Elio Henríquez, La Jornada correspondent

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. On International Women’s Day, Indigenous women from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) transmitted a text titled “Those Who Are Not Here.”

The text, transmitted by the EZLN’s official page, Enlace Zapatista, is the following:

For the Women Who Are Not Here

Those who are not here.

Their histories.

Their joy and their sadness.

Their pain and their rage.

Their oblivion and their absences.

Their hearts.

Their hopes.

Their dignity.

Their calendars.

Those who came through.

Those who were left behind and to whom we are indebted.

Their cries.

Their silence.

Especially their silences.

Whoever it is, do you hear them?

Who doesn’t see themselves in them?

Women who struggle.

Yes, us.

But most of all, those women.

Those who are not here anymore.

And despite everything, are with us.

Because we don’t forget,

because we don’t forgive,

for them and with them, we fight.

Indigenous Zapatista women,

March 8th, 2021.

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The original published by La Jornada is available here: https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/03/08/politica/mujeres-zapatistas-envian-mensaje-por-el-8m/

Translated by Clara Martinez Dutton for the Chiapas Support Committee.