On Anniversary of Autonomy, Zapatistas Welcome Students to 'the Little School' Laura Carlsen - CIP Americas Program
go to original August 15, 2013

Last weekend the Zapatista Good Government Boards turned ten. Throughout the five Caracols in the state of Chiapas, villages celebrated their continued existence and the gains made over a decade of indigenous autonomy and self-government.

At the same time, hundreds of people are arriving from across the globe to participate in what the Zapatistas call “the little school”. According to organizers, 1,700 people from Mexico and abroad are registered to attend classes in San Cristobal de las Casas and the Zapatista communities.

“Classes” that, predictably, do not conform to the usual definition of classes. As Sub-Comandante Marcos explains in one of a series of comuniqués published before the event, “According to us Zapatistas, the place of teaching-learning, that is, the school, is the collective. The community. And the teachers are those who make up the collective. All of them. So there is no teacher, but rather a collective that teaches, that shows, that trains, and in it and with it the person learns, and at the same time, teaches.”

Read the rest at CIP Americas Program

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