Questions and Swords: Folktales of the Zapatista Revolution - Softcover

Subcomandante Marcos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0938317539 ISBN 13: 9780938317531

Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press, 2001

Synopsis

Once again sharing the wisdom of Old Man Antonio and his Mayan heritage, Subcomandante Marcos tells two folktales from the Zapatista rebellion against the Mexican Government.

"The Story of the Sword" is an ancient parable that demonstrates how the indigenous peoples of Mexico can finally defeat the European invader. The tree, for instance, tried to fight the sword, but was defeated. The stone likewise tried to fight the sword, but was defeated. But not the water. "It follows its own road, it wraps itself around the sword and, without doing anything, it arrives at the river that will carry it to the great water where the greatest of gods cure themselves of thirst, those gods that birthed the world, the first ones."

"The Story of Questions" relates how two gods, Ik'al and Votan, wander the earth wrapped forever in each other's arms. These two gods are the Ying and the Yang, the yes and the no, the night and the day of the Mayan universe. Antonio says, "When they got here they made themselves one and gave themselves the name of Zapata."

Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska and Native American poet Simon Ortiz contribute commentary to explain the significance of the Zapatista Rebellion to the 21st Century. They also discuss the use of folklore and artistic expression to expand our understanding of political thought.

Well-known Mexican artists Domitila Dominguez and Antonio Ramirez—co-directors of the Colectivo Callejero in Guadalajara—each illustrated one of the stories. The Colectivo is dedicated to expanding the understanding of revolutionary thought through artistic expression.

This beautiful full-colored edition—the successor to The Story of Colors that received international notoriety when the National Endowment for the Arts rescinded funding for its publication—will serve equally well as a coffee table book as well as a serious read for lovers of Latin American literature.

About this title

From the Publisher

On New Year’s Day, 1994, Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas, wearing their trademark ski masks, erupted on the world scene by declaring war on the Mexican government and attacking San Cristobal, Chiapas.

Since that time Marcos, because of his charm, intelligence and charisma, has become a post-modern revolutionary hero. It is his person, more than any other factor, that has pushed the Zapatista movement and the plight of the indigenous people in Mexico onto the international scene. Marcos continues to be the focus of media attention in Mexico, in the States, and internationally, despite the Mexican government’s attempts to discredit him.

Alma Guillermoprieto in The New Yorker has remarked that “the most visible and critical part of the Zapatistas’ revolution were the letters that the Mexican press publishes regularly, particularly the long, sometimes irreverent, personified postcripts that are the Subcomandante’s contribution to epistolary art. Now swaggering, now full of righteous fury, now impudent and hip, the Marcos of the postscripts is at all times both elusive and intimate, and this seductive knack has allowed him to become a faceless stand-in for all the oppressed, an anonymous vessel for all fantasies from the sexual to the bellicose, a star.”

In his communiqués to the Mexican people, Marcos has often related folktales that the very wise Viejo Antonio has told him, stories that reflect the culture and wisdom of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas. QUESTIONS AND SWORDS contains two of those tales.

About the Author

Marcos is the spokesperson and military strategist for a political and military organization known as the Zapatistas. His last book Story of Colors (15,000 sold) made headlines all over the country when an NEA grant for it was rescinded. Shadows of Tender Fury (Monthly Review, 15,000 sold, 0853459177) , Our Word is Our Weapon (7 Stories, pub date: 11/00,1583220364).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0938317539
• ISBN 13: 9780938317531
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112
• Illustrator: Domitila Domínguez, Antonio Ramírez