The Uprising

The 1994 Uprising

Activity 1:

Read “Chiapas: The Southeast in Two Winds” (Ch 1-2) and then individuals answer the following two questions.

Questions: 

1. What are the forces represented by the “The Wind from Above” and the “The Wind from Below”? (You can use a T chart to organize your response)

2. How does each force operate? What gives strength to each? Who supports each?

As a groups students will respond to the following questions:

1. What social, political and economic demands were made by the EZLN in 1994?

2. What conditions led to those demands?

3. Why did the emergence of the Zapatista movement coincide with the implementation of NAFTA? 

Activity 2:

Image Analysis: 

Students should read pages 31-33 in Caught Between Two Worlds: Mexico at the Crossroads. Then students should analyze two examples of Zapatista art and answer the following questions:

1. What vision of a future world is illustrated in these paintings?

2. Why do you thing the Zapatista rebellion spread in Mexico?

3. How might this movement be appealing to international communities?

Activity 3:

Read Excerpt from the Letter of Subcomandante Marcos in 1995 after the uprising

Questions: 

1. Who is fighting?

2. What are they resisting?

3. On what grounds are they fighting?

4. What are the particular struggles enumerated?

Optional Readings:

1. First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle

2. The Southeast in Two Winds A Storm and a Prophecy

3. Sixth Declaration