CHAPTER 10 THE MAYAN ZAPATISTA MOVEMENT 389Box 10.1 Parallels Between Mayan Calendrical Rites and Zapatista HistoryBeginning at midnight on January 1, 1994—the precise date and time of NAFTA’s inception—the
Mayan Zapatista rebels occupied and held for several days four of the major ladino towns of the
Chiapas highlands, including the old colonial town of San Cristóbal de las Casas, the real and sym-
bolic center of Spanish political, cultural, and economic presence in the highlands since the six-
teenth century. Only a few days later, the Zapatistas kidnapped the ex-governor of Chiapas,
General Absalón Castellanos Domínguez. Regarded by the Zapatistas as a particularly hostile
force in state politics, he was a hated symbol of neoliberalismo,the state, the army, and the old
ladino oligarchy. He was a high-ranking army officer and, as governor of Chiapas, had consis-
tently sided with wealthy ladino landowners in response to Indian appeals for recognition of the
rights to unused land that they were seeking as ejidogrants. Castellanos was released unharmed
(his considerable girth reduced after more than a month of subsisting on an Indian diet of beans
and tortillas) as a token of “good faith” on Ash Wednesday, February 16, immediately following
the four days of Carnival. His capture and release had been a carefully orchestrated and pre-
cisely timed joke!
Subsequent peace talks leading to a cease-fire began in San Cristóbal on Monday, Febru-
ary 21, the first week of Lent. In the great drama that attended this international media event,
which was held in the cathedral of San Cristóbal, monkey-costumed Chamulan clowns—the quin-
tessential Carnival entertainers of the Mayan community of San Juan Chamula—were prominent
in the huge audience of onlookers outside the cathedral (for additional information on Chamula,
see Chapters 8 and 13). The monkey clowns, apparently unauthorized by the government of their
own town, which was anti-Zapatista, voiced unambiguous support for the Zapatista cause; that
is, they did not follow the “rules” of their own community. What does all of this mean?
In part, it is resonant with what historians and anthropologists have often noted about Mayan
action in history, that it is guided by a calendrical schedule, suggesting that all that happens, di-
vine and human, is cosmically programmed to take place according to recurring cycles of actu-
alization. The most famous historical example of this behavior was the capitulation to Spanish
authority of the Peten Itza Mayan town of Tayasal on March 13, 1697, at the end of the spring plant-
ing season and the beginning of a Katun,the Mayan calendrical unit of twenty vague solar years
(18 months of 20 days equals 360 days) (“vague” because five days are not accounted for). This
cycle intercalates with other ritual cycles to form the Mayan Short Count calendar, during which
prophecies stated that conquest and conversion “had” to happen (on the Mayan calendarical sys-
tem, see Chapters 1 and 14).
More recent research suggests a longer, more contentious process of Mayan prophecy and
politicking over several Katun cycles in the seventeenth century—and a more violent final as-
sault—but Spanish victory ultimately did occur according to the prophecy, at spring planting
time. In other words, this event took place close to Carnival time at the beginning of a Katun. This
was the end of the so-called “Conquest” in Mesoamerica, and the timing happened as much on
Mayan terms as on Spanish ones.do not see this script, but it is there. Both the Zapatistas and their adversaries ap-
pear to subscribe to it.
And the story continues. In May 2001, The Mayan Zapatistas completed a the-
atrical event of nearly epic proportion. I refer to a much-publicized journey—perhaps
pilgrimage is a better word—which the English and Spanish language media dubbed
the “Zapatour,” comparing it with a rock star caravan and its entourage. This event
even had its own Web site address (Narco News 2001). The journey began in the re-
mote Zapatista strongholds of the Lacandon jungle and proceeded by bus caravan