Wisdom of snails
Photo by Santa Rosa
“The wise ones of olden times say that the hearts of men and women are in the shape of a caracol, and that those who have good in their hearts and thoughts walk from one place to the other, awakening gods and men for them to check that the world remains right. They say that they say that they said that the caracol represents entering into the heart, that this is what the very first ones called knowledge. They say that they say that they said that the caracol also represents exiting from the heart to walk the world”. The caracoles will be like doors to enter into the communities and for the communities to come out; like windows to see us inside and also for us to see outside; like loudspeakers in order to send far and wide our word and also to hear the words from the one who is far away.”
A beautiful story of the Zapatista revolution in Mexico. In the 14 years since the Zapatistas pressed their claims in Chiapas, the architecture of the snail has become the way that the people talk about their revolution: it starts in the centre and spirals outward, and slowly and surely, it gets where it is going:
The United States and Mexico both have eagles as their emblems, predators which attack from above. The Zapatistas have chosen a snail in a spiral shell, a small creature, easy to overlook. It speaks of modesty, humility, closeness to the earth, and of the recognition that a revolution may start like lightning but is realized slowly, patiently, steadily. The old idea of revolution was that we would trade one government for another and somehow this new government would set us free and change everything. More and more of us now understand that change is a discipline lived every day, as those women standing before us testified; that revolution only secures the territory in which life can change. Launching a revolution is not easy, as the decade of planning before the 1994 Zapatista uprising demonstrated, and living one is hard too, a faith and discipline that must not falter until the threats and old habits are gone – if then. True revolution is slow.
oh, what a gorgeous story this is. hope and dignity, land and liberty. i love this paragraph:
“This says very directly that you can reach out and change the state and its institutions, which we recognize as revolution, or you can make your own institutions beyond the reach of the state, which is also revolutionary. This creating ”” rather than simply rebelling ”” has been much of the nature of revolution in our time, as people reinvent family, gender, food systems, work, housing, education, economics, medicine and doctor-patient relations, the imagination of the environment, and the language to talk about it, not to speak of more and more of everyday life. The fantasy of a revolution is that it will make everything different, and regime revolutions generally make a difference, sometimes a significantly positive one, but the making of radical differences in everyday life is a more protracted, incremental process. It”™s where leaders are irrelevant and every life matters.”
i love the language of radical and revolutionary creation and imagination.
thanks for the pointing out, chris
love, christy
“We apologize for the inconvenience, but this is a revolution.” – Subcomdante Marcos
The Zapatista movement has a way to connect the wisdom of their ancestors and land into a social justice movement that is humble and righteous. From the jungles of the south eastern Mexico, to the Mountains of South western British Columbia, the lessons are the same, the cause the same, the weapons are the same.
Always inspiring to see their words.
Well – here I sit in amazement once again. This is a story I did not know that I was ready to be reminded of – but I found my way here and voila here it is! It brings inspiration, truth, comfort. I am particularly resonating with this excerpt at the moment:
“…revolution only secures the territory in which life can change. Launching a revolution is not easy, … and living one is hard too, a faith and discipline that must not falter until the threats and old habits are gone ”” if then. True revolution is slow.”
Ah, patience, caracoles – such gentle teachers.
thank you for sharing this chris! weaving in this story of the zapatistas as told through rebecca solnit. i hadn’t seen this essay by solnit. close to my heart all this. the zapatistas have been an inspiration for me since before 1994 and thanks to my being the news director at a truly independent public radio station in the 90’s, i was able to read each of the communiques of marcos as they came through. it tied the north with the south and it reminded us here of what was happening in other parts of the world. it brings goosebumps to me now to reflect on this story that continues to unfold – we walk because we have a long way to go. the sense of deep patience that we must hold for this journey. i remember when cecilia rodriguez came to the states as a spokesperson for the ezln when the war was going strong in the mid-90s and i asked her what could we do? i thought she would tell me to tell my listeners, we need boots (because they did), or food (because they did) or money (because they did), but she said, educate your people about what is going on in mexico. this is the way of the caracole. it has stayed in me as a strong new pattern for how to create change.
what is often not seen is how marcos and the zapatistas inspired a movement globally for independent media and for a network of networks. anyone who was at the birth of indymedia looked to the zapatistas. the words of these people from the lacondon jungle.
christy, i loved your choice of quotes and especially this: “you can make your own institutions beyond the reach of the state”. when there was an election in the state of chiapas and a governor was elected who was not elected by the people, their response was to have another election and choose their own governor. wow. i want this kind of vision and action to be more present in this country, on this northern turtle island. what holds us back?
the paragraph that precedes that quote highlights to me what was going on with the transcendentalists in this country: “There”™s a wonderful passage in Robert Richardson”™s biography of Thoreau in which he speaks of the Europe-wide revolution of 1848 and says of the New England milieu and its proliferating cooperative communities at that time, “Most of the founders were more interested in building models, which would be emulated because they succeeded, than in the destruction of the existing order. Still American utopian socialism had much in common with the spirit of 1848.”
and my heart wants to know how i can enage with this story in a deeper way that has lasting change – the wise action that continues….
“Beyond that, the Zapatistas have given the world a model ”” and, perhaps even more important, a language ”” with which to re-imagine revolution, community, hope, and possibility. Even if, in the near future, they were to be definitively defeated on their own territory, their dreams, powerful as they have been, are not likely to die. And there are clouds on the horizon: the government of President Felipe Calderón may turn what has, for the last 14 years, been a low-intensity conflict in Chiapas into a full-fledged war of extermination. A war on dreams, on hope, on rights, and on the old goals of the hero of the Mexican Revolution a century before, Emiliano Zapata: tierra y libertad, land and liberty.”
i wonder how are we connected with our brothers and sisters in the south and the gifts they have given us and this war on their dreams is a war on us….how do i hold this?
Sheri, Christie, Christy and Dustin, thanks for these comments. I love the way you are all pulling something from this piece. There is a little collaborative essay in all this about hope and the slow work of social change.
So privileged to have your minds and hearts in my life, taking the time to share these stories and insights here.
Thank you ALL!!!
Hello! I’ve been following your web site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Huffman Tx! Just wanted to say keep up the good work!