YOU ARE VILLISTAS!
EspañolWe of the CCDN/FVLN can hardly presume to welcome you to the struggle: you are each ardent fighters for liberty, justice, democracy, and human rights wherever you are.
What we can do is introduce you to us, and, more importantly, to each other.
We are Villistas: that is to say, Zapatistas at heart, but situated in the very different context of the Mexican Northwest. Instead of Guatemala and Belize for neighbours, we have the United States of America. Instead of being indigenous to land that once was part of Guatemala, we are inhabitants of lands, some of which were seized by the USA. Some of us are indigenous; some of us are of Mexican or other Latin American descent; and others, organised into the “St. Patrick’s International Brigade,” have joined the struggle for liberty, justice, democracy, and human rights, that is our common struggle in the Mexican Northwest, which is, in many instances, our common home. Yet others of us formed “Division Europa” to promulgate our word and our struggle in the European Union.
Like a cake with many layers, our struggle exists on many levels.
The struggle of the indigenous is at the most basic level: for life, and for land. In the State of Arizona, the Dineh struggle against those who would pillage their sacred land, Big Mountain, abetted by corrupt “tribal” governments. In the State of Chihuahua, Sierra Tarahumara, the Raramuri, Odame, Vajorios, Pima Bajos, and Apaches struggle against those who would remove them, their forests, and their minerals from their land, and would replace the forests with drug plantations. In Sonora, the Yaqui and Mayo struggle against neoliberal schemes to divest them of their ejidos, similar to what is troubling the ejidos of Las Lagunas, and indeed, the entire Mexican Republic. Never mind that the Dineh, Hopi, Apache, Pima, Papago, Raramuri, Odame, Yaqui, Mayo, and other indigenous nations existed long before the States of Arizona, Chihuahua, or Sonora! The young Mexican Republic fell to corrupt and dissolute governments, which failed to represent or defend Mexicans, with the result, that the indigenous of the Northwest must now deal with two national governments, as well as with several state governments, all of which presume to have jurisdiction over their nations. Like the United States of America, or the United Mexican States, the indigenous nations now find that they must unite to oppose the power of money, which has no nation, no allegiance, save to itself. To the indigenous nations of the Mexican Northwest, and throughout the Americas, we say: YOU ARE VILLISTAS!
The struggle of Mexicans, who find themselves confronting the imposed border, presents another layer. In the Mexican Republic, they constantly struggle against a government completely subservient to the power of money; much the same can be said in the USA, with the additional burden of being a “national minority” in their own land (never mind that they will soon be the majority there!) The imposed border separates them like a snake, and the bizarre hysteria of “anti-immigrants” has reached a lethal level, particularly in the vicinity of Douglas, Arizona. This snake lies in wait between Big Mountain and the Sierra Tarahumara: what would be more fitting than for the indigenous eagles of these mountains to deal with this snake in the traditional way? To Mexicans on both sides of the border, we say: YOU ARE VILLISTAS!
The power of money doesn’t stop at imposing itself upon the indigenous or upon Mexicans: it sinks its fangs into everyone who isn’t a part of it. We see this layer of struggle manifested most graphically in the grocers' strike and lockout, in which grocery workers defend their right to decent, affordable health care against corporations that have cast aside their competition to wage war upon their employees. To Camarada Isabel, the other grocery strikers, and others who find themselves in similar situations, we say: YOU ARE VILLISTAS!
Our question is therefore: what will be the Villista way forward? From the Dineh resistance to the Sierra Madre Alliance to the grocery strikers, we struggle peacefully against the power of money. Comrade Leyev, Civilian Liaison to the St. Patrick’s International Brigade, and Camarada Xochipilli of Division Europa have worked tirelessly to reach out beyond our base communities. Will the power of money respond with violence? Will they declare us “a threat to homeland security?” To us, the power of money is the real threat to the security of our homeland, and, if the power of money chooses to unleash the power of terror against us, we will be ready to respond via the Clandestine Command “Division of the North.” This was why we formed the CCDN, in the hope it would never have to take actions: this is why we seek recruits, in case our hope for peace is disappointed. We of the CCDN respect and admire those of you Villistas who are committed to peaceful struggle, and hope that the power of money doesn’t respond to your struggle with the power of terror. If you feel that you should prepare for that possibility, we offer integration into the CCDN as a way to prepare to defend yourselves and your communities against terrorism unleashed on behalf of the power of money. We hope that we Villistas who anticipate the need for the CCDN are wrong, and that you Villistas who struggle peacefully are right.
Liberty! Justice! Democracy! Human Rights!From the Mexican Northwest, Insurgent Subcommander Angeles, Branch of Liaison, Communications, and Investigations, Clandestine Command "Division of the North" (Villista National Liberation Front).
Editorial P.S.: We are soliciting articles for our new online periodical "La Flecha" (The Arrow).
© 1997 villista@iname.com