Document 23.5: Mexican Zapatista Feminists: Indigenous Women's Petition, March 1, 1994 and The Women's Revolutionary Law, January 1, 1994

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Mexican feminists, like those in much of Latin America, have operated in societies shaped by widespread poverty, sharp class inequalities, racial and ethnic conflict, and frequently authoritarian or corrupt governments. Thus feminists have often sought to address the ways in which multiple sources of oppression, not only gender relations, affect both women and men. Such was the case in the Zapatista rebellion that erupted in 1994 among the Maya people in the Chiapas region of southern Mexico. It was a protest against a long history of injustice and impoverishment for indigenous peoples. Women activists within this largely peasant movement had to confront the sexist attitudes of their male comrades as well as an oppressive Mexican government that marginalized its Maya citizens. Although they usually rejected the “feminist” label, these women articulated their demands in an Indigenous Women’s Petition and succeeded in embedding their concerns in a Women’s Revolutionary Law, both of which are reproduced here.

Indigenous Women’s Petition

March 1, 1994

We the indigenous campesina women ask for the immediate solution to our urgent needs, which the government has never met.

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  1. Child birth clinics with gynecologists. . . .
  2. Day care centers. . . .
  3. Enough food for the children . . . such as milk, corn starch, rice, corn, soy, oil, beans, cheese, eggs, sugar, soup, oatmeal.
  4. Kitchens and dining halls, with all the necessary equipment, for the children in the communities.
  5. Corn mills and tortilla-makers . . . according to the number of families in each area.
  6. [M]aterials necessary to raise chickens, rabbits, sheep, pigs, etc., including technical advice and veterinary services.
  7. [O]vens and necessary materials to build bakeries.
  8. [C]raft workshops . . . including machinery and materials.
  9. [A] market where crafts can be sold at a fair price.
  10. Schools . . . where women can receive technical training.
  11. [P]re-schools and day-care centers in rural communities.
  12. [S]ufficient transportation to move from one place to another and to transport the products of our various projects.

Sources: “The Zapatista Women: The Movement from Within,” app. II, “Indigenous Women’s Petition,” Zapatista Women, accessed March 20, 2012, http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~geneve/zapwomen/goetze/thesis.html (first excerpt); Zapatistas! Documents of the New Mexican Revolution (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1994) (second excerpt).

The Women’s Revolutionary Law

January 1, 1994

[T]aking into account the situation of the woman worker in Mexico, the revolution supports their just demands for equality and justice in the following Women’s Revolutionary Law.

First: Women, regardless of their race, creed, color or political affiliation, have the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in a way determined by their desire and capacity.

Second: Women have the right to work and receive a just salary.

Third: Women have the right to decide the number of children they will have and care for.

Fourth: Women have the right to participate in the affairs of the community and hold positions of authority if they are freely and democratically elected.

Fifth: Women and their children have the right to primary attention in matters of health and nutrition.

Sixth: Women have the right to an education.

Seventh: Women have the right to choose their partner, and are not to be forced into marriage.

Eighth: Women shall not be beaten or physically mistreated by their family members or by strangers. Rape and attempted rape will be severely punished.

Ninth: Women will be able to occupy positions of leadership in the organization and hold military ranks in the revolutionary armed forces.