Mexican Enough by Stephanie Elizondo Griest

Author:Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2008-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Within minutes of bidding me sweet sueños, Rebeca is snoring beside me. I, however, am wide awake and fully attuned to every noise that breaks the night. Flicking on a flashlight, I examine the butcher paper that covers the walls of the hut. Groups like the Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Centre routinely send observers into these communities for periods of two weeks and more—the optimism being that the army or paramilitaries would be less likely to use force against a village inhabited by outsiders. This strategy was employed in the 1980s in Central America as well, with foreigners serving as “human shields” to protect villagers from Contra attacks. In Acteal, observers sleep in this very hut—and many have left their signature. Ciao Chiapas! wrote an Italian; Paola from Spain tabulated each of her fourteen days here two summers ago. A Japanese uses Kanji to inscribe a message.

How can the Abejas refuse to be armed? Ever since someone kicked in—but did not enter—the front door of my parents’ home while we were sleeping, I’ve kept knives beneath my bed; my father, a gun. And nothing even happened to us. I cannot fathom the courage it would take for a village to refrain from similar protective measures after a significant portion of its members had been slain. Especially now. Wouldn’t this be a prime time for the paramilitaries to return, given that so many Zapatista enclaves have closed for the Red Alert? According to the nongovernmental organizations I will later interview, only about a half dozen human rights observers are scattered around Zapatista territories at this time, and Rebeca and I are the only ones in Acteal.

What would we do if someone came? Jump in front of their convoy and snap their photo? Threaten to call someone on my out-of-range cell phone?

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