Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico [Paperback]

Bill Weinberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Vividly depicts the grassroots struggles for land and local autonomy. The new Zapatistas in Chiapas have served as a catalyst for revolutionary indigenous movements across Mexico, pioneering a new model of resistance and posing a powerful threat to the stability of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Homage to Chiapas vividly depicts the grassroots struggles for land and local autonomy now underway in an economically strategic nation of nearly 100 million people. Weinberg analyzes NAFTA's impact on Mexico's campesinos with on-the-spot reportage from Tabasco, where fishermen blockade state owned oil wells to protest local pollution, from Central Mexico where plans for a giant computer complex and golf course spark an Indian uprising, as well as from Chiapas where he interviews Sub-commander Marcos. He also examines Mexico's growing militarization in the name of the war on drugs and reviews the Zapatistas' challenge to their supporters to carry the struggle throughout Mexico and beyond its borders.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Weinberg's compelling, often shocking report presents a picture of U.S.-Mexico relations that vastly differs from the one usually seen on prime-time news. It was NAFTA, he charges, that pushed the indigenous communities of southern Mexico over the brink into open rebellion, triggering the Zapatista armed revolt in the state of Chiapas. A producer at WBAI radio and a correspondent for Native Americas quarterly, Weinberg explains how NAFTA has allowed agribusiness giants to swallow up the lands Mexico redistributed by agrarian reform. Meanwhile, U.S.-sponsored sweatshops (maquiladoras) just inside Mexico's border pay workers on average $1.64 per hour; these same companies dump toxic wastes in the area, creating an ecological nightmare and spawning hepatitis epidemics and birth defects. Weinberg interviewed Zapatista rebelsAmostly teenagers with semiautomatic riflesAon their own turf and also conducted a rare interview with their elusive "Subcommander Marcos" (the alias of Rafael Vicente, a long-missing philosophy professor), who insists his movement is democratic, but vows a long guerrilla struggle. Weinberg details the drug cartel wars in northern Mexico and documents a web of narco-money laundering, bribes, disappearances and assassinations reaching to the highest levels of Mexico's government. (According to Weinberg, under cover of the "war on drugs" the Pentagon trains right-wing Mexican officers who use their newly acquired skills in torture and warfare to oppress Zapatistas and other indigenous Mexican protest movements.) This pointed critique of how Uncle Sam treats its southern neighbor has implications that go beyond gringo-Latino relations. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The indigenous revolutionary movement that began in the early 1990s in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas has had a significant impact on all of Mexico. Among other things, it inspired the organization of similar antigovernment movements in other parts of the country. Journalist Weinberg (Native Americas magazine; War on the Land) provides an interesting panoramic view of a variety of recent movements that have developed throughout Mexico and have become an important part of the contemporary, post-NAFTA political scene in Mexico. This readable journalistic account, based primarily on newspaper articles and the author's personal research and interviews, will be of interest to university research collections specializing in Latin America as well as public libraries that serve the Latino community.DMark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Verso (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859843727
• ISBN-13: 978-1859843727
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,617,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars veracity and insight, July 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico (Hardcover)

This book ties together over 500 years of Mayan history and places the current conflict in its accurate historical and cultural setting. Unlike many of the current videos and some books that have been published on Chiapas and surrounding areas of Mexico since the Zapatista uprising, the author has done the extensive research needed to sort out a very complex conflict. I have traveled much in this area of the world and I immediately recognized the social and political landscape described within these pages. I cannot say this about all the books in the recent spate of Chiapas and Mayan scholarship.

I've followed Bill Weinberg's writing for years and have the highest regard for the veracity and insight of his work...

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading, December 11, 2005

By 

interested party (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico (Paperback)

This book is required reading for anyone interested in the effects of NAFTA and globalization in general. Weinberg is a responsible journalist whose work on this and other stories can be read daily on www.ww4report.com/blog

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars insightful, August 8, 2003

By 

jose f montes (covina, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico (Paperback)

Bill does an extraordinary job depicting the Zapatista rebellion and the political scene. excellent corrolation between struggles in different states in Mexico and Cental and South America.