The Ezln

The EZLN is a movement that began in an effort to protect the rights of the indigenous people of Chiapas. This grew into a fight against globalization. The EZLN could not have stated it better, they are fighting for “a world in which many worlds fit”. The EZLN are fighting for the forgotten, the underrepresented and exploited. They do not limit their struggle to the indigenous people of Chiapas. They are not blinded to the struggles that people from other states and places are facing. The EZLN does not claim to have an answer. They are willing to acknowledge that nothing is certain. The only thing that is certain is that the current government is not serving the needs of the people. The EZLN is not individualistic. They fight against exploitation on every level and on behalf of everyone. The Fire and the Word by Gloria Munoz Ramirez retells the EZLN struggle from the day the first founders retreated into the jungle to twenty years after.
The Fire and the Word provides an alternative history because it tells the story of a forgotten group of indigenous people in Chiapas. It tells of how the indigenous people are saying “Ya basta” to the Mexican government. This is an important aspect of history because it helps us remember all our other brothers and sisters from all over the world. It is vital that history is remembered is everyone’s different aspect. When history becomes inclusive and is willing to tell itself in different aspects we are able to act conscientiously on a global level.
The EZLN fights against the exploitation of the indigenous people of Chiapas but that is overseen. The message that the main stream media feeds to the public is that the EZLN are terrorist. They much publicized the armed uprising of the EZLN on New Year ’s Day 1994. The EZLN took arms against seven municipalities in Chiapas that day. It was not their first choice to use violent means to address the problem but it was “a last resort but just”. “A last resort against poverty,