By Luis Bahena
City Times

On Nov. 28, City College hosted a guest speaker regarding the Zapatista movement currently going on in Mexico.

Rosario Aguilar was the guest for the Chicano studies community here at City. She’s currently a social anthropology student in the University of Chiapas in Mexico.

She discussed the Zapatista Movement and events that have been going on in the state of Chiapas in Mexico.

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a group based in Chiapas, Mexico. Chiapas is currently one of the poorest states in Mexico. An indigenous state, the movement is considered by many to be a post-modern revolution using modern technologies such as the internet and satellite communications to gain foreign support.

The many injustices that go on in Chiapas are many. Some like their lack of water supply in the state, even though the state itself is one of the providers of Mexico with clean water, is one of the injustices that the movement has been tackling.

In 1994, Zapatista Movement took a stand. “1994 was a ‘this is enough’ to the exploitation and the humiliation of the indigenous” spoke Aguilar.

That was the year that the Zapatista Movement went public, despite the fact that the movement was founded in 1983. In was in the same day that the NAFTA agreement went into effect in Mexico. It was a move to protest the signing of NAFTA, despite the allegations that the movement wanted to overthrow the Mexican government.

“In order to transform the world, we need to work together to make a change. Even though we’re individualist, we are still socializing exploitation.” Spoke Aguilar on the topic of exploitation in Chiapas.