Araceli and I ventured into rebel territory. A few meters before arriving at our destination we observed a great sign that read “Municipio Autonomo Prohibido El Paso,” which meant Autonomous Municipality Access Prohibited.

We got out of the car and walked toward a great iron gate that stopped us. Thus, we were forced to find the person running a small grocery store adjacent to the iron gate.

The store clerk received us amiably. However, he did ask us for an identification card and the reason why we whished to speak to the Zapatistas.

We responded by letting him know we wanted to conduct an interview to learn first hand what Zapatismo was. He let us in the store and asked us to wait while he asked if we could be received by the Zapatistas.

We waited at a table in the store. We were surrounded by Zapatista propaganda and a few other visitors that remained rather hermetic.

After about 15 minutes, a masked person entered the store and approached us to let us know we could enter the Zapatista community.

We followed the masked man to a comfortable place under some trees, where we sat on bench that faced another bench occupied by four masked Zapatistas (three men and a woman). We introduced ourselves and a courteous dialogue began.

What is your function here?

We are the commission that receives the visitors that, by the way, are many and primarily European. When they don’t bring a translator they leave, but when we are able to communicate we realize that the Europeans are very interested in us.

What is Zapatismo?

The name surges from Emiliano Zapata who was a fighter that searched for justice, land and liberty. We fight for the same things with our main goal being the fight against the government that does not acknowledge us. We are a victim of their injustices and repression.

We have worked for over 30 years in an underground form. It was not until Jan. 1, 1994 that Zapatismo emerges on a worldwide stage. Mexico and the rest of the world witnessed in wonderment how these men and women came out of the jungle to occupy towns and cities in the state of Chiapas.

How are you organized presently?

Now we have let down our arms. Our fight now is a political one. We have created the autonomous municipalities, which is an expression of our desire to not receive and in fact we don’t receive any kind of government aid.

This is to our advantage because in this way we don’t receive any mistreatment or persecutions as we used to.

How do you survive economically?

Many of us work individually by traveling to cities to work. Others work collectively by farming the land, which is so tired. We can hardly get anything from it. The foreigners have helped to train us to use organic fertilizer on our land. The women help by weaving clothes that they later sell.

Who is your maximum authority?

We have formed a democratically-elected council; however, the decisions are made by everyone. Before any decision is finalized everyone must give his or her consent. We also have our Meetings of Good Government where we deal mostly with local problems and the problems of being a Zapatista. The important thing is that everyone can participate and that the decisions are taken collectively.

Why do you cover your faces?

It is a symbol of our struggle, but we also do it for our own safety.

How does the woman participate in the Zapatista movement? (This question was asked directly to the woman that was a part of the commission that receives visitors. However, after a long silence, one the males was forced to answer.)

The woman does not participate as she should. She has always stayed on the margin. For many years she did not have a voice and did not participate in the decision making process, but now we think that the situation of woman and man is of equality and we hope that the women will soon participate in the Meetings of Good Government.

By whom are the meetings of good government formed?

They are formed by 14 persons, two of each autonomous municipality. They are elected by the people, and here no money is spent to win the power like in the political campaigns. Here the people give the power to whomever they think is the best man. Here, nobody asks for the power. They receive the power from the people.

How do you solve your health problems?

We’ve always had very poor healthcare attention on the part of the government. But, here in the autonomous municipality we have a clinic. We are always in need of medicine, but there is always a medic who attends to us.

Do you think when the San Andres agreements are accepted your relationship with the government will improve?

We don’t know. We don’t believe in the government. We can’t be sure that a kilo of what they promise will be fulfilled.

When the San Andres Agreements where signed, the government named a commission to represent them in the tables of dialogue. After a long time the agreements were accepted by both parties, and everybody was confident that these would help us. However, the agreements that the government representative signed were not accepted. How are we going to believe in them? Like we’ve told you our fight is now political. We want to avoid an armed struggle. Now our interest is in advancing our political struggle.

We elect our own authorities, we recruit people, and we train people. We give a lot of importance to the education and health of our people. The war is now economic. For example, we don’t have money for the pesticides for our crops, but we are learning to use organic fertilizers. Education for us is extremely important. We explain to our kids their future and the revolutionary struggle. We have an autonomous rebel school. This year the first generation of our high school is graduating. We are also starting an autonomous junior high school.

How does your authority work?

The decisions are made with everyone’s participation. They are consulted. They are discussed peacefully and respectfully. We understand that it should be done this way.

These 10 years of fighting have seen a lot of changes. Some of our brothers leave us and others join us, but we know that the majority of the Mexicans, and a lot of foreigners support us because our demands are just.