Michael Chamberlain
Staff Writer
When Subcommandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico, needed a spokesperson for his cause in the United States, he chose Cecilia Rodriguez from El Paso.
That was in the spring of 1994. Since then, Rodriguez has crisscrossed the United States seeking support for and explaining the goals of this armed uprising.
Rodriguez was invited to speak at the University of Houston last week as part of the Chicana week activities. She took time out on Friday to speak less formally about her life and mission.
Wearing sandals, blue jeans and a T-shirt with "Homegirl" printed on the chest, she looked like she would be more comfortable with a megaphone in the street than sitting in the plush reception area of the UH Hilton where the interview took place.
Rodriguez attributes her political awakening to her mother, who taught her pride in her Mexican heritage and the need to live a life of "dignity guided by principles." Living in a region bordering Mexico also had an impact on her, she said.
"I experienced two ways of life and two ways of looking at things."
Rodriguez interrupted her studies at the University of Texas at El Paso to found a support center for workers in El Paso area sweatshops. When NAFTA eliminated 6000 jobs in the El Paso area "this center became their voice," Rodriguez said.
In 1991 Rodriguez was hired as director of the Funding Exchange, a progressive foundation based in New York City. This foundation supplied money to progressive causes and projects across the United States.
"That was my wildest venture into the mainstream," she said. It was a multi-class organization; "It wasn't just activists and organizers. I worked with people who had inherited wealth."
In January of 1994, Rodriguez traveled to Chiapas as part of a funding initiative for people advocating solidarity with the Zapatista rebellion. During this visit she met Marcos, who asked her to be the official spokesperson for the Zapatista movement in the United States.
"Marcos plays many important roles. He's a military strategist, he writes. But he is only part of a process," Rodriguez said. "The governments, the media, they really think that he manipulated the whole thing.
"They always picture the rebellion as initiated by some outside force. It is the Catholic Church or some other outsiders. They can't accept that this is the product of the Indian people of Chiapas themselves. They don't think that Indians are capable of such a thing," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez described her role as spokesperson for the Zapatistas as an attempt to educate the U.S. public about the Mexican reality. Many accept the U.S. media portrayal of Mexico as a democracy, Rodriguez said.
"They believe that (Mexican President) Zedillo is working for peace. They believe that the Zapatistas are fomenting violence, but that they are no longer a serious threat, that their struggle has become meaningless."
These impressions are far from the reality, Rodriguez said. She called the Mexican government a "dictatorship wracked with drug corruption and political violence."
Although Mexico has a division of powers between branches of government on paper, in reality the president's word decides most fundamental issues, Rodriguez said.
"If Bill Clinton had the powers that Zedillo has, he could remove George Bush as governor of Texas at will. That is precisely what he has done twice in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
"To give you another example; the Mexican legislature passed a law in 1995 to guide in resolving the conflict in Chiapas. This was known as the Law for Dialogue and Reconciliation. This law provided for a halt to armed hostilities on both sides until a settlement could be negotiated," Rodriguez said.
"Zedillo simply chose to ignore this law in ordering continued military operations against the Zapatistas in Chiapas."
It is important for U.S. citizens to learn about the conflict in Mexico because our government is an important support to the Zedillo regime, Rodriguez said.
"The U.S. government provides (the Zedillo regime) with military training, arms and equipment, much under the guise of the war on drugs. Some of the helicopters used to fight the Zapatistas were supplied by the Drug Enforcement Administration."