402 UNIT 3 MODERN MESOAMERICA
These centers, in their past iteration as “Nuevos Centros Aguascalientes” (see
later), have been the sites of major public events in the history of the Zapatista Move-
ment. As Caracoles(their new designation as of July 2003), these centers continue to
embody in public architecture, its function and symbolism, what the Zapatista Move-
ment is about. Although the five Caracolesare officially coequal in status and impor-
tance, the greatest and most esteemed of these symbolic centers of Zapatista power
is La Realidad, located in the Lacandon jungle. Variously described by outside ob-
servers as the Zapatista capital, a tabernacle, or a Mecca, the Zapatistas themselves
call it the Caracol Madre de los Caracoles del Mar de Nuestros Suenos[Caracol Mother of
the Caracoles of the Sea of Our Dreams] (Earle and Simonelli 2005:256).
Interpretations of the meaning of the conch shell symbol vary, but all emphasize
some reference to language, consensus, and continuity from the Mayan past. Dun-
can Earle has stated, on the basis of recent field interviews, that the Zapatistas re-
gard the shell as part of their Mayan heritage, a symbol of time, continuity, and true
speech: la palabra,“the word” (Earle and Simonelli 2005:257). Indeed, one hears
the voice of the sea (past time and former home of the organism) by listening to the
opening of the shell. One can also discern that the conch shell symbolizes the long,
slow, Zapatista consultative process, one in which, following the pattern of the inner
structure of the shell, the body and life of the organism curls round and round in a
spiral. Each round returns to a former position, perhaps capturing the ideal of lead-
ing by obeying, being sure that all opinions are considered. The snail or conch shell
is also said to symbolize the animal’s capacity to retract its body for defense while
also being able to extend its body for slow motion forward.
Caracoleswere formerly called Nuevos Centros Aguascalientes, a name of great
symbolic importance in the history of the Mexican revolution and the formation of
modern Mexico (see Chapter 8). Aguascalientes was the central Mexican site of the
abortive November 1914 meeting of several revolutionary leaders, including Emiliano
Zapata and Pancho Villa, national icons by anybody’s reckoning. The intent of this
meeting was to chart the future of the Mexican Revolution and of the emerging rev-
olutionary state. The meeting failed, the leaders went their separate ways, and the
bloody civil war persisted for several more years.
The Mayan Zapatistas resuscitated the name, memory, and intent of Aguas-
calientes, with more optimistic expectations, in July 1994. The new Aguascalientes
forum, a celebrated, revolutionary political convention called the First National
Democratic Congress, was held in the Lacandon jungle, in Zapatista-controlled ter-
ritory (now the site of the “capital” CaracolLa Realidad), in a hastily improvised am-
phitheatre of posts and canopies. This was a deliberately provocative gesture: The
Zapatista leaders invited candidates of the PRD (the principal left-of-center national
political party), all of whom opposed the then-ruling PRI political establishment.
They also invited a host of national and international media representatives to wit-
ness a political rally that advocated the defeat of the PRI and its so-called neoliberal
policies in the ensuing state and national elections. Presumably, everyone present,
including the PRD representatives, supported the political agenda of their hosts, the
Zapatistas (see Figure 10.2, a Zapatista poster that commemorates this event.)