Lento, Pero Avanzo: Indigenous Mayan Influence in Zapatista Speech & Imagery

This paper will examine the Ejército Zapatista de Liberation Nacional (EZLN)—perhaps known more widespread as the Zapatistas—with a focus on how Mayan cosmology and identity affected and shifted the goals of the EZLN as we enter into their twenty-second year of occupation and insurgency in Chiapas, Mexico. For the purpose of this paper, when I refer to the EZLN, I do not only refer to the ejército (Army, or military wing of the Zapatistas), but also the socio-political-economic structures that exist within Zapatista-held territories. In order to analyze the EZLN through the lens of Mayan cosmology, I will examine their history—as well as their six officially released Declarations—and track how the end-goal of the EZLN changed from one that was a Marxist-Leninist-Guevarist, foco-centered protracted guerrilla war to one that is focused on decentralized, anti-authoritarian village occupations utilizing Indigenous Mayan values and symbols.