There is a woman...

"To the male who oppresses and humiliates her, give him the name, the face and the figure that you wish..." Words of the Zapatista communities in Vienna, Austria. September 24, 2021.

In Vienna, Austria. 

In the voice of compañera Libertad, on September 24, 2021

Good afternoon.

This is our own little word in a short little story:

There is a woman.

The color of her skin does not matter, because she has all the colors.

Her language does not matter, because she listens to all languages.

Her race and her culture do not matter, for in her all ways coexist.

Her size does not matter, because she is at once great and yet fits in one hand.

Every day and every hour the woman is assaulted, beaten, wounded, raped, mocked, and scorned.

A male exerts his power over her. 

Every day and every hour, she comes to us, to all of us, female, male and non-binary.

She shows us her wounds, her pains, her sorrows.

And we only give her words of consolation, of pity. 

Or we ignore her.

Maybe as a handout we give her something to heal her wounds.

But the man continues his violence.

We all and you all know how it will end.

She will be murdered and with her death everything will die.

We can continue to give her only words of encouragement and medicine for her ailments.

Or we can tell her the truth: the only medicine that can cure her and heal her completely is for her to confront and destroy the one who violates her.

And we can also become one with her, and consequently, fight at her side.

We, the Zapatista peoples, call this woman "Mother Earth.”

To the male who oppresses and humiliates her, give him the name, the face and the figure that you wish.

We the Zapatista peoples call that murderous male by one name – capitalism.

And we have come to these geographies to ask, and to ask you:

Are we going to continue thinking that today's blows will be solved with salves and painkillers, even though we know that tomorrow the wound will be bigger and deeper?

Or are we going to fight alongside her?

We, the Zapatista communities, have decided to struggle alongside her, by her and for her.

That is all we can tell you.

Thank you very much for listening.

Vienna, Austria, Europe, Planet Earth.

September 24, 2021.

WORDS OF THE ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES ON THE OCCASION OF THE MARCH AGAINST THE DESTRUCTION OF NATURE.

---

Originally published in Mexican-Castilian by EnlaceZapatista.

Translation courtesy of our wonderful Katy K. for taller ahuehuete. Illustrations by Käthe Kollwitz, John Bartholomew Gough and taller ahuehuete. The partial or complete reproduction of this material is encouraged, no attribution required. ¡Frente al gran capital, una milpa en común! | September 2021, ahuehuete.org