ABSTRACT
On January 1, 1994, from the highlands in Chiapas, Mexico, a band of moderately armed and organized indigenous peasants emerged to seize control of several towns and cities. The group, calling themselves the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Zapatistas or EZLN),1 made a series of demands on Mexico’s ruling party-the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The Zapatistas drew national and international attention to the economic and political plight of many indigenous peasants living in southern Mexico. Issues of land, food, health care, and democratization were highest on their agenda. It is important to realize that the Zapatistas did not emerge on the Mexican landscape in an ahistorical manner. Rather, they had been working diligently for over ten years, galvanizing sectors of the disaffected Chiapan population. The power of the Zapatistas derived, in part, from their ability to articulate the concerns of many Mexicans who had suffered the consequences of economic modernization and the increased international integration of the Mexican economy.
