Subcommander Marcos

Subcommander Marcos

The Man and the Mask

  • Author: Henck, Nick
  • Publisher: Duke University Press
  • ISBN: 9780822339786
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780822389729
  • Place of publication:  Durham , United States
  • Year of digital publication: 2007
  • Month: July
  • Pages: 528
  • DDC: 355.02/18092
  • Language: English
Subcommander Marcos made his debut on the world stage on January 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect. At dawn, from a town-hall balcony he announced that the Zapatista Army of National Liberation had seized several towns in the Mexican state of Chiapas in rebellion against the government; by sunset Marcos was on his way to becoming the most famous guerrilla leader since Che Guevara. Subsequently, through a succession of interviews, communiqués, and public spectacles, the Subcommander emerged as a charismatic spokesperson for the indigenous Zapatista uprising and a rallying figure in the international anti-globalization movement.

In this, the first English-language biography of Subcommander Marcos, Nick Henck describes the thought, leadership, and personality of this charismatic rebel spokesperson. He traces Marcos’s development from his provincial middle-class upbringing, through his academic career and immersion in the clandestine world of armed guerrillas, to his emergence as the iconic Subcommander. Henck reflects on what motivated an urbane university professor to reject a life of comfort in Mexico City in favor of one of hardship as a guerrilla in the mountainous jungles of Chiapas, and he examines how Marcos became a conduit through which impoverished indigenous Mexicans could communicate with the world.

Henck fully explores both the rebel leader’s renowned media savvy and his equally important flexibility of mind. He shows how Marcos’s speeches and extensive writings demonstrate not only the Subcommander’s erudition but also his rejection of Marxist dogmatism. Finally, Henck contextualizes Marcos, locating him firmly within the Latin American guerrilla tradition.

  • Contents
  • Illustrations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Abbreviations and Acronyms
  • Cast of Main Characters
  • Introduction
  • Part I : Rafael
    • Birth and Family
    • School Years
    • High School College
    • UNAM
    • The Graduate
  • Part II : Marcos the Guerrilla
    • Chiapas
    • Guerrilla Inception
    • The Wilderness Years
    • First Contact
    • Promotion and Expansion
    • A Jungle Wedding
    • An Election, Exponential Growth, and a Rift
    • Bust and Boom
    • Fallout
    • From the People’s Guerrilla to a Guerrilla People
    • Indigenous Indignation
    • An Internal Coup and the Road to War
  • Part III : Marcos the Star Spokesman
    • The Uprising
    • “Waging a Masterful Media War”
    • A Cease-Fire
    • The Cult of Marcos
    • Peace Talks
    • Courting Civil Society
    • The Elections and Their Aftermath
    • Marcos Unmasked and Rafael Revealed
    • Nationalizing and Internationalizing theStruggle
    • A March and a Massacre
    • Speedy Gonzalez Breaks the Silence
    • A Consulta, a Story, and a Strike
    • A Change of Government
    • The Zapatour
    • Marcos Today
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Glossary
  • Works Cited
  • Index

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