La Otra Campana,
Our group huddles at the jack-n-box near the US-MEX border, and we wait in the pre-dawn hours with the many workers and students and mujeres waiting for their rides to jobs or school here in the US. It is still dark and the harvest moon hangs low and full above. The steam slowly rises from our heads as we watch hundreds pass and go about their lives. All this happens while we wait to begin the journey from this side of the border to the other. The other is the theme of the day and this premise soon becomes apparent to me as we begin to walk. Near the border we find our group, and we accompany the danzantes across the trolley tracks and into the street that leads us to the scar between our countries that is the border. This border between nations, between families and ultimately between each other. We climb the stairs to the bridge that leads to Mexico, there is young and old and newly married walking in unison towards a new future. We look after each other and make sure no one falls behind we are one in our approach and movements. The cold and darkness chase us as we walk at a brisk pace and soon we are across the border into Mixico. We walk towards the great arch in downtown TJ; from there we begin to follow the signs which are nothing more than pictures of masked Zapatististas. These pictures of Zapatistas lead us to our destination, a place of hope, dignity and peace.
We continue down Revolution and eventually cut across towards Constitution and then we find our place. The Multikulti, which is an old burned out baroque movie house on Avenida Constitucisn between 6th and 7th street. The theater itself has no ceiling or roof of any kind. The main theater has no floor covering or chairs only cold concrete. The beginnings of the days sunlight greet us as we enter. My group enters as the Danzantes begin to dance and bless the space we about to join. We smell the smoke filled air as sage and copal are burned and then the drums begin to beat. Our hearts listen and our eyes begin to close as the sun begins to rise, the danzantes greet the sun and our group joins the ceremony. There is energy and a spirit of welcoming that surrounds us. At this moment I feel this place is being cleansed. I sit down and listen to songs and the beat of the drum and I am grateful to share this energy with the danzantes. Soon a circle is formed and we all join, and we come together to greet each other. There is community here; we are the community of the other. There is no border here, it doesnt matter where you come from or who you are. There is no other here, only humanity and the acknowledgement that we are one people in struggle.
It is here that I realize the lines in the La Otra Campana, La Otra provides all people with a public visibility, a point of convergence, and a horizon of struggle that none posses individually (p.31). In this place there is more than just a horizon, I argue this place is a landscape of struggle. Where the struggle can be heard and marked and made apart of the landscapes of our bodies.
We wait for the others to arrive and we eat pan and sip coffee as the sun warms are tired bones. Soon Delegado Zero (Sub-Marcos) arrives and takes his seat on the stage. Some question if it is really him. But once he begins to speak we know it is him and we sit down on the concrete floor and listen as the speakers each take the stage. As we listen to each speaker I am reminded that these encuentros are taking place all over Mexico. La otra campana explains the meetings like this each speaker recounts humiliations they suffer, expressing their enormous discomfort with the current economic and political situation, their profound longing for justice and their increasing hostility toward professional politicians and the wealthy classes. Without exaggeration, it can be said that their condition is desperate (p. 55). It is the same here in Tijuana and I am sure it would be the same if we were in Los Angeles or Tucson or El Paso etc. There is a multitude of autonomous collectives represented from all over the US and Mexico. Let me say again there is no other here, because all of us together are considered the other. So this is truly the the other campaign because we are the other movement, together we have power through our unity and solidarity of our otherness. After listening to all their beautifully told stories, the words from La otra campana began to resonate with me,
The first thing that we saw was that our heart was not the same as before, when we began our struggle. It was larger, because now we had touched the hearts of many good people. And we also saw that our heart was more hurt; it was more wounded. It was not wounded by the deceits of bad governments, but because, when we touched the hearts of others, we also touched their sorrows. It was as if we seeing ourselves in the mirror (p.77).These words filled my head and my heart as we began the long journey across the wound some call a La Frontera. As we near the border, I feel the sadness and the disconnectedness that is this place, and I want to leave as soon as I can. Feeling like I need to run to the fence and begin to tear it down. I watch as my brothers and sisters hold hands through the chain link fence, reconnecting to each other while linking their hearts through the holes in the fence and touching hands. It is with this spirit that we must reclaim this space and make it our own again, taking it back from those that want to separate us. Most of all I am left with a hopeful feeling that together we as people can change this place into something beautiful for
all people.
Lastly I will leave with the words of the Delegado Zero (Sub-Marcos),
pain from the border, which signifies death, marginalization, apartheid of some kind or anotherwe have to construct, and break that border, with a bridge of struggle, of dignity. The Other Campaign can be that space. No one will speak of them, no one will speak for Mexicanos and Mexicanas or the Chicanos on the other side; instead they will construct their own space, defend it, speak from themselves, explain the reasons why they are there, the difficulties that they face, and the way they have been able to construct a space of rebelliousness and resistance on the other side. We will see each other there in Juarez and in Tijuana (p165) Sub-Marcos-What will you construct today?
A bridge or a border?
S. Hernandez
More Info visit:
http://www.ezln.org.mx
Bibliography:
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos and The Zapatistas, The Other Campaign
Bi-lingual edition, Open Media series City Lights San Francisco 2006
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