Words from the General Command of the Zapatistas at the Opening Ceremony of the First Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.

July 27, 1996.
"Aguascalientes II",
Oventic, San Andrés Sacamchén De Los Pobres,
Chiapas, Mexico.

Brothers and sisters from Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe, and America:
Welcome to the mountains of southeastern Mexico.
We want to introduce ourselves.
We are the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).

For 10 years we lived in these mountains, preparing to wage war.
Within these mountains, we built an army.
Down below, in the cities and in the haciendas, we did not exist.

Our lives were worth less than machines and animals.
We were like stones, like plants on the roads.
We had no voice.
We had no face.
We had no name.
We had no tomorrow.
We did not exist.

For those in power, the ones who today are addressed globally under the name of "neoliberalism," we did not matter, we did not produce, we did not buy, we did not sell.

We were a useless number in their count towards great capital.
So, we went to the mountains to find ourselves and to see if we could find relief from our pain of being forgotten stones and plants.

Here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, live our dead.
Our ancestors know many things, those who live in the mountains.
Death spoke to us, and we listened.
The speaking boxes told us another story, one that comes from yesterday and points toward tomorrow.

The mountain spoke to us, the macehualob, the common and ordinary people.
We, the simple people, as the powerful call us.
Every day and every night that drags on, the powerful want to make us dance the x-tol and repeat their brutal conquest.

The kaz-dzul, the false man, rules our lands and has great war machines that, like the boob—half-puma, half-horse—spread pain and death among us.

The fake government sends us the aluxob, the liars who deceive and give forgetfulness to our people.

That is why we became soldiers.
That is why we remain soldiers.
Because we do not want more death and deceit for our people, because we do not want forgetfulness.

The mountain spoke to us about taking up arms in order to have a voice.
It spoke to us about covering our faces in order to have a face.
It spoke to us about forgetting our name in order to be named.
It spoke to us about guarding our past in order to have a tomorrow.
In the mountain live the dead, our dead.

With them live the Votán and the Ik’al, the light and the darkness, the wet and the dry, the earth and the wind, the rain and the fire.

The mountain is the home of the Halach uinic, the true man, the great chief.
There, we learned and there we remembered who we are, the true men and women.

Now, with the voice arming our hands, with the face reborn, with the name renounced, yesterday our world added to the four corners of Chan Santa Cruz in Balam ná, and the star was born that defines man and reminds us that we are the five parts that make the world.

At the time when the chaacob rode, spreading the rain, we came down once more to speak with our people and prepare the storm that would mark the time for sowing.

We were born into war with the white year and began this path that led us to your heart, and today, brought you here to our heart.

This is who we are.
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
The voice that arms itself to be heard.
The face that hides to show itself.
The name that is silenced to be named.
The red star that calls to man and to the world to listen, to see, to name.
The tomorrow that is harvested in yesterday.
Behind our covered face.
Behind our armed voice.
Behind our nameless name.
Behind the "we" that you see.
Behind us, there is you.

Behind us, we are the same simple and ordinary men and women who repeat in all races, paint themselves in all colors, speak all languages, and live everywhere.

The same forgotten men and women.
The same excluded.
The same intolerant.
The same persecuted.
We are the same as you.
Behind us is you.

Behind our balaclavas is the face of all excluded women.
Of all the forgotten indigenous people.
Of all persecuted homosexuals.
Of all despised youth.
Of all beaten migrants.
Of all the prisoners for their words and thoughts.
Of all the humiliated workers.
Of all the dead from forgetfulness.
Of all the simple and ordinary men and women who do not count, who are not seen, who are not named, who have no tomorrow.

Brothers and sisters,
We have invited you to this meeting to come and search and meet and find each other.
All of you have come to our heart, and you must see that we are not special.
You must see that we are simple and ordinary men and women.
You must see that we are the rebellious mirror that wants to be crystal and shatter.
You must see that we are what we are to stop being what we are and to become the "you" that we are.

We are the Zapatistas.
We invite you to listen and speak with each other.
To see all of us for who we truly are.

Brothers and sisters,
In the mountains, the speaking boxes spoke to us and told us ancient stories that remember our pains and our rebellions.
Our dreams will not end where we live.
Our flag will not surrender.
Our death will always live.
Thus say the mountains that speak to us.
Thus speaks the star that shines in Chan Santa Cruz.
Thus, it tells us that the cruzob, the rebels, will not be defeated and will continue their path along with all the others who are in the human star.
Thus, it tells us that the red men will always come, the chachac-mac, the red star that will help the world be free.
Thus, it tells us that the star is the mountain.
A people that is five peoples.
A people that is the star of all peoples.
A people that is man and all the peoples of the world.
It will come to help in its struggle the worlds that make people.
So that true men and women may live without pain, and the stones may soften.
All of you are the chachac-mac, the people who come to help the man who is made of five parts in all the world, in all the peoples, in all the people.
All of you are the red star that mirrors in us.
We can continue on the good path if the "you" that we are walk together.

Brothers and sisters,
In our villages, the oldest knowledge holders have placed a cross that is a star where the water that gives life is born.
Thus, the start of life is marked in the mountain, with a star.
Thus, the streams are born that descend from the mountain and carry the voice of the speaking star, of our Chan Santa Cruz.
The voice of the mountain has already spoken, saying that true men and women will live freely when they are the "all" that the five-pointed star promises.
When the five peoples become one in the star.
When the five parts of man that is the world find each other and find the other.
When the "all" that are five find their place and the place of the other.

Today, thousands of different paths from the five continents meet here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, to join their steps.
Today, thousands of words from the five continents are silenced here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, to listen to one another and to hear themselves.
Today, thousands of struggles from the five continents are fought here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, for life and against death.
Today, thousands of colors from the five continents are painted here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, to announce a tomorrow of inclusion and tolerance.
Today, thousands of hearts from the five continents live here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, for humanity and against neoliberalism.
Today, thousands of human beings from the five continents shout their "Enough is enough!" Here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico. They shout Enough! to conformism, to doing nothing, to cynicism, to modern egoism made God.
Today, thousands of small worlds from the five continents test a principle here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico. The principle of building a new and good world, a world where all worlds fit.
Today, thousands of men and women from the five continents begin here, in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, the First Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.

Brothers and sisters from all over the world:
Welcome to the mountains of southeastern Mexico.
Welcome to this corner of the world where we are all equal because we are different.
Welcome to the search for life and the struggle against death.
Welcome to this First Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.

Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!

From the mountains of southeastern Mexico,
Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee—General Command
Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Planet Earth, July 1996.