Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings

Subcomandante Marcos is not just a man, he is a myth in his own lifetime. The cult of personality that surrounds him is completely deserved. His poetic voice is so sharp and poignant you can not help but feel sympathetic for his Zapatistan cause. The highlight of the book is the last third which features primarily his writing. The stories and poetry he shares are accessible to almost anyone. He is the antithesis of stuffy. His anecdotes and points are so simple yet so perplexing you wonder how he does it.

Too often those of us who seek social justice for people who have been traditionally oppressed tend to just reminisce on the past.However, this book proves that there is a great social movement that ordinary people CAN , RIGHT NOW make a diffrence aboutThe history of Mexico, like the history of Latin America, is a history of pain, struggle, and exploitation. Marcos shows us a movement that seeks to right some of the wrong, and leads a movement of the oldest of the old, the oppressed of the oppressed: Indigenous campesinos (farmers) of Southern Mexico. Where pictures of Jesus Christ stand right there alongside of.....Che Guevara.A people that have been traditionally been treated like dirt, for lack of a better word, now taking an inspirational and highly moving stand and demand an end to exploitation and a better way of life.Through their charismatic and briliant leader, Marcos, he tells us the story of the people known as Zapatistas and their struggle for dignity.The dignity of a people no longer willing to tolerate centuries of injustice.What human being cannot be moved by such extroadinary courage?

How can anyone read el subcommandante and not be moved? How can anyone just look at the plight of these people in Mexico and not feel rage at the injustice?

I have sporadically read and been inspired by the writings of El Sup over the last few years - his poetic brilliance, his lyrical poignancy to strike a blow while planting seeds - and to see the collected works of this remarkable thinker and revolutionary is simply incredible. I encourage anyone who is involved in a struggle, anyone who seeks light in an increasingly dark world, and anyone who believes that a better world is still possible, to get this book. Not a cover to cover read, but an activist manual, a delicious serving brain food and heart food. Again, simply wonderful.

This is no doubt the most interesting book I've come across about the Zapatista movement. There are 3 parts to the book. The first part is about the story of how the Zapatistas came to be, about Marcos' declarations of war, and his reasons behind the uprising. The second goes deeper into the conflict and it's relevance to the world. The third is a colletion of Marcos' stories and poetry. The book initially caught my eye, with Marcos' infamous masked stare, but it's his words that open up my heart and mind. It's outstanding, I'd recommend it to anyone that's interested in this struggle and it's politics.