ABSTRACT
Zapatismo is a political movement with strong roots in the indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico, which has gained global attention since 1994, when thousands of armed indigenous people took control of the principal towns in Chiapas. The movement sought recognition among civil society actors and a response from government to their demands – centred on autonomy for the indigenous peoples and self-government for the lands they had taken back from landowners. Based on an immersion visit in day-to-day life, the author illustrates characteristics of the movement, drawing on observations at the three levels of Zapatista autonomy: the community, the municipality and the region, including a health system run by women promoters. The author seeks to understand the ways in which the movement is organised, how it functions and how it portrays itself. This involves a rotating system of self-government, without reliance on state or federal government, with strong participation of young people and women and forms of community-based decision-making and autonomy that defy the usual ways of describing movements, organisations or governments.
