- Post date
- 1 Jan 2019
- Caption
- At the onset of Rock en Español, the LÁ peeps within the scene were not all politically active. For instance, Yvonne Gómez of the C.R.E.E. said of this time: “To tell you the truth, we got into the music to escape politics.” The political disinterest of Gómez and other Rock Angelino participants ended at the onset of 1994. Gómez added that, “when Proposition 187 and the Zapatistas appeared, that was when the politics found us [and we became more politically aware and active.]” In Mexico, the uprising of the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), an indigenous armed rebellion in the state of Chiapas began on the same day that NAFTA went into effect: January 1st, 1994.
The increased awareness about the social and political conditions in Mexico motivated Rock Angelino participants to educate themselves about the conditions that led to the EZLN uprising and to advocate for their radical political platform that sought to bring autonomous indigenous communities working and governing themselves as collectives. The EZLN became the ignitor for more determined efforts to gain greater democracy in México and was also a political catalysis for many Latin American bands who were influenced or inspired by the EZLN political postulates. While we can debate what effect or influence the EZLN now has on the Mexican political discourse, what is remarkable is not only hundreds of indigenous people rose up in arms against the Mexican government and created their own autonomous communities. This happened many times before. What is truly remarkable is that they were able to maintain these communities and that they are alive and still at it, when many other movements would have long been destroyed.
This is a flyer for an EZLN education session at the Hollenbeck Middle School was part and parcel of the many actions and events by LÁ collectives that were organized througouth the 1990s to support the EZLN and to enact the Zapatista collective ideals into local practice.
- Location
- Boyle Heights
- Type
- flyer
- View on Instagram
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BsHn38yBsHJ/