Conversations With Don Durito: The Story of Durito and the Defeat of Neo-Liberalism
by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
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Description
'We are all Zapatistas.' Subcomandante MarcosThis book began in 1994, when Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos replied to a 10-year-old girl from Mexico City who had sent him a drawing. The ensuing collection of related tales about the warrior-beetle, narrated by his pipe-smoking, black-ski-masked human squire is an extraordinary account for the general reader of current global political struggle.Marcos created a humorous fictitious character, Don Durito, a beetle with Quixotic fantasies which show more regards Marcos as his Sancho Panza. In this book, Marcos creates a new political genre, so-called "postdata": ironical commentaries which he affixes to his formal communiqués or declarations. In one of them he even offers to perform a striptease for government negotiators.'We are the product of 500 years of struggle...They [Mexican government] don't care that we have nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a roof over our heads; no land, no work, no health care, no food, no education... nor is there peace nor justice for ourselves and our children. But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!' First EZLN declaration of war, December 31st 1993The Zapatistas are not Marxist, Rightists, or Anarchists. They seek not to replace one infrastructure of power with another, thus rejecting the normal goal of an armed struggle. They are armed but do not use violence as a tool to expand their aims. Although a localized rebellion, the Zapatistas are unified in a worldwide struggle that transcends the mainstream media's limited perspective through eloquent dictations distributed globally via the Internet.With a fresh perspective and tactics that have never been seen in relation to an armed insurrection, the EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) has changed the definition of what revolution means. From the marginalized confines of the poorest region in Mexico, a new concept of revolutionary change with a new solution to societies woes is currently being proposed. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This book tells the tales of the struggle of one man to stay true to his people and to himself. The clever use of a beetle as a way of talking to himself lightens the book giving it a humorous side. Very educational, a good teaching tool for history, political and literature classes, as well as cultural aspects that contribute to the thinking of character development. The book alternates between conversations and narrative which breaks up the monotony that usually accompanies politically oriented books. For this reason it's a great book for high school teachers to us as a companion for a textbook to give students a broader view of what they are learning.
The most fun Zapatista book
Accion Zapatista is an organisation that gathers and redistributes information about the Zapatistas and the struggle for democracy in Mexico. It protests US support of the Mexican governments and supports local struggles that challenge neo-liberal policies and institutions.
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65 Works 1,250 Members
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 809 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism History, description, critical appraisal of more than two literatures
- LCC
- F1236 .M37 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America Latin America. Spanish America Mexico
- BISAC
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- 37
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- 782,309
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (5.00)
- Languages
- English
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- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
