A Conversation with Veteran Social Fighter Don José Félix Serdán Nájera
SAN ESTEBAN XOCHIMILCO, MEXICO CITY, OCTOBER 2005: The struggle of the Mexican social left is producing relevant and unprecedented results in southeast Mexico City. The form of autonomous organization that the Zapatista Army of National Liberation’s (EZLN's) "caracoles" -- base communities -- have followed since 2003 is being taken up by residents of the San Esteban neighborhood of Xochimilco (an old town now part of a sprawling Mexico City). Here, the land floats on what Mexico's pre-Hispanic history has patiently prepared as a source of ancient crops. The fertile land of a 100-square-meter chinampa (one of the small islands where traditional agriculture developed on Xochimilco's canal system) hosts the Zapatista Caracol "Tecpanpa," its name a Nahuatl word meaning "place of the palaces." It is here where public space and concern for one’s community transcend the private sphere to become another pillar of resistance against social injustice in Latin America.
The caracol's inauguration was held on the morning of October 22. One of the main events was the christening of a trajinera, one of the colorful boats that serve as the traditional means of transport on the canals that connect Xochimilco's chinampas. From that day on, the caracol's first official rebel trajinera has born the name "Digna Ochoa," after the Mexican social fighter and human rights defender who died in 2001. Her death was, to many, obviously the result of a murder, and not a suicide as was the official explanation. Those responsible for the crime remain shrouded by the veil of impunity.
