This week, people in the state of (Alta) California celebrate the birth of Cesar Chávez, organiser of the UFW (United Farm Workers). For most, his is a story of a peaceful, selfless, dedicated fighter for the rights of those who harvest the crops of the land.
His struggle was certainly about that, but, for us, it’s important to remember the struggle of which his was only one episode: the land struggle.
His struggle began long before he was born, with the various indigenous nations battling for survival, and continued with the struggle of the people of the land in their calpullis and ejidos against the imperial governments, first of the Aztecs, then of Spain, which first alienated them from their lands.
His struggle continued within the new Mexican Republic, cumulating in the Mexican Revolution, which began on the Centennial of Mexican Independence, and which drew revolutionary fighters such as General Francisco “Pancho” Villa to the banner of “Land and Liberty” raised by Emiliano Zapata and embodied in the Plan of Ayala.
His struggle also continued in the territories re-alienated by the United States of America when it stole the northern half of the country.
His part of the struggle was to assert that those had been alienated from the land, yet who still worked it, had a right to earn a decent living for that work. It was a long, hard, risky fight even to establish that seemingly self-evident truth.
His struggle, our struggle, continues. The struggle of Zapata, for Land and Liberty, was carried into the indigenous lands of Chiapas by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. The struggle against the alienation of Mexican and indigenous land from Mexican and indigenous sovereignty, and, indeed, against alienation of all workers from the worth of what they have produced, is the struggle of the Villista Front of National Liberation. The struggle of Cesar Chávez, Emiliano Zapata, and Francisco Villa, our struggle, continues.
Liberty! Justice! Democracy! Human Rights!From the Mexican Northwest, Insurgent Subcommander Angeles, Branch of Liaison, Communications, and Investigations, Clandestine Commando "Division of the North" (Villista National Liberation Front).
© 1997 villista@iname.com
Consiga su propia/Get your own Página Principal Gratis/Free Home Page