To national and international civil society;
To the participants in the civil society-EZLN encuentro of November 1998

Brothers and sisters:

Multiple and varied greetings. As agreed at the encuentro in San Cristobal, we zapatistas received the mandate to draw up - taking into account the presentations and participation there - the convocation for the Consultation for the Recognition of the Rights of the Indian Peoples and for the End to the War of Extermination.

This reminds me of what old Antonio once recounted to me...Do you remember old Antonio? Good, well, he told me something which has to do with the reasons for adding to and multiplying convocations, mobilizations, consultations and other irreverent acts.

It was a dawning in December. Dawnings in December in the mountains are cold and rainy. The fog binds itself to the trees and gives them new forms and shadows. And so there I was, watching the solitary column of smoke from my pipe, guessing, perhaps, that the fog would arrive later to give harbour to that cloud coming from my lips, when a form, half-fog, half-shadow, emerges from a nearby tree, and, with weary step, arrives next to me and tells me: Wisdom is not in knowing many things or in knowing much about one thing. I tremble. A bit from the cold, another bit from the fog, very much from what I heard, and some more from the surprise of recognizing old Antonio behind the brief flash of the match lighting his rolled cigarette I did what I always do under these circumstances: I rubbed my knees, chewed my pipe and pronounced a wise "Mmmmh". Old Antonio sat down at my side, arranged his cigar in the left corner of his mouth and, murmuring, gave form, color and warmth to the...
History of the one and the all.

There was a time in which there was no time. It was the time of the beginning. It was like the dawn. It was not night nor was it day. The time was just like that, without going to either side nor coming from any part. There was no light but nor was there darkness. It was the time in which the greatest gods lived, those who gave birth to the world, the very first. The oldest of our old say that those first gods were seven and that each of them were two. The most ancient of of our ancient ones say "seven" is how the most ancient number all, and that one is always two in order to walk. That is why they say that the very first gods were each two and they were seven times. And these most great gods were not created wise and great. They were small and knew little. But they did speak much and talk to each other much. These first gods were nothing but words. They all spoke much, at the same time, and none of them understood anything of the others.

Although these gods spoke much, they understood little. But, namely, the how and the why!, there came a moment in which all of them remained quiet at the same time. One of them spoke then and said and said to himself that it was good that when one would speak the others would not speak and thus the one who was speaking could be heard and the others who were not speaking could hear him and what they must do was to speak in turns. The seven who are two in one were in agreement. And the most old of our old say that was the first accord in history, that of not just speaking, but of also listening.

The gods looked about the corners of that dawn in which there was still no day nor night nor world nor men nor women nor animals nor things. They looked and they realized that all the little bits of that dawn were speaking truths and that one alone cannot listen to all the corners, and thus they divided the work of listening to the dawn and thus they could learn everything which the world at that time, which was not yet world, had to teach them.

And so the first gods saw that the one is necessary, that it is necessary in order to learn and to work and to live and to love. But they also saw that the one is not enough for setting the world in motion. And this is how the first gods, the most great, those who gave birth to the world, became great and knowing. These gods knew to speak and to listen. And they were wise. Not because they knew many things or because they knew much of one thing, but because they understood that the one and the all are necessary and suficient.

Old Antonio goes. I remain waiting. Waiting as waiting for the sea and the wheat, that is, knowing they will arrive...because they have not gone.

Vale.
Salud and do not forget Acteal.
Memory is the root of wisdom.

>From the mountains of the Mexican southeast.
Subcomadante insurgente Marcos
|Mexico, December 1998

PS of the super-showing: It's coming now! (Or has it come???) Don't miss it! The hit of the end of century! A jewel of the sixty-ninth art! What is it about? Nothing more and nothing less than...A video-hit! Yesss! Filmed in its totality in the mountains of the Mexican southeast! Special effects of the most abysmal quality! Wide distribution! Neither Sharon Stone is appearing, nor Leonardo Di Caprio, nor Gwyneth Paltrow nor Robert de Niro nor Meg Ryan nor Al Pacino nor Julia Roberts nor Brad Pitt nor Susan Sarandon nor Edward James Olmos nor Marisol Padilla nor Gene Hackman nor Demi Moore nor Bruce Willis nor Jennifer Lopez nor John Travolta nor etcetera! Nor the brothers Almohada and even less the Bichirs'. Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon? No way! (Yes, I know I've missed many, but the post-script and the ink are running out). Not even one extra! Absolute stars! Unknowns, yes, but stars! No, none of them have won any prize whatsoever! Not even in the barrio lotteries! Not suitable for IQ's under 0.1! (Not a chance. Not Rabasa nor Orive nor Albores are going to be able to see it). Rated X to the Xth! Forbidden for the Supreme! (It would seem that none of them are suitable). Don't miss it! You'll never see it at the Festival! Jis and Trino recommend it before, after, or in place of! Oliver Stone refused to direct it! Fellini died of envy!

Finally! The only! (Fortunately)

The video-hit which everyone is (not) waiting for!:

Sup-Speedy and the Consultation

First Part

Demands that the Fifth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona be included in the video (I don't know if we are going to include it, but if you want, you can demand it).

A super-production, sponsored by Pirates of the Sea Musical Productions, Carpenter of Paper Privateer Videos (Say yesss! to piracy) and Huaraches Yepa Yepa (the only glo-ba-lized huarache).

(Note: none of these businesses are on the Fobaproa list, or however it is now going to be called since Calderon's PAN is going to want to convince us that he did what he did because he was thinking of all Mexicans and of "the well-being of the family").

Ask for it from the pirate distributor closest to your heart!

PS, other: Anticipating that we will have tons of requests for this video, I'll tell you straight out that we haven't made anything yet. What's more, we don't even have any idea how to do it. But won't that be better?

PS, for the 3000 from the encuentro: Do you remember about "Bombs, Firefighters and Lights"? Good, then that production would be, as they say, "pre-modern". This one which we haven't made is much better (Maybe because we haven't made it).

PS, another of the other: Don't be scared! We'll come up with something!

Vale of replay. Salud and no, I don't know when the video will be ready.

The Sup, thinking that the recording of the video camera is something like "remembering".

Originally Published in Spanish by the EZLN
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Translated by irlandesa