February: Puebla, the second stele (resistance and another church, the errant ones)
23/01/2003
- Opinión
Candle and shadow continue to tremble. Brushing aside the smoke and
the "January" page in the calendar, the hand reveals, contradictory
and luminous, FEBRUARY, and, with it, another gaze, another hand and
another word: PUEBLA. It is February, a month which summons up
history, with all its lights and contradictions. It is Puebla, land
where contradictions presage hope. Puebla. According to the INEGI,
it had more than 5 million inhabitants in the year 2000, among whom
more than half a million over the age of five were indigenous
language speakers. Indigenous Nahuas, Totonacos, Mixtecos, Otomís
and Popolocas are living and resisting in what today are their lands.
It is February and it is Puebla. Above Tehuacán, a little blue
cloud, delicate like a princess, frames, not conceals, the sun. As
if it were her vassal, the little cloud forces the sun to not follow
its stubborn westward route, but instead to fly towards the north
There, in the midst of the Mixtec sierra, looms a hill surrounded by
ravines. Above it, ramparts can be discerned, as if this were a
place prepared to protect resistance. It seems to be Tepexi El
Viejo. The Nahuas called it Cleft Rock, and the Popolocas named it
Small Mountain. Here they rest and frolic while the sun recounts to
the cloud a history which causes her to blush, and teaches her: The
ancient Mixtecos recount that the world was created from the union of
two great trees, in the solitary Apoala, at the foot of a grotto, in
the Achiutl River. Joined at their roots, these two first trees
created the first Mixtec couple, and from the children of their
children was born Yacoñooy, the archer of the sun. These ancients
ones recount that Yacoñooy was a small guerrero, but courageous and
bold, who feared nothing, no matter how large and powerful it might
appear
Because, these indigenous wise men say, stature is carried in the
heart, and it often happens that those who seem small on the outside,
are great in the greatness of their hearts. And those whose
appearance seem strong and powerful, are, in fact, small and weak in
heart. And they also say that the world is large and full of immense
marvels because people small in stature knew how to find the strength
inside themselves to make the earth become large. They then
recounted that time was walking the first months of the calendar of
humanity, and that Yacoñooy left to look for new lands in order to
make them grow through work and the word. He found them, and he saw
that the sun appeared to be the sole and powerful owner of everything
illuminated by its light. At that time, the sun was killing the life
of the different, and it only accepted things that mirrored it and
bore tribute to his grand greatness. And they recount that, upon
seeing this, Yacoñooy challenged the sun, saying: "You, who with your
force dominate these lands, I challenge you in order to see who is
the greatest and who can therefore bring greatness to these lands."
The sun laughed, confident in its power and strength, and he ignored
the small being who, from the ground, was challenging him. Yacoñooy
challenged him anew and said thusly: "The strength of your light does
not frighten me. I have time as a weapon, which is growing in my
heart." And he drew his bow taut, pointing the arrow at the very
center of the arrogant sun. The sun again laughed, and then he
tightened his heat's dazzling belt of fire about the rebel, in order
to thus make the small one even smaller. But Yacoñooy protected
himself with his shield, and thus resisted while the noon gave way to
afternoon. He saw the sun impotent as its strength diminished with
the passing of time, and the small rebel continued there, protected
and resisting behind his shield, waiting for the hour of the bow and
the arrow. Seeing that the sun was weakening with the passage of
time turned dusk, Yacoñooy left his place of refuge and, taking up
the bow, pierced the great sun seven times. As twilight fell, the
entire sky was stained red, and the sun finally fell, mortally
wounded, in the ground of the night. Yacoñooy waited for a time and,
seeing that the night prevented the sun from continuing the combat,
spoke thus: "I have won. I resisted your attack with my shield. I
made time and your arrogance my allies. I conserved my strength for
the necessary moment. I have won. Now the earth shall have the
greatness which our heart sowed in its bosom." And they recount that
on the next day the sun returned, recuperated, in order to try and
reconquer the land. But it was already too late. The people of
Yacoñooy had already harvested what had been sown in the night. That
was how, by being victors in the sky, the Yacoñooy is called "The
Archer of the Sun," and the Mixtecos were named inhabitants of the
clouds. Ever since then, the Mixtecos have painted Yacoñooy's
victory on gourds. Not in order to boast of the victory, but in
order to remember that greatness is carried in the heart and that
resistance is also a form of combat
From the Tepexi sky, the cloud continues on to Puebla de Zaragoza.
She has taken note of the history, and she surreptitiously disguises
her tears as rain, which clean her face and cover the city. Puebla,
the capital city, seat of the state government. "Land where the so-
called Plan Puebla-Panama went broke," history will say, as and how
they now say... That when the state government announced the
building of a toll highway from the state capital to Tecamachalco,
through the expropriation of 800 hectares for the Millennium
industrial park, campesinos in the area rebelled and warned that if
the dislocation went forward, they would raise up in arms. The
campesinos argued, not without reason, that expropriations had never
benefited those affected. Three governors had carried out blatant
expulsions, which did not even meet the legal principle of
expropriating for public use, since they were done in order to
benefit individuals. In Tepeaca, campesino opposition to the
expropriation of lands for the building of the Puebla-Tecamachalco
highway and the construction of the Millennium park was absolutely
essential. They formed the Emiliano Zapata Vive Campesino Union, and
they first sought dialogue with the state government through the
state Department of Communications and Transportation. In response
to the request for dialogue and information, officials and police
answered with threats and intimidation, by concealing the plans (the
campesinos had obtained an original plan, which included the
establishment of maquilas and other businesses, even a golf course
financed by the Carlos Peralta foundation) and with not very credible
promises (as on other occasions) of employing the expropriated
campesinos in the new industrial plants. The members of the Emiliano
Zapata Vive Campesino Union rejected that option, since they assert
their right to continue being campesinos, and they are willing to
defend their lands with arms. Lands for which they would be paid, as
they say, "at least the price of a soft drink." The Millennium
project was halted in mid 2002, in part because of a lack of money
and of pressure among groups from above who were fighting for the
biggest slice, but above all because of the stalwart defense of the
land by the campesinos of Tepeaca and its environs. The history
began before: When Mariano Piña Olaya governed these lands, he
expropriated large expanses of land - under the pretext of building
the Puebla-Atlixco highway - which were later converted into
exclusive developments. Persecutions, jailings and a continuous use
of public force to dislocate the campesinos were just some of the
actions which characterized this "expropriation." During the state
administration of Manuel Bartlett Díaz (that individual who, along
with Commander Diego Fernández de Cevallos and majordomo Jesús
Ortega, designed the indigenous law counter-reform), part of the
lands expropriated by his predecessor had their ownership
restructured to allow for the creation of an exclusive shopping
center and a golf club (La Vista), with its also exclusive
residential development of the same name. The lots were priced and
sold in dollars. Now Señor Bartlett shows up as a "patriotic"
defender of national sovereignty, opposing the privatization of the
electric industry...until they get to the right price (in dollars,
preferably). During the same government, the Plan Paseo of San
Francisco was put into effect, which encompassed 20 blocks in the
Historic Center of the eastern part of the capital city, where
thousands of persons of limited means were living in the oldest
barrios in Puebla. The "expropriation" was effected with the
consequent dislocation of thousands of poor persons, who were not
offered any housing options. The owners' properties were appraised
at very low prices, but the program was not completely carried out,
having been reduced to five blocks. Most of that area is unoccupied,
and the only thing that was built was a poor imitation of a
convention center, which is partially operational. The much touted
foreign investments never arrived, the ones that were to usher in
luxury hotels, businesses, various movie theatres, enormous parking
garages, green areas, and even a "little lake," which, they promised,
would be like the ones in Houston shopping centers
The old part of the city underwent serious deterioration, there where
Puebla was originally founded. At that time, the complicity on the
part of the National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH)
delegation became obvious, in creating this destruction of the
historic and archeological heritage. If the repression was directed
towards the countryside (with help from that stepchild of Raúl
Salinas de Gortari: Antorcha Campesina) during the Guillermo Jiménez
Morales government, with Piña Olaya the goal was the city. And thus
the mounted police were created, the so-called canophile commando and
the secret police. Three large operations were also unleashed: the
"SWAT," the "LAUREL" and the "MERCURIO." Their objectives? Repressive
control of Puebla, Atlixco, Texmelucan, Tehuacán. The results?
Killings (Jolalpan, in 1991), assassinations of leaders (Gumaro,
Melitón Hernández, Sebastián García) and the harassment of democratic
movements (the attack against the Autonomous Meritorious University
of Puebla, the attacks against the Volkswagen and telephone workers
unions). When Manuel Bartlett arrived, he found that the ground had
already been paved in two regards: first, because his predecessor had
begun the process of encumbering lands, and, second, because Jiménez
Morales, as well as Piña Olaya, had done most of the repressive work,
most of the process of decapitation and containment of the campesino,
popular urban and union movements. Then Bartlett launched his
program (created by three foreign consultants: Alzati, McKenzie and
MKS), "Puebla Plus Megaproject," which included an "ecological" ring,
an aqueduct from Nealtican to the city of Puebla, a sanitary fill in
the southern part of the city and the encumbrance of the main area of
the popular Historic Center barrios in order to carry out the Paseo
de San Francisco project. Legalization of seizure, that is what is
imbedded behind the Cevallos-Bartlett-Ortega Law
The cloud is now continuing her flight under the sky and above Puebla
lands. She sees exploitation there, yes, but also resistance.
Maquilas have proliferated in the urban centers and environs. These
are operating, in large part, with protectionist contracts, which can
be summed up in: low salaries (10 times less than what is paid in the
United States, and five times less than in Taiwan), extra hours
without pay and work days of more than eight hours. According to
denunciations by the Network of Solidarity and Labor Defense - an
organization of lawyers, psychologists and anthropologists which
advises workers free of charge - NAFTA is doing away with the Puebla
textile industry. And, in companies like Kukdong, workers are being
mistreated as if history had returned to the age of Porfirio Diaz.
And yes, the main conflicts which are arising out of the maquilas are
mistreatment of workers, the lack of benefits and, in extreme cases,
setbacks in the already paltry weekly paychecks. And it is worrisome
that both ends of government authority, as are the public enforcement
agencies and the state Human Rights Commission, have positioned
themselves on the side of the Korean businessmen and against the
protests of Mexican workers. But, always far away from the media and
the ridiculous election campaigns, resistance grows on Puebla soil.
In the municipality of Puebla, the Citizens Movement demands "the
cancellation of the Municipal Urban Development Program, as well as
the Declaration of Public Use, for not having consulted our populace
as established in Article 10, Section XIII of the Urban Development
Law of Puebla." In San Lorenzo Almecatla, there are denunciations
concerning the actions taken by the government to expropriate their
communal and ejidal lands for the purpose of carrying out lucrative
business with companies that want to establish industrial parks and
areas in the region. The government claims that there are not enough
areas for establishing industrial parks in the region, parks which
will shelter potential Mexican and foreign investments wanting to
locate in Puebla. In 1997, 36 ejiditarios, without mandate from the
General Assembly of Ejiditarios, were forced to sign a contract with
the German company Lagermex and Bralemex SA de CV. They received
27.50 pesos per square meter for the use of the land. In response to
this irregularity, the ejidal commissioner filed charges against the
company and demanded the restitution of the lands. The now former
Governor Manuel Bartlett, in order to guarantee the company's
possession of the land, resorted to the expropriation for "public
grounds" procedure, leading the campesinos to seek legal protection.
Meanwhile, Governor Melquiades Morales, through the same procedures
as those used by Bartlett, has secured 10 more hectares of land, this
time for the company Fraccionadora Industrial of the North. In the
countryside, in Huehuetla, there has been a trend towards recovering
Totonaca culture and identity. In this arena, educational programs
and the recognition of sacred places are being promoted, such as is
the case in Kgoyomachuchut, where the remains of an ancestral temple
are located. The Kgoyom Center of Indigenous Superior Studies is
entrusted with providing middle superior education (pre-university)
through a program of studies tied to Totonaca culture
They teach traditional medicine, the Totonaca language, history from
the perspective of the history of the community, of the culture and
of other cultures, ethno-agriculture and computing, among other
subjects. Academic rigor is maintained in this program through the
advisement of professional persons from civil society who are highly
trained in the different areas
They offer their work as service, and they come from CESDER, the
IBERO, the UDLA and the BUAP. The organization of Totonaca
indigenous is growing, becoming a regional organization, the
Totonaca-Nahua Unit (Unitona), thus making advances in the defense of
indigenous rights and culture. The Citizens Movement, an
organization in Tlaxcalancingo, in the municipality of Cholula, has
undertaken a specific resistance against the legal recourse of
"expropriation for public use." It is through that recourse that the
three levels of government are able to change the use of agricultural
lands and to expropriate ejidal or communal lands almost with
impunity. These are their words: "We are considering two
alternatives: one, that when we learn of an official in our
communities who is making plans behind the backs of the people, that
we force him to consult us, as established by law, and that we be
participants in these development plans. We did that in
Tlaxcalancingo. We changed this law that they told us would be so
difficult, because they were federal decisions and there were many
foreign interests and so forth. Fine, we raised community awareness,
we told them about how they had been swindled when they took the 1082
hectares away from us, and, right, they became aware and they helped.
"And the other alternative was that we consider putting up ramparts.
It is the defense of the reclamation, the preservation of our
culture. If we preserve it, if we educate our children, all
citizens, about the importance of continuing to preserve our culture,
this is a barrier, a barrier that's put up, because then, you may be
in an urban center, we're 100 kilometers away, now we have them
around the corner. We feel that, independent of political defense,
political resistance, there should also be cultural resistance.
Right now we are rescuing our traditions, our customs, our culture,
so that in that way we can withstand the onslaught of these
development plans which are affecting us in many ways." Dusk is
falling now when the cloud reaches a Cholula which is bristling with
towers and church belfries. Cholula. It is not its first name, nor
are the church towers its only sky. Tlamachihualtépetl was its first
name, and it means "hill made by hand." That, which can be seen
there, with the Popocatépetl volcano at its back, is the Church of
the Virgin of Remedies, set on the top of a hill made by the hands of
men, of men who, like the hill, have the color of the earth. Lending
support and sustenance to the Catholic church is the Great Pyramid of
Cholula, the largest in Mesoamérica. But this church looks more like
it has been imposed on the plinth. As if it wanted to say "I
conquered and have dominion over those who are the adobe of these
lands." Cholula. Here the cloud must come down from the heights in
order to see and learn what is in those grottoes which knowledge has
opened in the earth. Following a series of tunnels, the cloud
encounters not only the human history which raised this marvel, but
present day history as well. Because those who built what is also
called the Jade Hill, Precious Hill or Divine Hill, over whose blood
and culture the Church was raised which blessed the conquistador's
sword, they still continue to be the color of the earth today. But
there are churches and churches, the cloud learns as she walks next
to the earth. There is, certainly, the Church which inherited the
arrogance, stupidity and cruelty of the Hispanic conquistador. The
high clergy who chooses to be on the side of the powerful and above
those below who are the color of the earth, regardless of the time
marked by the calendar. The Onécimo Cepeda who is replicated all
over Mexican lands, with other names, dispensing blessings on golf
courses, in high end restaurants, at the arrogant tables where
everything abounds, except dignity and pride. The Church which, when
it prays, asks the egoist PAN, which it serves and which serves it,
to be above those who are below. The Church of oppression and
arrogance. The one which, heretic, worships the gods of power and of
money. The one which prays for the conquest to continue and to not
be detained until the most first inhabitants of this sky are
eliminated. The one which is indulgent with crime made government
and business, and which condemns the rebellion of those who ask for
justice and peace to the infernal and terrestrial fires. But there
is also, certainly, another Church. The one which inherited
humility, honesty and nobility. The low clergy which has opted for
the poor. The Church which chooses to be at the side of the
marginalized, without regard to religious festivity. The parish
priests, the nuns, laity and the faithful who do not impose nor
impose themselves, who work below, shoulder to shoulder, with those
who make the earth bear, who make the machines run, who make the
products move. The errant ones make up this other Church. Because
where it says "love thy neighbor as thyself," they read "love thy
neighbor more than thyself." And where it says "blessed are the poor
in spirit, because theirs shall be the kingdom of heaven," they read
"blessed are those who draw close to the poor, because with them
shall be the kingdom of justice on earth." And where it says "thou
shalt not steal," they read "thou shalt not steal." And where it says
"thou shalt not lie," they read "thou shalt not preach resignation
and conformity." In Puebla, and throughout the Mexican Republic, this
other Church is walking hand in hand with the Indian peoples, and
they are resisting and struggling along with them. The cloud goes,
hidden now amidst the February night. In that same calendar page,
far away, in the mountains of the Mexican southeast, an errant one
for her entire life, an old friend old, a woman small in stature and
great of heart, is praying. But she is not praying in order to ask
for food for herself, but so that they, those without name and
without face, those who are the color they are of the earth, might
lack neither path nor morning along their way.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos Mexico, January of 2003. * Translated by irlandesa
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos Mexico, January of 2003. * Translated by irlandesa
https://www.alainet.org/en/active/3216
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