Subcomandante Marcos | |
|---|---|
 Marcos, smoking a pipe atop a horse in Chiapas, Mexico in 1996. | |
| Born | (1957-06-19)19 June 1957 (age 68) Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico |
| Other names |
|
| Education | Instituto Cultural Tampico |
| Alma mater | National Autonomous University of Mexico (BA,MA) |
| Occupations | |
| Movement | Neozapatismo |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Zapatista Municipalities |
| Branch | EZLN |
| Years of service | 1994–2014 |
| Rank | Capitán Subcommander (formerly) |
| Battles / wars | Chiapas conflict • Zapatista uprising |
| Website | Official website |
Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born 19 June 1957)[1] is a Mexican insurgent, the former military leader and spokesman for theZapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the ongoingChiapas conflict,[2] and a prominentanti-capitalist and anti-neoliberal.[3] Widely known by his initialnom de guerreSubcomandante Insurgente Marcos (frequently shortened to simplySubcomandante Marcos), he has subsequently employed several other pseudonyms: he called himselfDelegate Zero during theOther Campaign (2006–2007),Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano (again, frequently with the "Insurgente" omitted) from May 2014 to October 2023, which he adopted in honor of his fallen comrade Jose Luis Solis Lopez, his nom de guerre being Galeano, aka "Teacher Galeano."[4] and since October 2023,Capitán Insurgente Marcos.[5] Marcos bears the title and rank of Capitán (or "Captain" in English), and before that Subcomandante, (or "Subcommander" in English), as opposed to Comandante (or "Commander" inEnglish), because he is under the command of the indigenous commanders who constitute the EZLN'sClandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee's General Command (CCRI-CG in Spanish).
Born inTampico,Tamaulipas, Marcos earned a degree from theFaculty of Philosophy and Literature at theNational Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM),[6] and taught at theAutonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) for several years during the early 1980s.[1] During this time he became increasingly involved with a guerrilla group known as theNational Liberation Forces (FLN), before leaving the university and moving to Chiapas in 1984.[1]
The Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) (Zapatista Army of National Liberation; often simply called the Zapatistas) was the local Chiapas wing of FLN, founded in theLacandon Jungle in 1983, initially functioning as a self-defense unit dedicated to protecting Chiapas'Mayan people from evictions and encroachment on their land. While not Mayan himself, Marcos emerged as the group's military leader, and when the EZLN, acting independently of the FLN, began its rebellion on 1 January 1994, he served as its spokesman.[2]
Known for his trademark ski mask and pipe and for his charismatic personality, Marcos coordinated the EZLN's 1994 uprising, headed up the subsequent peace negotiations, and played a prominent role throughout the Zapatistas' struggle in the following decades. After the ceasefire the government declared on day 12 of the revolt, the Zapatistas transitioned from revolutionary guerrillas to an armed social movement, with Marcos's role transitioning from military strategist to public relations strategist. He became the Zapatistas' spokesperson and interface with the public, penning communiqués, holding press conferences, hosting gatherings, granting interviews, delivering speeches, devising plebiscites, organizing marches, orchestrating campaigns, and twice touring Mexico, all to attract national and international media attention and public support for the Zapatistas.[7]
In 2001, he headed a delegation of Zapatista commanders to Mexico City to deliver their message on promoting indigenous rights before the Mexican Congress, attracting widespread public and media attention. In 2006, Marcos made another public tour of Mexico, which was known asThe Other Campaign. In May 2014, Marcos stated that thepersona of Subcomandante Marcos had been "a hologram" and no longer existed.[8] Many media outlets interpreted the message as Marcos retiring as the Zapatistas' military leader and spokesman.[9]
Marcos is a prolific writer whose considerable literary talents have been widely acknowledged by prominent writers and intellectuals,[10] with hundreds of communiqués and several books being attributed to him. Most of his writings areanti-capitalist while advocating for indigenous people's rights, but he has also written poetry, children's stories, and folktales and co-authored a crime novel.[10] He has been hailed byRégis Debray as "the best Latin American writer today." Published translations of his writings exist in at least 14 languages.[11]
Guillén was born on June 19, 1957, in Tampico, Tamaulipas, to Alfonso Guillén and Maria del Socorro Vicente.[12] He was the fourth of eight children.[1] A former elementary school teacher,[6] Alfonso owned a local chain of furniture stores, and the family is usually described as middle-class.[13][12] In a 2001 interview withGabriel García Márquez and Roberto Pombo, Guillén described his upbringing as middle class and "without financial difficulties," and said his parents fostered a love for language and reading in their children.[14] While still "very young", Guillén came to know of and admireChe Guevara[15]—an admiration that would persist throughout his adulthood.[16]
Guillén attended high school at theInstituto Cultural Tampico, aJesuit school inTampico.[17][18] He studied at theNational Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) during a time when theMarxism ofLouis Althusser was popular, which is reflected in Guillén's thesis.[19] He began teaching at theAutonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) while finishing his dissertation at the UNAM, and somewhere during this time was introduced to theForces of National Liberation (FLN).[20] Several key members of the FLN's Chiapas arm, which later became the EZLN, were employed at the UAM.[21]
In 1984, he abandoned his academic career in the capital and left for the mountains ofChiapas to convince the poor, indigenousMayan population to organize and launch aproletarian revolution against the Mexicanbourgeoisie and the federal government.[22] After hearing his proposition, the Chiapanecans "just stared at him," and replied that they were noturban workers, and that from their perspective the land was not property, but the heart of the community.[22]
Debate exists as to whether Marcos visited Nicaragua in the years soon following the Sandinista Revolution that took place there in 1979, and, if he did, how many times and in what capacity. He is rumored to have done so, although no official documents (for example, immigration records) have been discovered to attest to this. Nick Henck argues that Guillén "may have journeyed" to Nicaragua, although to him the evidence appears "circumstantial."[20]
Guillén's sisterMercedes Guillén Vicente was the Attorney General of the State of Tamaulipas from 2005 to 2006,[23] and an influential member of theInstitutional Revolutionary Party.[24][25][26][6]
Marcos made his debut on 1 January 1994, the first day of the1994 Zapatista uprisings.[27] According to Marcos, his first encounter with the public and the press, occurred by accident, or at least was not premeditated. Initially, his role was to have been to secure the police headquarters inSan Cristóbal de las Casas. However, with the wounding of a subordinate, whose duty it was to transport the weapons just captured from the police station to the central town square where most of the Zapatista troops were amassed, Marcos took his place and headed there instead. As a group of foreign tourists formed around Marcos, the only English-speaking Zapatista at hand, others, including members of the press, joined the throng. Marcos spent from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., intermittently interacting with tourists, townsfolk, and reporters, and gave four interviews.[28]
From this initial spark, Marcos's fame rapidly gained attention across various outlets. As Henck notes: "The first three months of 1994 ... saw the Subcomandante ... giving 24 interviews (i.e. an average of two a week); and participating in ten days of peace negotiations with the government, during which he also held nine press conferences reporting on the progress being made ..."[29]
In the coming months Marcos would be interviewed byEd Bradley for60 MinutesSubcomandante Marcos, CBS News 60 Minutes be featured inVanity FairMexico's Poet Rebel. He would also devise, convoke and host of the August 1994 National Democratic Convention that brought together 6000 members of civil society to discuss how to organize peaceful struggle that aimed to make Mexico freer, more just and more democratic.[30]
In early 1995, while the Secretary of InteriorEsteban Moctezuma was, in good faith, reaching out to Marcos and the Zapatistas to arrange talks aimed at bringing peace to Chiapas, Mexico's Attorney General's Office (PGR [es]) learned of the true identity of Subcomandante Marcos from a former-subcommander-turned-traitor Subcomandante Daniel (alias Salvador Morales Garibay).[31]
On 9 February 1995, PresidentErnesto Zedillo, armed with this recently acquired information, publicly announced that Subcomandante Marcos had been identified as Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, and immediately ordered the Mexican military to go on the offensive and capture or annihilate Marcos and theZapatistas.[32] Arrest warrants were issued for Marcos,[33] as well as other key figures in the FLN and EZLN, and Zapatista territory in theLacandon Jungle was invaded by theMexican Army.
This sudden betrayal of both the truce proclaimed by PresidentCarlos Salinas a year previously and the secret peace negotiations being undertaken by Secretary of InteriorEsteban Moctezuma, provoked responses from several protagonists that, combined, forcedZedillo to promptly call off the military offensive:
First,Moctezuma tendered his resignation to Zedillo, who refused it and askedMoctezuma to try to restore conditions that would allow for dialogue and negotiation.[34]
Second, civil society rallied to Marcos' and the Zapatistas' defense, organizing three massive demonstrations in Mexico City in one week. One of these rallies was attended by 100,000 people, some of whom chanted "We Are All Marcos" as they marched.[35]
Third, Marcos himself capitalized on this sudden, hostile action, issuing some eloquent communiqués in which he lambasted the government's treachery, or at least duplicity, and portrayed himself as self-effacing mock heroic guerrilla.[36] Marcos would later tell an interviewer: "It's after the betrayal of '95 that people remember us: Then the [Zapatista] movement took off".[37]
Finally, it promptedMax Appedole, Rafael Guillén's childhood friend and fellow student at theInstituto Cultural Tampico, to approachEdén Pastora, the legendary Nicaraguan "Commander Zero", to help in preparing a report for Under-Secretary of the InteriorLuis Maldonado Venegas, SecretaryMoctezuma, and PresidentZedillo, emphasizing Marcos's pacifist disposition and the unintended, detrimental consequences of a military solution to the Zapatista crisis.[38] The document concluded that the complaints of marginalized groups and the radical left in México had been vented through the Zapatistas movement, while Marcos remained open to negotiation. If Marcos were eliminated, his function as a safety-valve for social discontent would cease and more-radical groups could take his place. These groups would respond to violence with violence, threatening terrorist bombings, kidnappings and even more belligerent activities, and so the country would then be plunged into a very dangerous downward spiral, with discontent surfacing in areas other than Chiapas.[39]
As a result, on 10 March 1995Zedillo andMoctezuma signed into Chiapas Law the "Presidential Decree for the Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace with Dignity", which was subsequently debated and approved by the Mexican Congress.[40] Meanwhile,Moctezuma sentMaldonado to enter into direct peace negotiations with the Zapatistas on behalf of the Zedillo government, and these talks took place commencing April 3.[41]
By 9 April 1995, the basis for the Dialogue Protocol and the "Harmony, Peace with Justice and Dignity Agreement" negotiated between the Mexican government and the Zapatistas was signed. On 17 April, the Mexican government appointedMarco Antonio Bernal as Peace Commissioner in Chiapas, and peace talks began in San Andrés Larráinzar on 22 April.[42]
Marcos's communiqués, in which he outlines his political and philosophical views, number in the hundreds. These writings, as well as his essays, stories and interviews, have been translated into numerous languages and published in dozens of edited collections and other compilations.[11] Of Marcos's writings, Jorge Alonso claims, "With over 10,000 citations, he has also made a dent in the academic world. Marcos' writings, as well as books based on him, have been referenced by a large number of researchers from different countries and in several languages."[43]
Much has been written about Marcos's literary style, in particular its poetic nature and his use of humor, especially irony.[44]
Marcos's writings are notable not only for their literary and philosophical depth but also for their use of mythopoetic narratives as a tool fordecolonial critique and Indigenousepistemology. Through these narratives, Marcos reimagines revolutionary discourse by incorporating elements of Mesoamerican philosophy, such as cyclical conceptions of time and interconnectedness between humanity and nature. For instance, the concept of "Votán-Zapata," a fusion of the Mayan deityVotán and the revolutionaryEmiliano Zapata, symbolizes the blending of Indigenous and revolutionary traditions to challenge colonial narratives and articulate an alternative vision of autonomy and justice.[45]
La Historia de los Colores (The Story of Colors) is on the surface a children's story, and is one of Marcos's most-read books. Based on aMayancreation myth, it teaches tolerance and respect fordiversity.[46] The book's English translation was to be published with support from the U.S.National Endowment for the Arts, but in 1999 the grant was abruptly canceled after a reporter brought the book's content and authorship to NEA chairmanWilliam J. Ivey's attention.[47][48] TheLannan Foundation stepped in and provided support after the NEA withdrew.[49] The book ended up winning twoFirecracker Alternative Book Awards.[50]
In 2005, Marcos wrote thedetective storyThe Uncomfortable Dead with thewhodunit writerPaco Ignacio Taibo II. Thiscrime novel bears "a pro-ecology, pro-democracy, anti-discriminatory (racial, gender, and sexual orientation), anti-neoliberal globalization, and anti-capitalist" message.[51]
Some of Marcos's works that best articulate his political philosophy include "The Fourth World War Has Begun" (1997), alternatively titled "Seven Loose Pieces of The Global Jigsaw Puzzle";[52] "The Fourth World War" (1999);[53] TheSixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle (2005); the four-part "Zapatistas and the Other: The Pedestrians of History" (2006);[54][55][56] and Marcos's presentations inCritical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra[57] andThe Zapatistas' Dignified Rage: Final Public Speeches of Subcommander Marcos.[58]
Marcos's literary output serves a political purpose, and even performs a combative function, as suggested in a 2002 book titledOur Word is Our Weapon, a compilation of his articles, poems, speeches, and letters.[59]
Marcos's views on Latin American leaders who formed the continent'sPink Tide are complex. For example, in interviews he gave in 2007 he signaled his approval of Bolivian presidentEvo Morales, but expressed mixed feelings towardHugo Chavez ofVenezuela, whom he labels "disconcerting" and views as too militant, but nonetheless responsible for vast revolutionary changes in Venezuela. He also called Brazil's current presidentLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva andNicaragua's current presidentDaniel Ortega, whom he once served under while a member of the Sandinistas, traitors who have betrayed their original ideals.[60][61]
In another interview, given toJesús Quintero the previous year, however, when asked what he thought about the "pre-revolutionary situation" then existing in Latin America, and specifically about "Evo Morales. Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, etcetera", Marcos replied:
We are interested in those of below, not in the governments, nor inChavez, nor inKirchner, nor inTabaré, nor inEvo, nor inCastro. We are interested in the processes which are taking place among the people, among the peoples of Latin America, and especially, out of natural sympathy, we are interested when these movements are led by Indian peoples, as is the case inBolivia and inEcuador…We say: "Governments come and go, the people remain"…Chavez will last for a time,Evo Morales will last for a time,Castro will last for a time, but the peoples, the Cuban people, the Bolivian people, the Argentine, the Uruguayan, will go on for a much longer time…[62]
This emphasis on bottom-up (as opposed to top-down) politics, and concentrating on the people over leaders, is related to Marcos's stance on revolution and revolutionaries. In the interview withQuintero mentioned above, when asked what it means to be a contemporary revolutionary, Marcos responded that he believes that society and the world must be transformed from below. He also notes that we have to transform ourselves in personal relations, culture, art, and communication.[63] These beliefs have led Marcos to reject the label "revolutionary," preferring instead to self-identify as a "rebel." He characterizes revolutionaries as those desiring to transform things from above, whereas rebels focus on organizing to transform the world without seizing power.[64]
Elsewhere, in a communiqué, Marcos elaborates on what distinguishes a revolutionary from a rebel, noting how revolutionaries seize power and hold on to it until history repeats itself and another revolutionary takes power. He contrasts this with how rebels analyse and deconstruct power.[65] Despite his preference for rebels over revolutionaries, Marcos has nevertheless expressed admiration for bothFidel Castro andChe Guevara.[60]
Marcos's popularity was at its height during the first seven years of the Zapatista uprising, Acult of personality developed around the Subcomandante based on the romantic premise of a rebel confronting the powerful in defense of society's underdogs, and an accompanying copious press coverage, sometimes called "Marcos-mania".[66] As a guest on60 Minutes in March 1994, Marcos was depicted as a contemporaryRobin Hood.[67]
That initial period, 1994–2001, saw reporters from all over the world coming to interview Marcos and do features on him. He was also courted by numerous famous figures and literati (e.g.Oliver Stone,Naomi Klein,Danielle Mitterrand, Regis Debray,Manuel Vázquez Montalbán,Juan Gelman,Gabriel García Márquez,José Saramago), and engaged in exchanges of letters with eminent intellectuals and writers (e.g.John Berger,Carlos Fuentes,Eduardo Galeano). Zapatista events Marcos presided over were attended by people from all over the world by the thousands, including media organizations, and he appeared on the front pages of innumerable magazines, and on the covers of many books and DVDs.
When, in February 1995, the Mexican government revealed Marcos's true identity and issued an arrest warrant for him, thousands marched through the streets of Mexico City chanting "We are all Marcos."[68]
The following year (1996), saw a surge in the Subcommander's popularity and exposure in the media. He was visited byOliver Stone,Danielle Mitterrand andRégis DebrayAP, and he acted as host at the Intercontinental Encuentro For Humanity and Against Neoliberalism, which drew around 5,000 participants from 50 countries, including documentary makers, academics and reporters, some of whom published the interviews that Marcos granted them on the event's sidelines.[69]
The Subcommander also proved popular with certain musicians and bands. For example,Rage Against the Machine, the Mexican rock bandTijuana No!, Mexican singer-songwriterÓscar Chávez and French Basque singer-songwriterManu Chao expressed their support for Marcos, and in some cases incorporated recordings of his speeches into their songs or concerts. His face appears on the cover ofThievery Corporation's album,Radio Retaliation.
Marcos experienced a general uptick in popularity in 2006 when he toured Mexico on theOther Campaign. On this 3,000-kilometre (1,900 mi) trek to the capital he was welcomed by "huge adoring crowds, chanting and whistling", while "Marcos handcrafted dolls, and his ski mask-clad face adorns T-shirts, posters and badges."[70]
By 2011, Mexican historianEnrique Krauze wrote that "Marcos [has] remained popular among young Mexicans, but as a celebrity, not as a role model".[71]
In May 2014, Marcos gave a speech in front of several thousand onlookers as well as independent media organizations in which, among other things, he explained that because back in 1994 "those outside [the movement] did not see us…the character named 'Marcos' started to be constructed", but that there came a point when "Marcos went from being a spokesperson to being a distractor", and so, convinced that "Marcos, the character, was no longer necessary", the Zapatistas chose to "destroy it".[72]
Marcos has been compared to popular figures such as England's folklore heroRobin Hood, Mexican revolutionaryEmiliano Zapata, Argentine guerrillaChe Guevara, India's pacifist independence leaderMahatma Gandhi, South African anti-apartheid iconNelson Mandela, and U.S. presidentJohn F. Kennedy in the 1960s, on account of his "popularity in virtually all sectors of Mexican society."[73]
Marcos is often credited with putting Mexico's indigenous population's poverty in the spotlight, both locally and internationally.[70] Marcos has continued to attract media attention, and to be seen both in the company of celebrities and as a celebrity himself. For example, he was photographed alongside Mexican actorsGael García Bernal andIlse Salas in November 2018,[74] andDiego Luna in December 2019.[75]
For a list of Marcos' own works in the Spanish original, as well as those translated into English and more than a dozen other languages, plus all those interviews given by Marcos that were either conducted in English or subsequently translated into English, seeBibliography of Subcomandante Marcos.
