02: Reclaiming History from Below - Zapatistas Seedbed - dec 27th

 

Reclaiming History from Below:

The Story They Told Us is a Lie 

A Presentation for the Global Solidarity Movement with the Zapatista Communities: 

Friends, family, and sisters and brothers of the Americanas Zapatistas

Reclaiming History

We are often told that history is a settled record—a museum of statues and dates. But as we see in this "Semillero" convened by the Zapatistas [10:57],

 history is not a graveyard; 

it is a battlefield.

In this session, Raúl Romero and Carlos Aguirre Rojas take us on a journey to understand how those at the top of the "pyramid" use history as a weapon. For the state, history is a tool of legitimacy. They take our heroes, strip them of their radicalism, and put them on banknotes to tell us that the "Revolution" has already ended, and they are its heirs [26:12].

But Romero reminds us of the "pueblos without history"—the communities that the colonial and neocolonial powers tried to erase [18:47].

 He speaks of the 1712 Tzeltal rebellion and the Seri insurrections—voices that the official history books refuse to name [24:19].

 The lesson for us is clear: When a people loses its history, it loses its identity. And a people without identity is a people easily conquered [20:05].

The Science of Truth vs. The Trap of "Decoloniality"

Carlos Aguirre Rojas pushes the conversation further. He challenges us to look beyond the "hard words" of academia [01:12:44]. 

While the current "progressive" governments in Latin America use the language of "decoloniality" to ask for apologies from the Pope or the King of Spain for crimes committed 500 years ago, they simultaneously repress, despoil, and silence the indigenous peoples of today [01:26:59].

Rojas argues that true history belongs to the people who build the world—the ones who make the factories run and the fields grow [01:34:51].

 This is the wisdom of experience. While the elite provide a history that is 90% lie, the people hold a history that is 90% truth because they are the ones living it [01:34:09].

He takes us back to a pivotal moment: December 1914. For a brief window, the popular armies of Villa and Zapata controlled Mexico City [01:49:02].

 He asks a haunting "what if": What if they had marched on and built a radical peasant republic? The entire history of the 20th century, and the global dominance of U.S. imperialism, might have looked different [01:50:39].

 This "interrupted revolution" is a reminder that the future is never written in stone; it is always open to the organized and the brave.

Autonomy as the New World

The Zapatistas are not just theorizing; they are building. Through their concept of "el común" (the common) and the non-property of the people, they are showing that a non-capitalist world is not a dream—it is a reality in the mountains of Southeast Mexico [01:53:35].

They have replaced the hierarchy of the doctor with the "health promoter" and the authority of the teacher with the "education promoter" [01:32:30]. 

They are teaching us that to survive the "storm" of the "hydra" (capitalism), we must look long-term—prepared to fight for 120 years if that is what it takes [01:52:16].

A Story of Love and Heartbreak

The video concludes with a lighter, yet equally sharp, touch: a story about Dení, a first-generation Zapatista girl [01:58:21]. 

Through the lens of childhood, we see the Zapatista ethic: a deep suspicion of those who seek individual glory over collective liberation, and a recommendation to always have a way to escape the traps of "patriarchal" or "state-led" love [02:02:44].

Our Call to Solidarity

To the communities in resistance across the Americas: This video is your mirror. It asks you to be the "archivist of your own rebellion." It asks you to doubt the "history from above" and to trust in the collective intelligence of your neighbors.

We don't need titles to be wise. We only need the memory of our struggles and the courage to plant the seeds of a world where many worlds fit.

Watch the full video and join the "Semillero" here: 

SEMILLERO “DE PIRÁMIDES, DE HISTORIAS, DE AMORES Y, CLARO, DESAMORES”, 27 de diciembre 2025

01: To Scrub the Future: Zapatistas Seedbed - dec 26th

 

To Scrub the Future: 

A Seedbed of Resistance and the Call to "The Common"

A Presentation for the Global Solidarity Movement with the Zapatista Communities: 

Friends, family, and sisters and brothers of the Americanas Zapatistas

Scrubbing the Future

Friends, companions, and sisters of the Americanas Zapatistas and all those standing in the currents of global solidarity: imagine a room where thirty-eight different geographies meet, not to draft a policy paper, but to plant a seed [02:58].

 We are not here to talk about "saving" a world that is already crumbling; we are here to talk about what it means to build a new one from the soil up.

In this recent gathering of the Zapatista Semillero (the Seedbed), titled "Of Pyramids, of Stories, of Loves and, Of Course, Heartbreaks," the Zapatista leadership—including Subcomandante Insurgente Moisés and the Captain—delivered a message that is both a warning and a profound invitation to those of us in the North and South who believe in autonomy.

The Two Storms

We often hear about the "crisis" of our times, but the Zapatistas describe it more vividly: we are facing two simultaneous storms [01:10:50]. 

The first is the "Mother Pyramid" of the capitalist system—a machine of destruction that functions automatically and cannot be humanized, paused, or controlled by AI [54:27].

 It is a system that views the world as a reordered territory to be depopulated and rebuilt for profit [39:44].

The second storm is the reaction of Mother Earth herself [01:44:06].

 This isn't just "climate change" in an academic sense; it is the physical wounding of the earth for minerals and oil, a "bestiality" that the Zapatistas argue no government or "civilized" institution can stop. [01:42:22].

The Syndrome of the "Magical Detergent"

Perhaps the most stinging and necessary part of this message for our solidarity communities is what the Captain calls the "Chaca-Chaca" syndrome [44:55]. 

He recalls an old soap advertisement where a detergent promised to turn any bucket into an electric washing machine just by making the sound—chaca-chaca [45:31].

He challenges us: are we waiting for a political leader, a "progressive" government, or a new party to be our magical detergent? [48:10]. 

We sit by our "buckets" (our organizations, our movements) and give the "benefit of the doubt" to institutions, hoping they will do the work for us [49:04]. 

But as the Zapatistas remind us, there is no magic. If you want the clothes clean, you have to "tallar"—you have to scrub [49:33].

 You have to struggle,

 and 

you have to organize in common.

From Property to "The Common"

The Zapatistas are moving into a new phase of their journey: the transition from "autonomous rebel municipalities" to the "Common" (el común) [01:10:34]. 

This is a radical departure from the concept of private property. Subcomandante Moisés shares that by looking back at the history of their ancestors—those who lived before money was "the thing that gives life"—they rediscovered the power of the montón, or the "common" [01:36:24].

Their ancestors didn't just escape the plantation owners individually; they escaped in groups, defending themselves and working the land as one. This is the blueprint for the "day after" the capitalist collapse: a world where we say "No to property, yes to the common" [01:47:42].

 It is a call to govern ourselves not through a small group of "experts" in a pyramid, but as a whole people who watch over one another [02:08:13].

Loves and Heartbreaks

The title of this talk refers to "loves and heartbreaks," and it carries a beautiful lesson for our movements. In the Zapatista worldview, love is what makes us "complete" (cabal) [01:04:01]. 

But love isn't just about couples; it’s about the relationship between ourselves, nature, and the "different other."

They tell us that "making a love" is synonymous with "making another world" [01:05:33].

 When that vision fails or remains static, we become "incomplete," and the "heartbreak" of the system returns. This cycle of completing and incompleting is what creates history. It’s why there is a "tomorrow"—because something is always missing, and that missing piece is our collective action [01:05:51].

A Call to the Americanas Zapatistas

To our communities in the United States and across the Americas: the Zapatistas aren't asking for our "academic alibis" or our social media trends [18:37]

They are asking us to look at our own histories—to find the "common" in our own geographies [02:11:48].

They don't want to export their theory; they want us to practice our own. As Subcomandante Moisés says, "We don't want to study how the system dominates us anymore... we are worried about what the change is, what is the new thing we are going to make, and let it be practical" [02:13:23].

So, let us stop waiting for the "magical detergent." Let us pick up our own buckets, find our own común, and start scrubbing the future together. Because in the end, it’s not money that gives life; it’s the bridge we build between our yesterday and our today to give birth to a tomorrow [01:06:07].

Video Source: 

SEMILLERO “DE PIRÁMIDES, DE HISTORIAS, DE AMORES Y, CLARO, DESAMORES”, 26 de diciembre 2025