayan peoples were pushed up intd the rocky highlands by colonial powers and wealthy landowners. As the settler population increased, the landovmers encroached on the highlands, displacing indigenous campesinos from their collectively held efido land and forcing them into debt-slavery on massive ranches and plantations. In the 1950s, displaced and landless campesinos were forced by the government into the previously sparsely inhabited Lacandon Jungle. Tens of thousands of starving indigenous peoples created new communities deep in the jungle, carving out lives on the thin, infertile so0il. AN ¢ ALL of this is to illustrate a distinct strategy of government repression and attempted externination of indigenous peoples. In contrast to most Native American peoples in the so-called USA, who were forced off of their ancestral lands and onto reservations where they could be surveilled and controlled by the colonial government as if in open air prisons, the indigenous peoples of Chiapas were pushed further and further outside the margins of civilization in an attempt to push them out of existence entirely. Rather than forcing essimilation in order to disappear cultures, the Mexican government made assimilation impossible in an attempt to also make survival impossible. Obviously, they wére unsuccessful. Instead of dying out as was intended, the indigenous people displaced to the jungle began to organize, culminating in the 1994 Zapatista uprising. Of the mostly young people who moved to the jungle in the decades prior, all spoke a Mayan language and very few spoke any Spanish at all. Speakers of Tsotsil, Tzeltal, Zoque, Chol, Tojolobal, and Mam, particularly women, built new conmunities together, learning how to survive in the jungle and relating their experiences across different cultures and language barriers. All of these languages, though now very different, have the same origin- Bats'y’ k'op the true word, a language where all beings are subjects who mutually relate to one another, where the earth is our mother and where everything is understood in relation to the heart. This is where the Zapatista movement comes from. Many enarchists and leftists alike, whether critically or favourably, attempt to reduce the Zapatistas to the Marxist origins of its mestizo founders, members of the FLN (National Liberation Front), a political-military organization which was largely extinguished by the state during the 1970s. However, when these same Marxists came to the jungle of Chiapas to organize the indigenous people into a peasant wing of the FLN for their armed national uprising, they were quickly humbled: “You speak the hard word,” their recruits told them. “Fe dom't understand. You have to find other words.” What the university-educated revolutionaries first saw as an issue of translation, they soon came to realize was the Limitation of their understanding of revolution. or the expropriston of the means of production,” M3reos Says, “the vevelution > begon to be the possibility for g hwman being to nave @ space fordigmiy.” < N R fi'w[m than the vedistribution of wealth PN We, as comrades, need to do the same. Before professing to understand the Zapatista movement or placing it in historical schemas in which it does not belong, to comprehend what they are really fighting for and why their steps have followed the path that they have, we must attempt to see the movement on its own terms, in its own world. As insurrectionary anarchists who believe in the generalization of uncontrollebility, we often talk sbout the importance of making ourselves incomprehensible to the state, We reject their gender markers, their social contracts and family units. Our leaderless struggles based on true affinity and joy are beyond the understanding of the state, as well as the parties and the unions of the Left. Yet it is difficult for us to believe that a struggle could be incomprehensible not only to them, but to us. When they formed the caracoles in 2003, the Zapatistas also closed their autonomous territory to outsiders. Non-Zapatistas can now only enter if invited. However, they also formed a Language Center in Caracol II Oventic. Outsiders can come learn Bats'i’ k'opfrom a collective of Zapatista support bases whose role in the movement is that of Linguists and educators. They teach students the particularly ZapatistaBats'i’ k'op that is spoken in the caracoles, meaning that they use the language center es an opportunity to analyse how their language has been transformed by their struggle and share this analysis with comrades from all over the world. I have had the opportunity to study in Oventic on three separate occasions, for a few weeks at a time. Obviously, I do not speak Bats'i’ kK'op. However, the extremely brief time that I have spent learning the language has given me insight into the world of the Zapatistas that has transformed my understanding of the movenent, and that is what I will attenpt to share here. This is not an effort to construct a romanticized vision of, or attribute an inherently political meaning to, the language itself. Rather, I hope simply to share language lessons as they were shared with me by my Zapatista teachers along with personal reflections and analysis of Zapatista reality, as well as excerpts from an incredible book written by a close friend and comrade Dylan. The words, of the Zapatista education promoters are direct quotes from either my or Dylan’s notebooks. — everythi . that s “handwritten in-this font (s A dlirect quote from a Zgpatistd language Promotor, condensed into the ficticnal char- Acter of ‘Juans’ to maintail Snonymity _ . _ - 5 wanted to make this zine because I had so many notes of my own and thought it would be useful to have a briefer and easily reproducible introduction to Bats'i’ k'op Zapatista, but everyone should get their hands on Dylan’s incredible book ‘Autonomy is in Our Hearts' when 3t 3s published by PM Press.}i These lessons should not influence readers to stop being critical of certain aspects of the Zapatista movement, such as their engagement with the Mexican Left, or of other indigenous movements that are often cast as sbove critique merely for being indigenous. Tt is not the objective of the Zapatistas, including the education promoters at Oventic, to mystify or shield their movement from judgement. Actually, they have continuously made space for anyone who fights against ocapitalism and neoliberalism to share their opinions and proposals for forms of struggle, no matter how painfully oblivious. However, if we continue to cling to and engage from our colonial subjectivities and cosmologies, we will remein incapable of learning from, teaching, and walking with the Zapatistas. Their prolific and readily availsble communiqués alone present us with the rare opportunity of stepping into their world and being shaped by their struggle. But this step is not an easy one for with it a world trembles at its core and, if struck with enough force, ruptures. We know hat autonomy ts 4 drgam, d wiopia for some people, but i, here it is'a reslity for us.We W © are already exercising gutonon and whdt We can say 1s that #here { 1S Mo vecipe. You shoukin’t ask for é Freedom fom @ the governiment. You Should exercise your Own freedon. e have seen that 1t is possible. -A teacher ot the © Aittle School The beginning of the Zapatista movement is also an ending and an in the middle. When the Zapatistas rose up in arms at dawn of January 1, 1994, their cry of ‘Enough!’ began to ring through the ears of every listening person in México and the world, their silence ended forever, and their 500 year struggle against colonialism continued on its path, lento pero avanza, slow but steady, like the caracol for the Zapatistas, time is not a line, but & spiral. The snail's shell is their path towards liberation; 1lways moving forward and changing, but with past ind future embedded in each present. N ) \ To the Mayan people, time is a continuum, with the past constantly resurfacing and no notion of foreclosed future possibilities. The caracol, the snail that moves slowly forward, the conch that calls the community to gather, the shell, puly; that represents entering the heart. The past (ech'emxa) is the time that has passed the future (sk'anto) is the time that is coming (Fuana, one of +he education promoters 3t the Oyentic Lanauage - . nteyThey call £hert eucstion prom and 1 teachers 70 boreak from the student/ Learner/edveator, I iy To isolate individual moments in Zapatista history, including the current ones, and critique them without a sense of past or future context is to crush their spiraling world onto a flat surface. Not only is this an imposition of colonial time and history, but it prevents us from appreciating the true spirit of their steps.| For exanmple, when the EZLN first rose up in arms in 1994, their plan as stated in the First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle was to “Advance to the capitol of the country defeating the Mexican Federal Arny, protecting the civilian population in their 1iberating advance and permitting the peoples to elect their own administrative authorities freely and democratically.” If, through the lens of a classical armed revolution, this were viewed as the totality of the movement, it would be easy to say that they failed entirely. However, if we conceptualize of their plan to take Mexico pueblo by pueblo by force of arms as a present objective without any attachment to what followed, we can better appreciate the unanticipated achievements of the initial uprising, namely the reclamation of over 250,000 hectares of land and the silent formation of 38 autonomous municipalities. K\nde ta vuone Yeu can vetum T he 1F)) ) (oeford I pay t ina /g:;& W Kuzlejal ta ehye Wu 'm‘;i,m (Fhe like) «m “(comes) naxs——NOW— —taa, Goefore iow) (after W) When we recognize their path as an infinitely adaptable continuum, it becomes unnecessary to judge the failure or success of each individual step and we can instead appreciate the application of lessons from the past for the movement of the present and future. Hufoart @onjé oS pelentilly Guid) "mdmwmg is in our haarts) - Eoma, wumben. of the outenomaus- Council, autionomous, MunCIpality. Ricardo Heres Magen, Crracef TIL Lo Garucha In Bats'’ Kop the heart is the origin of everything. Instead of esking 'how are you? and receiving a superficial response, it is common in Tsotsil and Tzeltal communities to ask “how is your heart?” ) P When someone asks this, it is understood that their intention comes from their heart, meaning that it 35 completely genuine, and the Tesponse, in kind, mustcome from the heart. When asked how your heart is in Bats's’ kop, you can not lie. Tun Kot (23 jun Koo O o Y fjwn Koon] N [chiat Koon] e SRS Umg sty If you respond T count my heart), then the person who asked you the question helps you to identify the pieces and gathers the community to resolve the issue, making the heart whole again. The state of the heart is not individual, but collective. It s not normal to respond ‘Jun k'o'on' when others in the community are having problems, even if they do not impact you personally. e o o Other terms and phrases that demonstrate the linguistic centrality of the heart (o'on)- (with Commentary from Juasa) O'oinel~ the heart in verb form, corazonar, to heart. This means to give heart (to work, life, any activity), to do something with the entire heart.| o'oinel to dmted- ts wok wWith haart n‘Efl%" tn%l Twerk Smuk'ul ko'ontik: means “we have hope,” but it literally translates as our heart (ko'ontik) is big (k) ) Sruk'ul Ke'ontik & S Toj bik'it yo'on: he/she has a small heart %%fi* & porsen with aw impatisnt persealiyy Toj pukuj yo'on: he/she has a heart of a bad spirit j pusg 4 bad persen, o diceptive person, A0l P g, e e genbrmtmigint Ch'ayel ta o'onils to forget. his always contains the ‘tae’omil’ becau B 1 Srgebting alrags happeas in thic hasat Aiel: listen, understand, feel because ews must understand i oot tesimi0d o i e heart #ta-in of, for Iy 0 collective ust.. - Dytan 4 person possessive for words L1 of these phenomena, or ‘thoughts/feelings’ as they are understood in Bats'i’ k'op, emanate from the inherent potentiality of the heart known as ‘ch'ulel’ Often translated as ‘soul’ or ‘spirit) ch'ulel is the sacred potentiality that resides in each of our hearts. - That whith all wirting beings shae is” Chwiel . From this unblersbmting of the Chulel in everything, the Tue Ml ewng estaglishus Aedations- with a1l that_exists, i cther wo- roa, the hUNan peing (ntemcts with thir envirinatt sne Hhe pAvirenment QNA The ruxour D2, 0F HEREL l( 0PaJ: uum« c:i P IT M xkeiot, &)77/&0 et could I listen 4o gou? GEonors fo SOt LG B (i verb
    NA r‘\mk wm\« TAX when my heart finishes LAIO o+t + infinitive ex Laj Koon ta a/miel, taxi atl ta b %8R, % SR k) e i \’_/Gaftzr work, we'll ge to our community. - X’ kit an . B: B [2chan xohihk joujietik. Q’x,j (commard) ) Yes you can. Come Lo with US| A: Kolayal hani ol more sample Sentences try Copying them out and translating them yowrself using he vocap List/notes. nysi i i ! ejal i L oy ol R fprare wWhatdo yeu want ¢o do in yeur lLives? #When yeu have two consecutive Verbs in a sentcnce, ot must be conjugated (chakanik. chapasik) iR i 5pifil Kk’ P o to] Kan wichan Jpll Wuchaal bats: inil il j il Xchiuk 2 tajts e 1 T want to Leam wisdom Like the traqitional elders From across the world and leant. how to continue the struggle ¢ jva’e xchi) 80 Kan &2 @ian katkalal xonfux. T accomgasny. i Fhas enta tai dowutic ol A sionta” e el oplpat BT want % bt Family and learn how to accompany. my- Compunity. in the stniggle to change the world. . these phrases ave way WSS cheesy in bats' Kop, I swear| 3 ichi‘in 4 1K fjoan Kk taichiin Jluma), 12 ps . CU'-to be sble to intransitives: mixw verb + 3 +noun. ex: oo uflK mi > verb ta.. /! Xi K0poj Kutik td s pask/op Ispatisa sl = “ipesll could we 1Bl bout the Zapatista struggle? (8L nouns must include the velationship. T this case, T was speaking to a Zapatista, so T used He third pexson singular form to express her relationship o the struggle Bpaskiop) which can be translated as ‘yeur struggee) transitives: mi xu <~>vefim noun~ta.. o KUtk mi xw <§B>verb