FRAGMENTS OF REALITY I.
May 2014.
Pre-dawn…
It must be about 2 or 3, go and find out. The silence sounds here in the
reality. Did I say “the silence sounds”? Well yes, because the silence here has
its own sound, just like a chirping of crickets, and then others ahead,
stronger and against, others always constant, below. There is no light near.
And now it is the rain adding its own silence. In and of itself it now is the
time of rain here, but it still does not accomplish wounding the earth. Barely
if the scratching, as if beating softly. A scratch here, a puddle as if not
wanting there. As if warning, but the sun, the heat, quickly they plaster the
earth. It is not the time of mud. Not yet. Time of shade yes. Well, in itself
it is always the time of shade. Wherever it goes, the time does not matter.
Until when the sun is most fierce, the shade is over there, just sticking
itself to the walls, trees, rocks, people. As if the light gave it more force.
Ah, but in the night… in the pre-dawn morning, that is just the time of shade.
Just as it relieves you in the day, in the pre-dawn it awakens you as if saying
to you, “you where, you what.” And one babbling the responses of the
sleep-candle. Until you then of course can answer, answer to yourself: “in the reality.”
-*-
(…)
- Well the plain truth I would not know how to tell you.
Supposedly in the city their custom, as it is said their way, is that, when
there is a death in the family, well the rest of the family and friends visit
the family to make them know that they support them in their pain. They call it
“giving condolences,” I believe. Yes, just that, like telling them that they
are not alone.
(…)
- Well, what I have been able to read is that the majority
of the students of the escuelita said that they felt as if in their family,
that they treated them like family. Well, some said that better than in their
family. That is as they say there are from families to families, for example
in…
(…)
- It could be. Yes, it could be that someone feels as they
say the need to come give condolences to the family of the late Galeano or to
the compas from here, or to both.
(…)
- It is not that easy, because here is very far away for
them. What would it be? Let’s say some 7 hours from San Cristóbal? There it is,
it is far away for you. And well violent death does not give notice, it does
not have its calendar divided up nor its geography marked, but rather right
there it enters and sits down, even if we have not invited it. Yes, as if it
enters knocking down the door.
It is not like
death from old-age or from sickness, that as if little by little it sticks in a
foot, then a hand, and then there it is in a corner, waiting, until it gets
comfortable and says, “here I command.” There as if one is prepared, goes along
making the idea well. But violent death no. That is as if it beats you, topples
you, stuns you, kicks you, clubs you, machetes you, shoots you, kills you,
comes and gives you a shot in the head and still makes fun of you. It does like
that.
So, if you as
they say plan an exchange, or a meeting, or like the courses of the Zapatista
Escuelita, well you say that such day in such place, and notify with time, and
each one in their place also makes their plan, for their work, for their
studies, for their family, and makes their trip. And you too, well with time
prepare where you are going to receive, what you are going to offer.
But since
violent death does not warn, well there is no longer time to prepare anything,
neither the one who comes nor the one who receives. And then, what are they
going to talk about? If although some look at others, the silence is there with
its sound making you be quiet, as if death not only had taken the deceased and
also your words had died.
So well it is difficult for you to come, but not because you
do not want to, or because you do not love Galeano, or the compas from La
Realidad, no, but because you have no way.
In addition, where are they going to put you if this Caracol
is very small and surrounded again by those paramilitaries? And what are they
going to give you to eat? And the bathroom if you want to go #1 or #2 or shower
because of the heat or because of the rain?
(…)
- Ah yes, were it seen that those visits bring their own
food and their raincoat for the rain, well then it changes a bit, but not much,
because as the health promoter already explained it is necessary to take care
of as they say hygiene, that is as they say for a pigsty not to be made.
Because then there are people who are very dirty, who do not even hit the
target, above all the damn men. Because we as the women that we are…
Eh? Yes, due
to sicknesses, Yes, like cholera. Eh? No, that is cholera, the anger, the rage.
(…)
- How? No, good visits notify before, they do not appear
just like that. When a visit arrives without notice they call it, or called it,
“gorrón,” or “gorrona,” supposedly, since I don’t know why they called it that,
or call it, but it means that they come and it is not that they were invited
but that, as it is said, they invited themselves. If, death is like a “gorrón,”
or “gorrona,” supposedly, like a visit that comes without warning, that does
not ask permission. Yes, I already know that it is not the same, but it
occurred to me.
(…)
- Yes, I think that if you say that such day it could be,
well one or another comes, but not all come, a handful yes. Per se. But even if
you do not all come, per se you come although in another way. Like “listens,”
but the reverse-
Because death
too can be defeated with another calendar and another geography. What why do I
say that “too”? Ah, I know what I say. Don’t pay attention to me right now.
Maybe another day I’ll explain it to you… or you’ll see it.
(…)
- About how many? No idea. But I think that you can be
several, supposedly, because there I see that they are raising up another hut,
and they are sweeping, cleaning. Yes, as if they were awaiting visits.
(…)
- Just when? Well ask Emiliano or Max
or SubMoi who I saw there talking with a young woman from here. Although later
it went with the committees.
(…)
- Me? Well waiting. Once the zone committees come to an
agreement, surely they’ll tell me to write and well I’ll write.
(…)
Look! ...
There! … Where that little
light is. Did you see that little animal how strong it is? Yes, it looks like a
dog… or rather a cat. Yes, like a cat-dog. It’s strange, isn’t it?
(…)
- Yes, reality in itself is strange.
-*-
Fragment from Page 4 of the
Investigation Report on the Murder of Compañero Galeano. Interrogation with
compañera S., Zapatista, support base from La Realidad, age 16, going on 17.
Date of May 11th, 2014.
(NOTE: the
following text contains graphic language which may hurt the sensitivity of the
European royalty and aspirants to the throne. “Here among us, nothing which is
not heard in any corner of the world of below.” Okay).
“Today is May 11th, 2014.
(…)
For that here a compañera is present who is going to
tell us about what they told her, rather about what he said, because it is one
person, the other did not talk. That is what the compañera is going to tell us.
Tell us, compañera.
Compañera
S: Well look, compa Subcomandante Insurgent Moisés, I’m going to tell you
what that murderer told me.
SCIM:
When was it that he told you that?
Compañera
S: On Saturday.
SCIM: May tenth?
Compañera
S: May tenth
SCIM:
At about what time?
Compañera
S: Around nine.
SCIM: Nine in
morning?
Compañera
S: Yes. At about 9 he told me:
“You make a great fool of yourself,” he told me, but
I did not want to answer him.
Then he told me, “stop,” and I stopped.
“Listen to what I am going to tell you,” I stopped.
SCIM:
And what is that man’s name?
Compañeras
Selena: His name is R.
SCIM:
R. Right, go on.
Compañera
S: He told me, “listen to what I am going to tell you,” and I listened to
it.
He told me:
“Enjoy your Caracol. Walk around the whole thing
because that we are going to take very soon and that Caracol very soon is going
to be for us. I am even going to go put my house for pleasure when it is for
us, because very soon we are going to take it.”
I answered:
“Well if it’s like that, if you feel like men, as
you say that you have those cocks and those balls, that dead or alive you are
going to take the Caracol, why don’t you take it if truly you do have the
balls?”
And he told me:
“I do have the balls and the cock, do you want to
see it?” he told me.
And I answered:
“If you want to show it, show it to your mother” I
told him.
Then when he told me:
“Are you very angry because we killed your husband?”
And I told him:
“That compañero is not our husband. That compañero
is a compañero of ours who struggles for our peoples, he does not struggle to
receive government handouts.”
And when he began to laugh there with his compañero,
when he told me…
SCIM:
What is his compañero’s name?
Compañera
S: M.
When he told me:
“The one that we are going to have in our hands is
Raúl, Jorge, and René. We are going to have those ones in our hands and we are
going to kill them like we killed the hairy one” (Note: “The hairy one” is the derogatory name with
which the paramilitaries from the CIOAC-H refer to compañero Galeano).
Then I told him well if you want to do
it, do it, try it, but go into the Caracol. Don’t go in when there are no
people, like you did in the school, you went in, you could because there were
no people. I told him: if truly you are men take the Caracol, and there they
laughed and they told me:
“I was grateful that we did not kill
your father.”
SCIM:
He told you that?
Compañera
S: Yes.
“That we did not kill your father but
for next time.”
And I responded:
“And why didn’t you kill him?”
“Well because we did not see where he
was.”
“Well if you are going to do it, do it.
There he is in the Caracol. There he is.”
It was when he told me:
“Do you know who killed the hairy one”
I responded:
“How am I going to know it if I was not
there when you murdered our compañero?”
“I was the one who killed him. I gave
him a shot in the head and he went to shit. We are going to do it like that. We
are going to have them in our hands. The ones who I already told you we are
going to do it like that. But that brings everyone their time. You know what?
We’ve already fucking had it with you,” he told me, “because what you do is not
right. That is why we’ve fucking had it with you.”
But I responded:
“We are the ones who have fucking had
it with what you are doing. And more when we heard that our compañero, we as
compañeras are going to go to pick up the body. There you made us fucking have
it with you even more” and that is where he laughed.
“Of course so, if they all are your
husbands,” that’s what he told me.
SCIM:
And the thing about him making fun, that he said what they
do, that they do what they say, right? Because he mentioned something like the
Junta de Buen Gobierno, right? Or did he not say the thing about…
(inaudible)
SCIM: Uhuh.
Compañera S: He
only said:
“If it is that we are going to kill, we
are going to break him all at once. You are the Junta de Buen Gobierno, you are
good governments, even if we do what we do to you, you are not going to do
anything. Why? Because you are good governments.”
I told him:
-“Yes. Of course we are good
governments, but for so much we are no longer,” I told him that.
“But what are you going to do to me?
Not even if you know just who it is who killed, you are not going to do
anything to us, because you are the Junta de Buen Gobierno who protects all. I
am not afraid,” he said, “I am not afraid, that is why I tell you that I killed
him.”
I responded:
“I hope that is so. When your day comes
I hope that like that you plonk yourself on shit like you are plonking yourself
in front of me.”
“Per se I am going to do it. But when?
That day is not going to come,” he says, “because you are the Junta de Buen
Gobierno, you are good governments and you are not going to do anything to us.”
SCIM:
Do you remember anything more of everything that he told
you? Something like what he laughed about and cackled.
Compañera
S: Yes he laughed and his company shouted, he did not respond.
SCIM: M
did not speak, he only laughed?
Compañera S: He did not speak at all, he only laughed. There M
was, he scratched his back so that he would no longer say anything.
SCIM: Ah, He scratched his back?
Compañera S: Yes, he scratched his back and they began to shout.
He told me:
“Best go away
to where you’re going for your errand,” he told me. I did not respond at all.
SCIM: Well, if you remember in a bit about what he had
said to you then we can keep doing the work. This so that like so the
information goes along being gathered, because in this case he himself said it.
Compañera S: Yes.
SCIM: And he himself went out to cover up. And you say
that still then he asked you the thing about if you knew who killed, who
murdered compañero Galeano. And where he says that he is the one who was,
right?
Compañera S: Right.
SCIM: And he said that he gave the shot in the head.
Compañera S: The shot in the head and from there he went to
shit.
SCIM: Alright, compañera. What is your name in the
struggle?
Compañera S: My name is S.
SCIM: S?
Compañera S: Yeah.
SCIM: Alright, compañera. That is what we want, this,
because for it to be seen that it is directly, that you are from here, from La
Realidad. What was your work that you went to in the exchange in Oventik?
Compañera S: Listen.
(Note: “listen” is a position or job or commission which is
given to some compañeras and compañeros and consists of that compa “listening”
to what is said in an exchange and then telling it in their town, region, and
zone, so that like so the “sharing” does not remain only in those who attend,
but rather arrives to all the Zapatistas. It is like the equivalent of the
“teller.” The compas selected young persons who have good memory, understand
Spanish well, and know how to explain in their language as “listens.”
The exchange with the Indigenous National Congress (CNI) had assigned dozens of
young women and young men from various zones as “listens,” well the interest was that what our
compas from the native peoples of the CNI said be known by all the Zapatista
support bases).
SCIM: Ah, yes, yes, yes. The one that was going to be done
later with the Indigenous National Congress. Alright. Well that’s it compañera
S. Thank you.
(inaudible)
SCIM: Ah, well. And when you spoke to that R. Was he
plastered or under the influence?
Compañera S: No. I arrived close like that but I did not notice
the odor of booze. And when I arrived there to L’s house, he was passing then
by his house. He saw me and turned around and laughed, and I saw him with a
face of anger.
SCIM: Or rather, can we say that he said what he said
under the influence? Because he was not drunk.
Compañera S: No, he was not drunk.
SCIM: Well. That’s all compañera. Thank you.
-*-
Another
pre-dawn morning. Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés comes and tells me:
“It’s
already done. The agreement is that the arrival is on Friday, May 23rd,
the homage for compa Galeano on Saturday, May 24th, and Sunday, May
25th each one returns to their home. The support bases, that is.”
“For
those from outside too?” I asked him.
“Yes, but
for those from outside you put the same that was the agreement for the support
bases, that is they have to bring their food and where to sleep.”
“And I’ll
make a communiqué or letter or what?”
“There
you see it, but it must remain clear, in a way that they are not a burden for
these compas. They come to support, to give their sentiment to the family of the
deceased and the compas from here, not to be attended to. That is, it is not a
party.
“Ah, and
also let them know that on May 24th, in all the Caracoles, the
support bases also are going to do a homage to compa Galeano. And it would be
good if that day too they do something in their places, according each one’s
way and times.
“And
another thing. If you are going to put the interrogation of the compañera,
don’t put the name of those fuckers, only the letter. Because we do not know if
he is guilty of the murder or only of going around macho and fierce wanting to
make a girl afraid.
“And put
too that we especially invite the compañeras and compañeros from the free or
alternative or autonomous media or however it is said, that is those who are
not paid, who are from the Sixth Declaration, that is who are our compañeros
and compañeras and who have their ‘listen’ commission in their lands. And that
maybe… Put it like that, in other words ‘maybe’ we the General Command of the
EZLN are going to give a press conference with the free media or however it is
said, who are in the Sixth Declaration. I say ‘maybe’ because later there is no
time for work and is necessary to not disappoint them. And that the paid media
are not invited, we are not even going to receive them.”
“And
should I send them the photo of the deceased.”
“Yes, but
the one from when he was alive, not the one of the cadaver. Because we remember
the compañeros for what they struggled in life.”
“All
right. What else.”
“Only
that here we are, but I think that they already know it, that we are in the reality.”
-*-
Vale.
Cheers and listen.
From the
mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
Subcomandante
Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico,
May 2014. In the twentieth year of the beginning of the war against oblivion.
Translated
from Spanish by Henry Gales.
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