The words of María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, spokeswoman for the Indigenous Government Council, in the 2nd Metropolitan Gathering of Networks, Collectives, Organizations, Individuals and Adherents to the Sixth in support of the CIG and its spokesperson Marichuy, held May 19, in the ENAH’s [1] Piña Chan Auditorium

Good Afternoon, compañeras, compañeros, sisters and brothers:

First, thank you for having invited us into this space of the networks that called to continue listening, to continue constructing, to continue walking, and telling you that for our part, as council members, as the National Indigenous Council, we will also continue walking.

We will resume the tour through Baja California where we left off, as a showing that this doesn’t end. We said that it wasn’t the end if the signatures were not sufficient, and so our work continues.

As Carlos said, this goes far beyond the ballot boxes, well beyond July 1st. This struggle that we are thinking, this struggle that we are constructing, this new organization that we think from below, doesn’t fit in the ballot boxes, doesn’t fit in the electoral question. It was a means to make visible all the la problems that exist, and to realize everything that exists throughout national territory.

We toured 26 states of the republic and in all those states there is dispossession in its different presentations; there is repression against attempts at organizing; there are deaths; there are disappeared as a way of repressing and stopping those struggles. Then those above, those who have money and power, they have the clarity that they want, they are clear as to what they’re thinking to do about this Mexico.

At times we fight among ourselves, we wear ourselves out, we think that: “because I am better, I’m going to show you that it can be done” and it’s not true. We must unite. We must start thinking together what to do to survive, to go forward, because what’s coming is stronger, that storm about which our Zapatista brothers speak is a storm that draws near and only those who are organized are those who will succeed. That’s why this tour was that call to organization.

As indigenous peoples we also lack a lot: as indigenous brothers, they have divided our communities, the (political) parties have separated us; the government itself, with its spurious programs that arrives and gets in, confuses and then co-opts the leaders and they lose their influence all around, thinking that they can help their communities and it’s not true. They are placing traps.

Thus the call for organization that was present in our tour.

It’s simply that if we don’t organize ourselves, they are going to continue eliminating us one at a time, they’ll continue incarcerating us and they’ll continue murdering us. Why? It’s because this capitalist system is not interested in those below.

Some indigenous brothers in some communities said: “Look, we had the best lands, they were flat, and they sent us to the mountains, and now they want to take us away from the mountain. Why do they want to take us away? Well, it’s because they saw that there’s gold, that there’s iron, that there’s water, that there are forests:” everything that they can make money from is what interests the power. It is what interests this capitalist system. That’s why the governments are disposed in favor of the owner of capital. They are going to do what he tells them up there above; they make an agreement among them. And if we are separated more and more each day, we are fighting among ourselves, instead of thinking about how to work collectively, how to strengthen ourselves as women, as youth, as workers, as whatever it may be, as the best way is for us to organize ourselves because it’s urgent to do a job from below.

Let’s not run, let’s walk, but let’s not stop, because if we run we’re going to fall and then it will be more difficult. But let’s go walking, and let’s build something together, let’s go walking. That’s why we gave more time for the evaluations, because there are lots of brothers that still didn’t turn in their evaluations. And they are important for this walking.

We must go walking and we have to go asking, constructing together. So, that’s why more time was given and it’s going to be until September, because we have the assembly in October.

The construction of this new Mexico of below, this organization that must emerge, which is now being consolidated, we must not leave. We must continue constructing it, because this monster that we have to face is a big monster, and you can’t remove one part, because you can’t. It’s like the animal with seven heads that if you cut one off more and more are born.

So, that’s why the struggle demands that we are varied, that we are indigenous, workers, campesinos, doctors, lawyers, and all of us who feel identified, because a few have kidnapped this Mexico and they are the ones who are deciding what you do and are annoying us.

That’s why the indigenous communities say: “If the land dies we’re going to die with it, it’s not going to die alone.” That’s why we fight for life, because it’s everything.

We consider that there is a lot to do, there’s a lot of work.

We’re no longer thinking about the elections. Let’s think about how we’re going to organize below, because that continues and then we have to convince more and more people.

Let’s be sad when someone leaves us, not happy; and happy when they come again and again, then, because it has to do with growing, if we’re really clear that what is coming is bigger and urges that we organize with each other and to be in agreement and go forward, each one in his place, each one in his space, each one in his times, in his ways.

We with indigenous peoples, students with students, women with women, workers and so forth are then going to go unifying these struggles. We’re going to think among everyone where we’re going to give it, so that’s why our invitation is going to be for always, we must organize ourselves.

That’s the only thing that will be able to take us forward in the face of this strong destruction that’s coming. Only getting organized below is how those above are going to fall, all alone. We don’t have to knock them down, those of u below need to get organized and then you will see that there will be another world.

So, that’s why we think that this struggle continues and demands mucho more of us, especially those of us who have already walked and toured some states seeing the pain of mothers and fathers. We have seen many pains and that is what encourages us not to stop, but to continue. That’s why we have an agreement, then, to continue with the tour where we left off and from there to other places that we were not able to reach right now, but are important to reach.

So then, it’s an invitation to walk. Where do we go, we’re going to denounce what’s happening below, but we have to be strong because what’s coming, is truly bigger. It’s on a global scale; it’s not just at the level of Mexico.

That’s why it demands a lot of work on our part. Where we were going we told them: “Forgive us, we did not bring anything, we bring work,” because it’s what we offer for changing this world from below, working.

But let’s work together; let’s work in a unified way, recognizing that we have a common enemy.

As Carlos said, the enemy is not among us. He is never going to sit down with us. The enemy is above and is preparing how he’s going to continue dispossessing the people, how he’s going to continue exterminating the inhabitants, how he’s going to continue amending the laws, with reforms to ensure for them that resource.

So, we below will walk constructing collectively, constructing another Mexico. And in a little while you will see that we are going to be more. Don’t get discouraged, don’t despair, but don’t remain passive. Continue walking and, when necessary, we are together.

Then, that is our word, that is our voice, it is our work that we have to do together if we really want to construct something new from below, and in that walking, we are with you, we are ourselves and more than that are not here, but they are there.

Thank you, we invite you to walk in that construction that is not finished. Perhaps others will continue it.

Gracias.

[1] ENAH – la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (the National School of Anthropology and History).

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Originally Published in Spanish by Coordinación Metropolitana

Sunday, June 3, 2018

https://coordinacion-metropolitana.blogspot.com/2018/06/palabras-de-marichuy-durante-el-ii.html

Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee