Review: La Barrikada
Recently a compañero of mine who was living in Oaxaca, Mexico sent me a lovely hard copy of the Spanish language journal - La Barrikada, issue number three. According to the cover, La Barrikada is a place where dreams are born and rebels blossom, and the path to liberation is through autonomy and self-determination. This is the magazine that was created from the love, rage, and desire of living alongside the barricades of Oaxaca, Mexico during the summer and fall of 2006. So far four issues have been published, and I've only had the chance to check out issues #3 and #4, but it seems like a pretty interesting collective project with latest issue being done largely in color.
You who no longer dance in the streetA Brief Yet Triumphant Review
Who have given up on winning
But not yet on giving in;
Have you made your peace with war?
Did they bribe you to betray
Your scorn for bribery and betrayal?
Would you seek accommodation
With the ones who broke your heart
And trade the bitterness of struggle
For the sour grapes of defeat?
By Wild Turkey Desire
Sometimes published over la red aqui
Recently a compañero of mine who was living in Oaxaca, Mexico sent me a lovely hard copy of the Spanish language journal - La Barrikada, issue number three. According to the cover, La Barrikada is a place where dreams are born and rebels blossom, and the path to liberation is through autonomy and self-determination. This is the magazine that was created from the love, rage, and desire of living alongside the barricades of Oaxaca, Mexico during the summer and fall of 2006. So far four issues have been published, and I've only had the chance to check out issues #3 and #4, but it seems like a pretty interesting collective project with latest issue being done largely in color.
Here is my rough English translation of the table of contents from issues #3 and #4:
Issue #3
- Between Heaven and Hell, Rebellion Lives
- The Four Seasons of the Oaxaca Social Movement
- Religion and Popular Struggle: Our Senora of the Barricades
- Recovering Our Cultural Inheritance: No to the Privatization of the Guelaguetza
- We are Not Minorities, We are Black
- A Night of Military Terror: Testimony of a Threat Heard 'Round the Country
- Oaxaca: The Colors of the APPO
- The Education Conflict in Pinotepa de Don Luis
- And These Filthy?
- Politics vs. Ecology
- The country... The country
- Urban Shadows
- The Vampire and Death's Darkness
- Words to Valeria
- Liberty for Political Prisoners: A Letter from David Venegas
- In Regards to the Words of Tough Skin (poem)
Issue #4
- Oaxaca: When the Silence Explodes
- We're Subversives Before Injustice (and sometimes we bleed, to grow!)
- Plastic Art and Community from the Barrios
- Guelaguetza: Power or Service?
- Apparently Without Title
- Fear and the City of Juárez
- Art and Culture in Oaxaca
- Review: Eroticism and Other Fineness (Erotomanias y ortas sutilezas)
- Something Thrown
- CACITA: Autonomous Center for Intercultural Creation of Adapted Technology
- Of Black and White, Memories of a Dalmatian
- Guelaguetza: Symbol of Reciprocity
- The First Dream I've Had
- And of an Inconclusive Dream I've Had Appearing Out of Our Barricade
- Union Resistance from 25 Years of Neoliberalism
- Theoretical Debates - Socialism of the XXI Century and Recent Times
- To Your Heart (poem)
- No One Can Escape Lust (poem)
I haven't read everything yet, but so far I think it's a good read with a nice design and engaging pictures, which are nice - especially if you don't know Spanish (just look at all the pretty pictures). It seems like there is some good stuff coming out of this international collective publishing effort. The basic layout of the journal is in sections, such as "Politics, Opinion, and Other Inferno"(see also essays, reviews, and poems), "Towards Indigenous Literature", "Liberty for Political Prisoners", and other misc. like the "Rosa Zone".
One of the articles I found interesting was the one about Socialism in the XXI Century and recent history, even if only because it was written by Sergio Jorge Pastrana, the Secretary of Exterior Relations for Science Dept. of Cuba. I was intrigued and skeptical at first because I was thinking why would a magazine about living on the barricades publish something from someone who works for the government of Cuba? Is this a joke? Then I read it and was disappointed to find the article kind of has the flavor of stale left overs from Cuban censored rice and beans propaganda. Although, who knows maybe it is just a cruel joke, among the otherwise good reads.
Some of the articles I liked were about the struggle in the Guelaguetza against privatization. Imagine a sort of ancient tradition of the really really free market mutual aid vs. Yankee capital-tourists hordes of plastic knick-knacks. The word Guelaguetza comes from the Zapotec language and means "reciprocal exchanges of gifts and services". Check out these graphic pictures from this past years celebration/repression with Spanish commentary.
It was nice to read a letter from the political prisoner David Venegas, who was also instrumental in helping start the magazine. From what I know he is still in the slammer, but I'm not exactly sure. Here is part of his story from an Oaxaca Libre article:
The truth is that they arrested him while he was walking along the street with two other people. Without showing an arrest warrant, the Ministerial Police beat him and took him prisoner. When he was brought before the public prosecutor and the news media, they planted drugs on him. According to what David has told us, they tried to plant a very large package on him that he could not see but that he supposed contained drugs; however, when the policemen saw that the package didn’t fit in the bag David was carrying, they planted a smaller bag of white powder on him, apparently cocaine and heroin.Sounds just like some corrupt Mexican police to me, but what else is new?
When they were about to take pictures of him in order to present him to the news media as a drug dealer, David received several blows for refusing to hold two issues of the magazine La Barrikada, upon which the bag of white powder, seemingly cocaine or heroin, had been placed. David does not know where he was at the time this happened.
When he gave his statement at the UMAN, they presented David with two smaller bags of white powder, with which he was forced to be photographed.
Overall, if you know how to read Spanish and think you'd enjoy some stories from the barricades you might like to check out this journal. You can view it online for free, or perhaps get in touch with the magazine through e-mail and ask for a hard copy. Cover price quote of recuperation is $15 Mexican pesos, which translates roughly into the change you make it. Contact la [dot] barricada [dot] oaxaca [at] gmail [dot] com or labarrikad [at] hotmail [dot] com to get in touch with the cyber faction of La Barrikada.
Here in Upstate, New York the majority of the migrant farm workers come from Oaxaca or the neighboring Mexican States of Veracruz and Chipas. It'd be cool if some United States of America, primarily English distros could start distributing more Spanish language journals from across the Americas, and in turn, perhaps reach the migrant populations throughout the Americas. After all, not everyone speaks English!
Pero, Yo No Entiendo Castellano!
Can't understand Spanish? Don't grab your dictionaries just yet, because the Vancouver-based Comuna of the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magon" (CIPO-VAN) is looking for financial support to publish an English version of the magazine "to spread the words that these talented Oaxacans are writing". Get in touch with CIPO-VAN through their email address if interested in donating funds or helping out with translations- cipo.van [at] gmail [dot] com and support alternative spaces of creative resistance! Although, I must say - it is always nice to read the real deal, and not just an authors translation, but still translations are important!
Whois CIPO-VAN?
CIPO-VAN is a Vancouver-based grass roots activist organization committed to creation of community and transnational networks. Our primary focus is the dissemination of information and perspectives on autonomous community organizations and the strengthening of public awareness and civil society through public events and alternative media. Our areas of interest are aboriginal cultural rights, sustainable community living, and resolutions to cultural and economic discrimination. We are composed of students, professionals, Canadians, Mexican and Internationals of different cultures. We are guided and inspired by many aspects of indigenous Mexican culture including food, fiesta and communal participation. We take our example from indigenous activist groups like the Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magon" and the Zapatistas among others.***************************************************************
For more information, you may also like to check out:
Review of - The People Decide: Oaxaca's Popular Assembly
This is What Recuperation Looks Like: the Rebellion in Oaxaca and the APPO
Incendio A collective is publishing this bilingual (Spanish/English) journal called Incendio (wildfire). It is their intention to use the journal to connect English/Spanish speaking anarchists throughout the world to anarchist, indigenous, ecological, and social struggles occurring throughout Latin America.
A L@s Barrik@das!
Disclaimer: A Call Up to Write More Reviews!
Those who can, write; those who can't, write reviews. Writing reviews is the surest shortcut to a sensation of power for those who lack the dedication necessary to create something of actual worth. In passing judgment on others' work, the reviewer experiences a fleeting high of self-importance cheaper than any other. --- an excerpt from The Fine Art of Criticism: A How-To Guide for Aspiring Journalists published in Rolling Thunder, issue number threeOuch! (hardy har har harrr...)
