Echoes of Yesterday in the Zapatista communities: Fernandez de Lizardi and Ignacio Ramirez

Abstract

From the Reform period to the Porfiriato, indigenous groups struggled against the power of the government. Usually they were defeated (genocide). A capitalist system denied indigenous customs, culture, language and communal ownership of the land. The government forced them to assimilate and to become civilized (ethnocide). Amid a system of oppression, there has always been someone who struggled for justice. Today the Zapatista movement and others indigenous organizations echo that struggle and they have turned into a shinning light for others.