Post ADIaxv2OZ8MsXJaIcK by ramona@todon.eu
(DIR) More posts by ramona@todon.eu
(DIR) Post #ADIaxv2OZ8MsXJaIcK by ramona@todon.eu
2021-11-11T10:57:33Z
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there are many many things I learned from the #EZLN and love them for it, but one of them is just how people can be as real revolutionaries as it gets and still keep a Latinx sense of humour. European activists are so serious all the time. this unexamined assumption that if something is important you have to go to work frowning like a Protestant. #Zapatista comuniqués are hilarious.> A squad of women militas is going with The Improvised [delegation]. Besides being part of our "Word & Listening" groups, they'll handle secuity for the air travelers, and undertake one or more soccer matches with female teams throughout the European geography.> […] The women have spent 3mo lodging in The Seedbed, training, learning, rehearsing, and waiting for the opening of a chance to travel: a place to arrive at, in Europe. All of them are of Mayan heritage and speak Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Cho'ol, Tojolabal and Castillian ["Spanish"]. A few are older than 25, most are between 18 and 21 [plus Defenza, 15, and Esperanza ("Hope"), 12]. Their soccer skills are a State secret, but their will to fight is clear.
(DIR) Post #ADIaxwphtHPI6XfC7M by ramona@todon.eu
2021-11-11T11:13:30Z
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> […] At the women's lodge no adult men could get in without previous permission. If some annoying dude got in, he'd be instantly surrounded by militias and "invited", with the very convincing rational arguments of women's clubs and slingshots, to get out at once.> …The teenage girls came to practice. They couldn't march. As diverse as the languages which root their origins & destinies, their pacing was chaotic, mismatched. We practiced and practiced without improvement. Desperate, I thought maybe we could get their step in rhythm with some music. The tercias were setting the sound system for us, and I asked if they had any songs. "Only cumbias and reggaeton", they said. "Don't you have *anything* other than that", I insisted. "Not at all", laughed them. I asked the militia girls if they had music we could use in their cellphones. Whispers and conspiratory giggles. After a long time: "just cumbias". "Very well", I resigned myself to it, "so which ones do you have? And don't say 'La del moño colorado' or y'all going to die miserably". More laughs and gossip in 4 different Mayan languages.
(DIR) Post #ADIaxyatLKkDZAkOIq by ramona@todon.eu
2021-11-11T11:31:18Z
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> Now they're 18 to 21 and no one forced them to marry, some have fiancés, some don't care, they fall into and out of love, break others' hearts and their own. They know no one can coerce them to anything, and they know how to defend themselves. They were taught the vulnerable points of the men, in case they need physical defense; and also what will break a man's ego, in case they need psychological ones. Don't ask me who taught them such secrets.> I asked if they had fiancés, and most said yes. One said "cheb" ("two"). Another told her something in a low voice and the compañera corrected: "no, ocheb" ("three"). Another: "bayal" ("lots"). Another said she couldn't reply so soon because she lost count. They all laughed heartily.> […] A militia woman steps up to talk in a meeting:>> "I didn't know any of that. I thought it's always been like this, that girls could go to school, have a fiancé without him forcing me to marry, that I could not marry at all, dress how I want, participate, teach, learn. I thought it was always like it is now, that we have rights, not just duties. But now…
(DIR) Post #ADIay0QgWFlhG5zGfg by ramona@todon.eu
2021-11-11T12:04:12Z
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>> "…now I've learned from compañera about life in the time of the plantations, about the cost of preparing to fight. About the cost of war. I learned how autonomy was built. So I figure my role is to get ready to defend what we have, so that the time that is past may never return. I thought this was just how one is born, in freedom. Turns out it's not, turns out that, after all we had to fight, we still have to keep on fighting. There is no rest."[…]> After talking to themselves, they said, "we only have one cumbia, the one for 17 years old". "All of you only have one cumbia and it's the same one?" "Yup, the 17 years one". "Ok then…" […] At the first chords, they raise and cross their batons and, presto, begin marching as one, in perfect step. I asked again about having just a single cumbia. "Yeah", they said, "when we have signal or more compañeras come we'll get more, maybe "How I'm gonna forget you".> …It seems like, when they were 17, this one cumbia was their companion in love and hurt. Now that they're older perhaps they'll dedicate "How I'm gonna forget you" for those same loves.
(DIR) Post #ADIay2G7iUVavv3rUG by ramona@todon.eu
2021-11-11T12:14:04Z
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> The compañeras are taught that no one can touch them without explicit consent. Not holding their hand, not putting a hand on shoulder, nothing. They learn, for example, how to pull apart a male hand on the shoulder if they're not heard. And that goes for their image: no one may take pictures or videos without consent, much less publish them. I showed them the video at the end of this post and asked whether I should publish them or not. They met in caracol in their languages. After discussing, they agreed unanimously to publish it. Avisad@s están (y'all been warned).https://player.vimeo.com/video/599747337(Excerpts from SupGaleano's communiqué "After 17 (The Militia Squad Ixchel-Ramona)", my translation. Mexico, september 2021, year 501 of the Long Night.http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2021/09/08/despues-de-los-17-la-seccion-miliciana-ixchel-ramona/ )