Most students envision spending spring break relaxing in exotic locations, surrounded by hundreds of likeminded peers.
For eight UNM students, an exotic location will be their destination, but their thoughts will be on establishing solidarity with their Zapatista brothers and sisters. An eight-member delegation will travel to the Oventik Zapatista Caracole in Chiapas, Mexico this week to visit with Zapatista community members and study the movement's autonomous projects.
"The Zapatistas don't allow any alcohol or drugs, so that's a pretty different spring break," said Sandra Ortsman, a master's student in Latin American Studies and community and regional planning. "It's not Daytona Beach, but we'll have fun, too. It's not going to be all work."
Graduate students Fernando Bejar, Joanne Bejar, Byron Bluehorse, Marjorie Childress, Hilda Gutierrez, Mikaela Renz, Ortsman and undergraduate Michael Montoya will leave today for their alternative spring break.
The group has been planning the project since August and received a $3,000 grant from New Mexico Graduate Research to fund the project. They also organized several fund-raisers and received additional funds from the Latin American and Iberian Institute, the Graduate and Professional Student Association, Planners in Latin America and the Associated Students of UNM.
"Every member of the delegation worked hard to raise funding," Ortsman said. "Everyone stayed committed, even when we didn't know if we were going to get the grant."
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She said the delegation will focus on learning how to work collectively from the Zapatistas.
"The Zapatistas have a slogan, 'We want a world where many worlds fit,' and I think what they can teach people from everywhere is an alternative vision of what the world can look like," Ortsman said.
The Zapatista movement began in 1994 when rebels emerged in Chiapas defending agricultural reform, workers' rights and fighting government discrimination against indigenous peoples. The movement operates on a grassroots, community-based planning system that includes a women's weaving cooperative, a health clinic and an autonomous secondary school. Ortsman said the group members will observe each of these institutions and bring back what they learn to help the UNM community.
"We want to evoke the same kind of planning they do," she said. "We're going to have at least one campus presentation when we return and one broader community presentation."
Ortsman, who first came into contact with the Zapatistas last summer at the Zapatista autonomous school where she was in a language program, said she hopes the visit to Chiapas will be the beginning of a UNM tradition.
"I think it would be great if we could have a long-term solidarity relationship with the Zapatistas if this goes well."
