An “Other” Feminism: A Review of Hilary Klein’s Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories
An “Other” Feminism: A Review of Hilary Klein’s Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories
Details Written by Charlotte Maria Sáenz Published: 27 May 2015
Volumes have been written about the Mayan indigenous Zapatista social movement of Chiapas, Mexico since they made their first public appearance on January 1, 1994. There have been detailed histories, political analysis, academic theorization, movement studies, activist ethnographies, non-fiction novels, attempts at cultural and symbolic translation, etc. The movement’s primary spokesman, the prolific Subcomandante Marcos, has also contributed numerous communiqués, satires, children’s stories, erotica, pop culture commentary, political and philosophical ruminations. However, until now, we were missing the direct voices of women from the communities themselves. Hilary Klein’s Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories (Seven Stories Press) reveals their perspectives as contemporary indigenous women who are active subjects together with men in shared processes of change and liberation.
Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories covers a lot of ground: from the early days of recruitment and organizing clandestinely, to the steep learning curve of taking on greater political and economic participation in their communities, to their impact on the world beyond. The Zapatistas are forging their own kind of feminism, one unique to their particular histories, identities and subjectivity as modern indigenous men and women. Klein’s book demonstrates how defending indigenous culture and women’s rights need not be mutually exclusive. As Ester, a Zapatista comandanta from the Huixtán region said to the Mexican Congress in 2001, “It is the current (national) laws that allow us to be marginalized and degraded, as in addition to being women, we are also indigenous, and, as such, we are not recognized.” (p. 226)
Struggles for women’s equality are of course global, and everywhere we still have a long ways to go. What is impressive about the Zapatistas’ journey towards gender equality is what extraordinary gains have been made in twenty years. Klein’s book chronicles how the Zapatista process of working towards women’s rights was simultaneously a push from above and below. The Zapatista communities’ Women's Revolutionary Law of 1993 was a major structural change that has since been followed by their collective project of unlearning patriarchal ways. It became clear that both men and women had to change, in both thoughts and actions. A Zapatista woman called Isabel recalls of the years after the law was passed:
We made a commitment to fight against injustice, and we knew that men and women united, with the same rights, with the same opportunities within our organization, could unite our forces against the capitalist system. But first we had to change ourselves and understand that there needs to be a revolution between men and women, in our heads and in our hearts. (p.73)
More:
http://www.towardfreedom.com/38-archives/women/3916-an-other-feminism-a-review-of-hilary-klein-s-companeras-zapatista-women-s-stories
