Defense of Territory- Communities in Chiapas

A mural in the community that says "For the defense of the land and territory. The land belongs to those who work it."

The mural above covers a large wall in the community we visited today. It reads:

"For the defense of the land and territory. The land belongs to those who work it."

This is a common slogan in the region of Chiapas that reflects the local movements for indigenous autonomy and land rights. This is the basis of everything because if communities don't have access and control over their land, then they can't grow their own food. This particular community is well known for defending its territory, working collectively and self-organizing. Several non-profit organizations have supported them in their process of recovering their land and continuing their collective projects.

The Story of a Community Defending their Territory

We gathered into a wooden community meeting building and took seats on short wooden benches. A few community leaders sat down to tell the story of how they began organizing themselves in 1989 to reclaim this land from a large landowner. Influenced by the Zapatistas, they became aware that this land corresponded to them and their ancestors. They asked the landowner (a man from the city who many community members worked for) to sell the land to them, and since they didn't have the resources to purchase it, they resorted to asking the government for a loan. Thirty organized community members began to work the land and they put up signs signaling that they were now working the land that belonged to them.

After 1995, the landowner left but his son stayed and joined forces with paramilitary groups to hold onto the land. Some of these paramilitary groups recruited members of the same community, creating divisions and tensions. The community leaders we spoke with explained that, "The fight hasn't always been of the whole community because the process is long and difficult. People get tired and lack economic resources to meet their needs and to provide for their families.."

In this long, difficult fight, the community received support from a local human rights organization that helped them know their ancestral rights and an agroecological organization that helped support their agricultural work through loans and technical support. They also had support from other countries which made their situation more public. At one point, seven community members had lawsuits against them and couldn't leave the community. However, through legal support these lawsuits were able to be canceled.

Now the community has several collective projects-- a bakery, traditional medicine products, livestock, milpa production, and chickens-- which they run and manage together. Their collective bakery, comprised of 44 women, has been running for 29 years. They got credit from a non-profit organization and continue to run the project, selling their bread in other communities. They have a rotating board of 4 women who meet every Wednesday to discuss sales and materials and to distribute the income. All of these collective projects are carried out on their recovered land, keeping the community close and strong as a collective so that they can continue to defend their land and work the land that corresponds to them.

Reflections on Collective Work & its Challenges

Among non-profits and movements in the region, this community is a well-known example for their initiative and persistence. As a result, many organizations and projects reach out to work with them. As my co-worker explained to me, "It's much easier to work with a community that is already in the process of organizing itself rather than us as non-profits pushing for them to work collectively. We are here to accompany communities in their process, not force or dictate how their process should be." She said that, "Since there are less communities organized for collective work, we joke amongst each other in the non-profit circle that we as non-profits also defend our territory-- the communities who we have histories of working with."

Based on the conversations I've had with people in the regional non-profit world and people from communities, it seems that collective work has become less common than in the 90s. Today, with NAFTA in full swing, the ethos of alternative movements in San Cristobal feels in many ways like a nostalgia for the past, celebrating anniversaries of the Zapatista uprising and its milestones... still very alive and resisting the violence, organized crime and megaprojects, but without the same momentum and support as before.

There are many non-profits in San Cristobal de Las Casas that are working to keep this collective spirit alive and to spread agroecological practices around Chiapas but non-profits also often have different objectives and ideologies (often influenced by charismatic leaders and requests of their donors), even if they work in the same field of agroecology. It feels like the non profit world is often quite scattered rather than collaborative. This seems to be one impediment to larger change happening.

The biggest impediment, however, is that we live in a culture driven by values and principles of continual economic growth, no matter the cost. How do communities organize and make a good living for themselves in this context?

Recently, the farm I volunteered with in Chiapas (Rancho Lum' Ha) has tried to incorporate a cooperative model in this community to continue to improve their agricultural production and secure markets that they can sell their products to in nearby San Cristobal de Las Casas. We will see if this is a model that can help to continue the impulse of collective work while also simultaneously improving their economy. I'm excited to hear how their cooperative model works and to see how their work unfolds.

Respect for our organized campesino land, adherent to the sixth declaration "land and liberty" "Long live Emiliano Zapata"