Zapatistas Live by Olmeca (@Olmecaone)

“Zapatis­tas Live” is a song writ­ten by Olmeca a Hip-Hop artist based in USA. The pro­duc­tions was inspired by the recent attacks and murder of Escuel­ita Zapatista teach­er Galeano.

Inspir­ing us to take action Olmeca’s efforts have giv­en him a place amongst social justice dig­nit­ar­ies speak­ing and per­form­ing along­side Dolores Huerta, Naomi Klein, Luis J. Rodrig­uez to name a few.

More inform­a­tion:http://olmecaone.com/
Read more about the Zapatis­tas: https://www.iamhiphopmagazine.com/?x=0&y=0&s=zapatista

Zapatista Live

While we stay dormant move­ment pro­ceeds and pre­vails

Many find it dif­fi­cult to recog­nize a move­ment with such longev­ity
They only shortly fought the army in a 12 day war
They didn’t take state power or cease con­trol
They didn’t real­ize a new con­sti­tu­tion
and those who par­ti­cip­ate in the oth­er cam­paign only found con­fu­sion.

Heart­break for many they thought they would see Mar­cos in a ped­es­tal forever
But those of us who know the pro­cess know bet­ter
Many folks took in media’s sen­sa­tion­al­ism for many years
and when the lights were out many walked away angry and in tears
No photo ops and no auto­graphs so now you take anoth­er path?

Most dan­ger­ous than guns is aban­don­ment and believ­ing that no news cov­er­age means no exist­ence.

up until 2012, say­ing Zapat­ismo was like speak­ing of an old band …
“they’re still around?”
And some of us con­tin­ued to be wit­nesses …
eyes on the earth soil from which hope grows

I saw them toil work through rain, thun­der storm and sun that boiled.
No media, no gath­er­ings, no non­sense, just exer­cising their right to be free.

But it exposed them to danger…
and for those years, the gov­ern­ment respon­ded with advanced tac­tics we are way too famil­i­ar with
gov­ern­ment pro­grams sur­round­ing lib­er­ated ter­rit­ory

Gov­ern­ment build­ing empty struc­tures next to the Zapatis­tas build­ing autonomy
Tour­ist attrac­tions next to cul­tur­al pro­jects.
one selling cul­ture and the oth­er res­cuing it from cap­it­al­ist expos­ure.

health clin­ic with cyn­ic­al plots mim­ic death count in met­ro­pol­it­an cit­ies…
while Zapatista clin­ics treat those who’ve poin­ted guns at their kids des­pite their polit­ics
… this per­spect­ive is pro­lif­ic.

As eyes and cam­er­as retreated guns and bar­rels con­tin­ue advan­cing
cops and mil­it­ary uni­forms pos­i­tion them­selves atop point­ing toward the crops!
Heli­copters hov­er­ing over stu­dents, kid­nap­pings, burn­ing homes and food that grows!
Medi­cine that grows?

The enemy knows the Zapatis­tas are real and so are their tac­tics…

For more dan­ger­ous to a gov­ern­ment isn’t armed con­flict but know­ing that they can be obsol­ete.
Obsol­ete because an entire people cre­ated their own good gov­ern­ment, schools and clin­ics
Their own col­lect­ives and in the pro­cess, came to fully grasp that the only solu­tion to liv­ing in dig­nity is to build it your­self.
Now theres an entire gen­er­a­tion of young lead­ers who grew up…not in a move­ment, but in a way of life.

The Zapatis­tas aren’t a thing of the past, but an undeni­able present.
the oppos­i­tion is simply revert­ing back to 1996 tac­tics killing teach­ers the seed keep­ers…

I hope we all respond back.
Respond with com­pañer­ismo, com­pañerisma
In the love with have shown and the love that hey have Giv­en
I say respond!
At the expense of admit­ting that some only return when guns are drawn in a time of con­flict and media atten­tion
I say this… come back, respond…and show the world
this move­ment is not alone!

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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