First World, Ha, Ha, Ha! [Paperback]

Elaine Katzenberger (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

The Zapatista Army emerged from the jungle on New Year’s Day, 1994, and provoked a national crisis in Mexico. At a demonstration in Mexico City, over 100,000 people marched together and shouted, First World, HA HA HA!—a defiant declaration of solidarity with the rebels, an insurgent army of indigenous campesinos who have challenged the direction of Mexico's future.

The Chiapas uprising was internationally hailed as a direct attack on the new world order. It was a milestone in the continuing history of indigenous resistance in the Americas, and an important development in the growing worldwide struggle against global policies of economic colonization.

In this collection, writers from Mexico and the United States provide the background and context for the Zapatista movement, and explore its impact, in Mexico and beyond.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The latest revolutionary eruption from Central America, the continuing revolt in Mexico's southernmost state, caught the press, politicians, and certainly libraries without enough information on the situation. From a perspective sympathetic to the privations of the people of Chiapas, this collection of 30 articles temporarily (and inexpensively) plugs the info-gap. Its unifying theme--the measure of autonomy to be accorded indigenous ethnic groups--spans formats as different as poems, eyewitness accounts of last year's fighting, interviews with a union leader and with the rebellion's leader Marcos, supporting words from Leonard Peltier (the Sioux convicted--unjustly he claims--of killing FBI agents), and perspectives on the revolutionaries' challenge to global economic structures like GATT and NAFTA from academicians such as Noam Chomsky. Gilbert Taylor

Review

The Mexican Zapatista Army's march in 1994 provoked a national crisis in the country, challenging current trends in Mexican politics and management or social concerns. The Chiapas uprising was a direct attack on current world order: in this collection U. S. and Mexican writers document the background for the movement and reveal its philosophies and impact. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872862941
• ISBN-13: 978-0872862944
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,614,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a review from a third world person, August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: First World, Ha, Ha, Ha! (Paperback)

This book is a pretty good exemplary to explain someone who wants to have a first contact with the sad but true situation of poverty and injusticy that the world leaders (like money and personal interests in a "capitalist way of life")have created to inocent people who doesn't have the chance to study (or even to eat). This is the NAFTA, MERCOSUL, ONU plain to play with my people with eyes blindfold. But there're still people who believes in change although violency is nescessary. This book contains the root of the problem and how some revolts are still holding the torch of revolution. It opens our eyes to the blind submission that exists in the "Brand new world".

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First World, HA! The Zapatista Challenge, July 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: First World, Ha, Ha, Ha! (Paperback)

This was definitely a wonderful book, with a five star rating. After I was first introduced to this subject, I was overwhelmed by the subject, and this was the first book that I had. I scraped up some 13 dollars or so, and rushed to the book store with nothing but the 13 dollars, and an inch of backround on Mexican history. After I had rushed home, within a day I was finished with the book. I had enough knowledge, that I performed a speach at my school, since then I have been active in protesting US military aid to Mexico. I have been writing letters to congress, calling the local mayors office, organizing protests, and group meetings to discuss.

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it for someone you love, December 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: First World, Ha, Ha, Ha! (Paperback)

For awhile now, I've been reading everything I can get my hands on regarding the situation in Chiapas, which, though most of us in our relative comfortability might not yet realize, WILL affect us all, just as it currently affects our brothers and sisters in the Mexican Southeast.

People I've spoken to are typically interested in the Zapatistas, but not yet interested enough to wade through whole books of statistics and background. Finally, I've got the book for them: a perfect introduction to the struggle -- a 3-D, communal mural painted from many angles. And it's enjoyable as hell to read.