Translated by Monika Ayu
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) have convened the Tata Juan Chavez Alonso Traveling Seminar , which is a conference of indigenous individuals and organizations to “relaunch” the National Indigenous Congress. The first session will take place this Aug 17-18 in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Participants include indigenous organizations; representatives and delegates of towns, communities, and indigenous neighborhoods; and members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, "who will take the word" inspired by the work and life of the Purepecha leader from Michoacan: Alonso Juan Chavez, who died in a domestic accident on June 2, 2012.
“Tata [papa] was, and is, one of the bridges that we built with others to see ourselves and recognize ourselves as what we are and where we are,” the document released ... states. “His heart was, and is, the perch from which the indigenous people of Mexico look, even though we are not seen; from which we speak, but are not heard; and from where we resist, which is how we walk through life.”The National Indigenous Congress, the document continues,
“is one of the great houses that his hands helped to build. The struggle for the recognition of indigenous rights and culture has, in him, in his memory, a reason and an engine to persevere.”In the context of the seminar, and with the view of Alonso Chavez as "the horizon," individual and organizational participants
“will meet separately to propose an even wider call: the relaunch of the National Indigenous Congress in Mexico; and to make a joint appeal to the people of the continent to resume our meetings.”The document begins with a few words that Alonso Chavez spoke to the Congress of the Union in March 2001:
“We are the Indians that we are, we are peoples, we are Indians. We want to continue to be the Indians that we are. We want to continue to be the peoples that we are. We want to continue speaking the language we speak. We want to continue thinking the words that we think. We want to continue dreaming the dreams that we dream. We want to continue loving those we love. We want to be now what we already are. We want our place now. We want our history now. We want the truth now.”The Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the National Indigenous Congress continued:
“We, as the collective color of the earth, have agreed in our hearts and minds to build a space in which the word of the indigenous people of Mexico and this continent that we call ‘America’ can be heard without intermediaries. This space will carry the name and history of this brother and compañero. We have decided to name this seminar the 'Tata Juan Chávez Alonso Seminar' to emphasize how much our indigenous people have to teach others during these times of pain that now shake all the geographies of the world.”In this seminar
“we will be able to listen to the lessons of dignity and resistance of the native people of America.”It is characterized as a “continuation” of the first Meeting of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, which was held in October 2007 in Vicam, Sonora. The seminar will hold future sessions
"at different locations of indigenous America throughout the continent, in accordance with the geographies and calendars agreed upon by those who convoke this seminar and those who join along the way.”
Its aim is to “build a forum in which the indigenous peoples of the continent can be heard by those who have an attentive and respectful ear for their word, their history, and their resistance.”The first session in August will be at CIDECI-Unitierra [Indigenous Center for Integrated Training, aka the University of the Earth] in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. All organizers, comprising the organizing committee, will extend
“a special invitation to organizations, groups, and individuals who have consistently accompanied the struggle of the indigenous people.”Participants will include indigenous individuals and organizations of Mexico and the Americas, and the event will be open to the public. Spanish original