Rebel education and collective construction of autonomy in zapatista schools

Abstract

Since 1994 after the armed uprising that ended in the occupation of seven cities in the state of Chiapas in Mexico, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation started a process of constituting one of the most important experiences of indigenous autonomy of contemporaneity. From a revolutionary classical Leninist vanguard to an indigenous uprising, the Zapatista movement has asserted itself as an autonomous movement, radically democratic, strongly marked by the statement of an Indian identity and at the same time a Mexican nationalism, imbued with a libertarian spirit influenced by marxist readings and an emancipatory Christian culture, in addition to feminist ideals and references to tradition and customs of the Mayan people. Based on these influences and especially on indigenous traditions, a self-government system was built. In the process of building an autonomous regime, education was the subject of a major mobilization by the Zapatistas. This work aims to demonstrate how the autonomous Zapatista experience and its "true education" project represent a radical questioning of the state educational policy while favoring the emergence of educational strategies consistent with the indigenous demands.