ABSTRACT
In the fall of 1996, I left for Chiapas to spend six months there as a humanrights observer. Like many others in the United States and elsewhere, I had been inspired by news of the Zapatistas’ struggle and vision. The list of demands coming out of indigenous communities in Chiapas in the face of NAFTA mirrored those we were calling for in our own local struggle for justice for sweatshop workers in El Paso, Texas. Therefore, when the call came from Bishop Ruíz and the communities for volunteer human-rights observers, I responded.
