Real and Virtual Chiapas: Magic Realism and the Left

Abstract

Why is the drama in Chiapas so compelling? What is the appeal that has led so many progressive people outside Mexico to make it the focus of their attention? In the early days the caustic observations, self-reflexive wit, and biting perception of Marcos held foreigners spellbound, and surprised and charmed millions of Mexicans. But beyond the figure of Marcos - heroic, analytic, rebellious, amusing and solemn by turns - stands the appeal of the events as seen from a great distance. As Pierluigi Sullo, Nino Lisi and Marcello Vigli all note and debate in the pages of the Italian daily, Il Manifesto, the vast mobilization around Chiapas in Italy, the avalanche of signatures on the petitions of protest, and the massive participation in the national demonstrations protesting the massacre at Acteal 'mean something important for the left.' In this essay I propose to examine a number of the complexities that make the situation at once so explosive and so resistant to resolution. In doing so I will identify the reductionism that produces a simplified version of events that is necessarily misleading. I will then analyse the very mixed role of electronic communication which has, on the one hand, saved countless lives by relaying information on military and paramilitary violence and human rights abuses around the world, but has also provided a remarkably 'flattened' picture of the actors and events in Chiapas. This picture constitutes a kind of 'virtual' Chiapas that is instantly available to us on a computer screen, but which bears only a very partial resemblance to the 'real' Chiapas that Chiapanecans themselves or foreign activists, human rights workers, EZLN sympathizers, or even casual visitors would find on the ground in southern Mexico.