A-Infos (en) Mexico [EZLN]: land and freedom - Yesterday: Theory and practice - From the Cat Dog Notebook

A community assembly in the mountains of southeastern Mexico. We have to go 
through the months of July to August of a recent year, with the coronavirus 
pandemic having taken over the planet. This is not just any assembly. Not only 
because of the madness that calls her, but also because of the apparent distance 
between the chairs, and because the colors of the masks blur behind the painted 
transparent masks. ---- The political-organizational and some military commanders 
of the EZLN are there, but they remain silent unless they are asked to intervene 
for something specific. ---- They are much more than we could have guessed. There 
are at least 6 indigenous languages, all of them with their roots in magic, and 
they use Spanish or "Castilian" as a bridge to communicate with each other.

Many of those present are "veterans", they were in the uprising that started on 
January 1, 1994, and, with guns in their hands, they had descended on the cities 
along with thousands of other comrades and comrades, as one, as one. There are 
also "young people", men and women who gradually joined the Zapatista 
administration after many courses. The majority of "young" are "young", women of 
all ages and different languages.

The assembly itself, its evolution, its times and ways, reproduces the assemblies 
that take place in the communities. There is someone who coordinates, and someone 
else who gives the floor and points out the discussion topics that have been 
agreed from the beginning. There is no time limit for each intervention, so time 
here acquires different rhythms.

Someone, now, is telling a story or a fairy tale or a myth. No one cares if what 
is being told is true or fiction. The important thing is what is said through it.

The story is as follows:

A Zapatista man passes by a village. He is wearing his best clothes and his new 
hat because, as he says, he is looking for a girl. The narrator imitates the step 
and movements he had seen in some of the films released on the occasion of the 
Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic I Film Festival. played by Joaquín Cosío in Luis Estrada's "El 
Infierno" (2010), and takes off his hat to greet a fancy woman passing by with a 
fancy mule carrying wood. The narrator mixes Spanish with some of the Mayan 
languages, so that, in the assembly, they translate into each other, without, 
however, being interrupted.

The one who tells the story reminds that it is the corn season and the assembly 
nods confirming it. Continues the narration:

The man in the hat falls on an acquaintance. They are greeted. "Come on, let me 
meet you so handsome that you are with this hat too", his acquaintance tells him. 
The respondent answers: "I'm like this because I'm looking for a girl". The other 
continues: "And what is your girlfriend's name and where does she live?". The one 
with the hat answers: "I do not know". The other asks him again: "How do you not 
know?". He with the hat responds: "But that's why I told you that I was looking, 
if I had already found her I would have known her name and where she lives". The 
other examines this persuasive logic for a moment and sits silent.

It's his turn with the hat: "And what do you do?". The other responds: "I plant 
maize because I want corn." The one with the hat stays silent for a while, 
looking at the other, who was digging holes, with a broomstick, in the middle of 
the gravel road. So he says to the other: "Listen, buddy, with all due respect, 
but you are a very asshole." And the other: "But why? "Since I work with so much 
appetite and I am determined to eat corn."

The one with the hat sits down, lights a cigarette, gives it to the other and 
then lights another one for himself. They do not seem to be in a hurry: neither 
the one with the hat to find a girl nor the other to eat corn. In the afternoon 
it grows longer and the little light cuts with its teeth at night. It is not 
raining yet, but the sky begins to spread clouds to find shelter. The moon lurks 
behind the trees. After a long silence, he with the hat explains:

"Listen, buddy. To see if you will understand me: first there is the ground. In 
this stony place he is not going to catch the corn. There the seed will die from 
trampling and will have nowhere to take root. The only sure thing is that the 
seed will die. Then there is your broom, which you use as coa[i], but the broom 
is a broom and the coa is coa, so the poor broom is completely broken and full of 
patches. "

The man in the hat takes the broom, examines the patches that the other has made 
with adhesive tape and loops, and goes on to say: Mountain".

And it continues:

"So, maize, maize, we do not plant it anywhere, nor with anything, but it has its 
where and with what. Moreover, now is not the time to sow but to reap. And to 
reap you must have worked hard in the field. In other words, the earth is not for 
you to treat her like: "come old woman, I came, give me the pozol and my 
tortillas" as you shouted at the best man, - until he went to the assemblies of 
"as women we are" and now to see you, finally the voices. This is her job, buddy. 
What I am saying is that we do not order the earth, we explain to it, we talk to 
it, we honor it, we tell it stories to encourage it. And she can not listen at 
any time, but as one would say, she has her own diary. You have to calculate the 
days and nights correctly,

"That, then, is the problem, as some say. You made a mistake in everything, and 
you think that because you want it, and because you work with appetite and you 
are determined, your wish will come true. What you need is knowledge. Things do 
not work out because you worked hard and you are determined. You need to choose a 
good ground, after the right tools, and then the times for each task. That is, as 
they say, he wants theory and practice with knowledge, and not the nonsense you 
do, for which you should be ashamed because everyone looks at you and laughs ".

"And they are idiots who laugh, because they do not understand that they will be 
harmed by the stupid things you do, because where you dig now, first it will be 
filled with mud, and then, when the water runs, it will become something like 
your grandmother's wrinkles , buddy - because mine is already in heaven. And he 
will not be able to pass the car of the Good Governance Council, because he will 
get stuck, and the materials or the products he will carry, they will have to 
carry them on their backs, and with the mud their boots and pants will be 
destroyed, especially if they are nicely dressed like me now, and they will never 
find a girlfriend. And the comrades, even worse, best man, because they are wild. 
They will pass by you with the donkey loaded with things, and they will say: 
"Look, there is someone who is more stubborn and stupid than my donkey, ". 
Speaking to you clearly: "Listen, sir, when I say 'forward assed donkey', do not 
misunderstand, I am talking to my pet" ".

"What happened, buddy, will we continue to say fat?" Says the other indignantly.

The man in his hat replies: "No, I'm just telling you. Take it as advice or 
recommendation, it is not an order. But, as the blessed Sup used to say: "Better 
to do what I tell you, because if not, when it goes wrong, I will tell you" I do 
not like to say that I told you, but I told you ". "That's why you better listen 
to me, buddy."

So another asks him: "So this earth does not? Not even my coa? Nor is it the 
right time? "

He with his hat answers: "no, no and no".

"So when is the right time?"

"Oh, it's over now. Now you have to wait for the next sowing. There, around 
April, May, and in order not to miss the water, on May 3 you have to offer the 
earth sweet bread, a refreshment for the heat, maybe a cigarette from tobacco 
leaves, candles, and who knows, and, fruit, vegetables, even a little chicken 
soup. The blessed Sup said, he does not make only a pumpkin, if you give the 
earth a pumpkin, then it will grow wild and will only produce snakes. I think, 
however, that this was a lie of the deceased, he said it because he did not like 
the pumpkin ".

"So when exactly?"

"Hmm, so look: we are almost already, in October, as they say, therefore 6 
months. So in April-May. But it depends. "

"Shit, and what do I do if I want corn right now?" The other thinks about it, and 
suddenly, adds: "I know what I will do! I will ask the autonomous authorities to 
lend me some corn ".

The man in the hat asks him: "And then how do you get them back to the beginning?"

"I will apply for loans from the Council of Good Governance and so I will return 
them. And to repay the Council, I will borrow from the Tercios. "And to give the 
money back to the Tercios I will borrow again from the authorities, after all, 
they will finally understand that I will actually repay them."

He with the hat, scratching his head, tells him: "Where to get, buddy, in the end 
indeed, as in this Vargas movie, you turn out to be an asshole rather than nice. 
"If you think like bad governments, you should become an MP, a senator or a 
governor or one of these idiots."

"What happened, buddy?" I only know from resistance and rebellion. So, I'll see 
what I do. "

The man in the hat responds: "Okay, I'm leaving now because if I don't leave, I'm 
not going to find a girl. See you, buddy. "

And the other: "God be with you and if you find a girl, ask her if her family has 
some corn to lend me, and I will return it to them later."

The narrator of the story addresses the assembly: "So, what is better: to lend 
corn to the best man or to apply the" theory and practice with knowledge "?"

- * -

It's time for pozol. The assembly disbands, SupGaleano stubbornly says leaving to 
Deputy Commander Moisés: "So, I'm just popcorn corn," and heads to his hut. 
Deputy Commander Moisés turns to him: "And what about the spicy sauce?" 
SupGaleano does not answer, but changes direction. "So where are you going?" 
SubMoy asks him. Sup walks away and almost shouts, "I'm going to borrow the sauce 
from the rebel shop."

I confirm.

Miao-Gav.

The Cat Dog, already a smuggler on the Mountain.

(Eee, but the money did not arrive, and besides, there is a sign at the entrance 
of La Montaña that says: "Cats, dogs are not allowed; nor schizophrenic beetles").

Mexico, still. April 2021.

[i]A shovel-like tool used by the indigenous peoples of Central America and 
Mexico to drill holes in the earth. It consists of a long pole whose tip is 
pointed or ends in a metal tip in the shape of a shovel or spatula.

https://landandfreedom.gr/el/diethni/388-xthes-i-theoria-kai-i-praksi
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