Genève Gil I recently collaborated with Tamara Ford in writing a chapter on the Zapatistas and the Internet for John Downing's book "Radical Media : Rebellious Communication and Social Movements" (Sage Publications, August 2000).
As a Master's candidate in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, I wrote my thesis on the role of new media in the Zapatista movement. I completed nearly all of my coursework in the Radio-Television-Film department, exploring multimedia production and interface design in the ACTlab with Professors Sandy Stone and Eric Gould.
I conceived of this website when I discovered a lack of online resources addressing women's issues in the Zapatista context. I realize that primary resources are scarce in this field, and that the hard facts of women's experience in the jungles of the Lacandón are all but impossible to glean from the elusive exposure we have to the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, let alone the Zapatista army -- even if we go there and put our whole hearts into the process. My hope is that this can be a space of collaboration and dialogue, even contention, perhaps, in which we may all discover something we may have missed in our attempts to understand what kind of feminism and revolutionary action may or may not be unfolding in the minds and hearts of women in the conflict zone.
I worked with ZapNet for two years, participating (as able) in the development of the ZapNet CD-ROM and web sites, and in opening lines of communication with others involved in Zapatismo in the United States and Mexico. In April of 1996 I traveled to Oventic, La Realidad, and San Cristobal with Acción Zapatista, as a representative of ZapNet.
My mother grew up in Mexico City and Chihuahua. My first trip to Chiapas was in 1986. At that time, I began ethnographic field work on religious syncretism in Tzotzil and Tzeltal communities -- an exploration I never completed, due to the complexities of such an undertaking (and because I was 18, and I got typhoid). My work with ZapNet has followed naturally from the respect and admiration I have held for the indigenous communities in Chiapas for eleven years.
ZapNet @ ACTlab In 1995 three graduate students in the Radio-Television-Film department conceived of a multimedia project addressing issues of identity in cyberspace and the Zapatista uprising: Troy Whitlock, Jef Bekes and Tamara Ford. Together with other participants, they developed an interactive CD-ROM entitled "The Revolution Will Be Digitized." They have all since graduated from The University of Texas.
"The Revolution" was, for many years, an ongoing, collaborative, creative piece involving participants from all over the Americas and abroad. Those of us who worked on "The Revolution" call ourselves ZapNet (The Zapatista Net of Autonomy and Liberation).