Overview

In 1994, the Zapatista rebellion brought international attention to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. This book combines field work with historical and political research to provide a comprehensive history of conflict in this region and an analysis of this rural uprising against federal bureaucracy and landed elites. The book begins with an exploration of the history of ethnic and class conflict in Chiapas and moves on to trace the development of peasant and indigenous organizations in Chiapas since the early 1970s. The author compares three grassroots movements and examines the complexities of political change in the area. The focus is on the primacy of political struggle and on the importance of these movements in the construction and meaning of citizenship.

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9780822322092

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Reviews

This is a carefully documented account of the complex causes of the Chiapas rebellion that uses historical, anthropological and political material to build up an interdisciplinary analysis...The author's political rather than economic approach convinces as it is precisely the unique political situation in Chiapas that distinguishes it from other regions of Mexico with similar social and economic problems, and the overall result is an articulate and comprehensive political study of this region's popular struggle. --British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America, April 2001

This is a carefully documented account of the complex causes of the Chiapas rebellion that uses historical, anthropological and political material to build up an interdisciplinary analysis...The author's political rather than economic approach convinces as it is precisely the unique political situation in Chiapas that distinguishes it from other regions of Mexico with similar social and economic problems, and the overall result is an articulate and comprehensive political study of this region's popular struggle. --British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America, April 2001

Harvey's study offers specific and broad perspectives on the ancient struggle for land and democracy on the fringe of Mexico's political struggles. This valuable book deserves to be widely read. -Thomas Schoonover, University of Southwestern Louisiana In Neil Harvey we are fortunate to have a guide to the growth of political consciousness and region-wide opposition organizations in rural Chiapas who began studying both almost a decade before the 1994 uprising. The Chiapas Rebellion is simply the best account in any language of what has been called 'the steady accumulation in silence' of forces leading up to the Zapatista movement. -Jan Rus, Instituto de Asesoria Antropologica para la Region Maya No scholar has penetrated the peasant movements of southeastern Mexico like Neil Harvey. His remarkable access permitted careful, detailed, and fair reporting, description, and analysis. -Thomas Benjamin, Central Michigan University

Author Information

Neil Harvey is Assistant Professor of Government at New Mexico State University, coeditor of Party Politics in an “Uncommon Democracy”: Political Parties and Elections in Mexico, and editor of Mexico: The Dilemmas of Transition.

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