Recently, Subcomandante Marcos from the EZLN (Zapatista organization) came to Juárez to continue their Otra Campaña (other campaign) which is supposedly an alternative to the typical presidential campaign that happened this year. They are travelling throughout all of México, stoppiing in towns and holding open forums and discussions for people to bring up what they believe are the most important issues for their communities. The following is something I wrote after I went to a demonstration, where Marcos spoke as well. I wrote my thesis on the Zapatistas, so it was a very surreal experience to see the phenomena in person. I have much more to reflect on this experience and what I saw, but I've learned that if I'm going to post anything, I need to not wait for the moment when I feel like I've said everything. So, as the introduction to further thoughts....

Well, Marcos arrived in Juárez in a Black dodge mini-van, with no chicken on top. He came sólo, unaccompanied by his Zapatista folk, but quickly surrounded by a group of youngish mexicanos in black, with chains, and the too cool hats on. They took on the role of body guards, arms linked in a circular blob, but they were protecting him from the hoard of tv's and camera's (mine included, I tried to get in there - there was no shame in breaking out the lenses when marcos shows). He smoked his pipe vigorously, with almost fake smoke surrounding him and his crowd. His eyes looked young and he actually looked a little nervous, like he didn't quite know what he was doing here on this crazy international bridge. His movement pushed and pulled the swaying of the entire crowd for the next hour or so. We followed him, marching and protesting, up the Lerdo bridge, justo antes de la linea exacta. The cameras and microphones maintained their stance and blockage for the rest of us to see anything that was going on, but folks crawled up the fences on either side of the bridge and tried to glance a peek. Another group of protestors arrived from the El Paso side, having come through a blockade of suspicious Border Patrol cars and ICE (immigration/customs) patrols that were ready to rumble, as it were. They closed down the bridges from the US, and weren't letting folks go into the US either - i suppose that was partially the point of this march. Then, the messages were given by each respective organization present, until it was time for Marcos himself to speak. He voice was old. He sounded like he sounds. I admit that I had thought that maybe they had just sent a dummy as bait, to tempt the US enforcement, giving them a chance to finally get rid of the dude who's making trouble in MX. But, I think he was himself, whoever that is. Then, the microphone was passed to him and spoke about unity, reaching out to Mexicans in the US and then, as if the "they", the powers that be, could prevent his radical and offensive words, a ginormous helicopter arrived and circled and circled, and blew up dust from the river, and circled some more. Glen and many others took that opportunity to flick off the helicopter and the Border patrol, in an amazingly emphatic and repititious way. And even with the drone of the helicopter, the sea of people stayed put, the mothers, the children on shoulders, the cowboys, the grandmas, the radical anarchist punks, the hippy camera's, the gringos. The largest sign at this protest was "gringos asesinos" appropriately I suppose.
It then disintegrated, back down the bridge, with a crowd of folks continuing to march him down to his minivan, and the Zapatista party then moved to a nearby high school where they were going to do their workshops and listening panels. That would have been the place to be, but I didn't really feel comfortable going. I'm not a member of this community, and it's not my gringa-ness that prevents me from taking on that identity. One of my favorite activistas in the area,Nancy, who is gringa, went and she is member of the community, and has been for a long while.
Anyways, I could clearly ramble on about all of this, but I guess the part that shocked me the most was then coming into the US, the helicopter was still circling where Marcos was, above the high school, and the bridge were littered with BP and then following 5 blocks had atleast 5 agents or so on the corners, with radios. Just checking things out. I guess it just surprised me that they cared enough. in some ways, that goes along with the "success" of the march and of the importance of Marcos being here in the face of so much security and potential danger. The Mexican AFI, their CIA, was all over the streets in Juárez too. And yet, Marcos is a puny kind of a guy. But, it's amazing that he can represent and carry and maintain the threat that he supposedly poses to our country, and to Mexicos.