Post by blackcrowheart on Oct 24, 2005 9:31:58 GMT -5
by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today
Chiapas Media Project unites the oppressed
RAPID CITY, S.D. - The Zapatistas have gone from warriors with guns to warriors with cameras and computers in a new chapter of resistance against an oppressive government.
Autonomy in the indigenous communities in Mexico is the goal - and that goal is moving along, according to Paco Vazquez, member of the newly formed Chiapas Media Project.
Indigenous governments - the ''Councils of Good Government'' or assemblies - are one element in the governance of Chiapas and other communities in Mexico. The object is indigenous justice: sometimes through adaptations of ancient ways, other times adhering to tradition. The movement is growing, Vazquez said.
The movement grew out of need; criminals robbed and looted villages with virtually no opposition or help from the Mexican government, so the people took the matter into their own hands. And as video produced and distributed by the Chiapas Media Project shows, the people have been effective in lowering the violence against them.
The Chiapas Media Project was conceived to support the new resistance. A bi-national partnership that provides video equipment, computers and training, it enables marginalized indigenous communities in southern Mexico to create their own media. Since the project began in 1998, instructors have worked in close harmony with autonomous Zapatista communities.
The videos are used as educational tools as well as deterrents to violence: traditional Zapatista men created a video that teaches about the music of the culture. Another community, Guerrero, developed a video that relates how they stopped government-sanctioned violence with traditional police and laws.
Vazquez came to the northern regions to meet with members of Owe Aku, ''Bring Back the Way,'' on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
''It is important for indigenous people to work together to establish and maintain a collaborative relationship because we share the same living conditions in the Western Hemisphere - extreme poverty, poor health, control by outside regulations/laws, short life-pans, high infant mortality rates, disastrously high suicide rates, homicide rates, and cultural deprivation through the desecration of our sacred sites and treaty rights and the many other social problems associated with living in an oppressed society,'' said Debra White Plume, director of Owe Aku.
The successes of the Chiapas Media Project are being closely watched by American Indian tribes as a possible means of providing education to the American Indian and non-Indian communities, as seen from the inside.
The community of Guerrero was successful in stopping Boise Cascade from uncontrolled logging. An organization named Campesino Environmentalists, formed in 1996, led the attack against the forest product company with help from the Chiapas Media Project. As a result, some of their leaders were jailed and tortured.
The video ''Defending the Forests,'' produced by the media project, played an integral part in the international campaign to free Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia.
''It is used for instruction of the indigenous people. We have the power of the media. We help people have access to cameras to give information on economics and politics,'' Vazquez said. ''The elders teach the young through the media.''
Resistance to the Lakota is no stranger. In 1973 the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee in protest to violence erupting on the Pine Ridge Reservation, violence directed mostly against traditional people.
''Our people have struggled a long time, and over here in South Dakota a lot of people remember Wounded Knee in 1890. A lot of people think after that, our struggle and life ended. Many people said that was the final Indian war,'' said Carter Camp, Southern Ponca and a member of AIM who was at Wounded Knee in 1973.
''When the people of Chiapas rose up in 1994, Indian people in this country felt good: we felt powerful and empowered,'' Camp said.
Not only are allies being made in Chiapas, but in Canada, Peru, Bolivia and Cuba as well, Camp said. He added that almost everywhere, indigenous people are rising up.
The struggles in Chiapas and Guerrero - the second-poorest community in Mexico - are getting gaining public attention through the Chiapas Media Project. American Indian organizations like Owe Aku are looking at the methods used by the project to educate the general public and American Indian communities.
Vazquez said there was very little resistance and no retaliation from the government about the media project. He said if the military or any oppressor comes to the communities, the cameras (which are visible) have acted as a deterrent to violence since 2001.
Mexican President Vicente Fox claimed to bring a solution for Chiapas, Vazquez said, but the government is still trying to divide the communities. The government has also declined to accept the agreement made by the communities to form the Good Government Assembly. Forty-eight communities are involved.
Thus the need for the media project, as the videos instruct the communities about the assemblies.
''To be free and find real liberty and justice will take a lot of time,'' Vazquez said.
Chiapas Media Project unites the oppressed
RAPID CITY, S.D. - The Zapatistas have gone from warriors with guns to warriors with cameras and computers in a new chapter of resistance against an oppressive government.
Autonomy in the indigenous communities in Mexico is the goal - and that goal is moving along, according to Paco Vazquez, member of the newly formed Chiapas Media Project.
Indigenous governments - the ''Councils of Good Government'' or assemblies - are one element in the governance of Chiapas and other communities in Mexico. The object is indigenous justice: sometimes through adaptations of ancient ways, other times adhering to tradition. The movement is growing, Vazquez said.
The movement grew out of need; criminals robbed and looted villages with virtually no opposition or help from the Mexican government, so the people took the matter into their own hands. And as video produced and distributed by the Chiapas Media Project shows, the people have been effective in lowering the violence against them.
The Chiapas Media Project was conceived to support the new resistance. A bi-national partnership that provides video equipment, computers and training, it enables marginalized indigenous communities in southern Mexico to create their own media. Since the project began in 1998, instructors have worked in close harmony with autonomous Zapatista communities.
The videos are used as educational tools as well as deterrents to violence: traditional Zapatista men created a video that teaches about the music of the culture. Another community, Guerrero, developed a video that relates how they stopped government-sanctioned violence with traditional police and laws.
Vazquez came to the northern regions to meet with members of Owe Aku, ''Bring Back the Way,'' on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
''It is important for indigenous people to work together to establish and maintain a collaborative relationship because we share the same living conditions in the Western Hemisphere - extreme poverty, poor health, control by outside regulations/laws, short life-pans, high infant mortality rates, disastrously high suicide rates, homicide rates, and cultural deprivation through the desecration of our sacred sites and treaty rights and the many other social problems associated with living in an oppressed society,'' said Debra White Plume, director of Owe Aku.
The successes of the Chiapas Media Project are being closely watched by American Indian tribes as a possible means of providing education to the American Indian and non-Indian communities, as seen from the inside.
The community of Guerrero was successful in stopping Boise Cascade from uncontrolled logging. An organization named Campesino Environmentalists, formed in 1996, led the attack against the forest product company with help from the Chiapas Media Project. As a result, some of their leaders were jailed and tortured.
The video ''Defending the Forests,'' produced by the media project, played an integral part in the international campaign to free Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia.
''It is used for instruction of the indigenous people. We have the power of the media. We help people have access to cameras to give information on economics and politics,'' Vazquez said. ''The elders teach the young through the media.''
Resistance to the Lakota is no stranger. In 1973 the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee in protest to violence erupting on the Pine Ridge Reservation, violence directed mostly against traditional people.
''Our people have struggled a long time, and over here in South Dakota a lot of people remember Wounded Knee in 1890. A lot of people think after that, our struggle and life ended. Many people said that was the final Indian war,'' said Carter Camp, Southern Ponca and a member of AIM who was at Wounded Knee in 1973.
''When the people of Chiapas rose up in 1994, Indian people in this country felt good: we felt powerful and empowered,'' Camp said.
Not only are allies being made in Chiapas, but in Canada, Peru, Bolivia and Cuba as well, Camp said. He added that almost everywhere, indigenous people are rising up.
The struggles in Chiapas and Guerrero - the second-poorest community in Mexico - are getting gaining public attention through the Chiapas Media Project. American Indian organizations like Owe Aku are looking at the methods used by the project to educate the general public and American Indian communities.
Vazquez said there was very little resistance and no retaliation from the government about the media project. He said if the military or any oppressor comes to the communities, the cameras (which are visible) have acted as a deterrent to violence since 2001.
Mexican President Vicente Fox claimed to bring a solution for Chiapas, Vazquez said, but the government is still trying to divide the communities. The government has also declined to accept the agreement made by the communities to form the Good Government Assembly. Forty-eight communities are involved.
Thus the need for the media project, as the videos instruct the communities about the assemblies.
''To be free and find real liberty and justice will take a lot of time,'' Vazquez said.