Content area
Full Text
RURAL SOCIAL HISTORY
Subcommander Marcos: The Man and the Mask. By Nick Henck. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. Pp. xxv, 489. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $89.95 cloth; $24.95 paper.
The Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico, which began in January 1994, is one of the most important revolutions in Latin American history that never defeated a national army or seized the state. This uprising of indigenous peasants and mestizo radicals created a unique political opening that led to one of the most substantial peasant land invasions and re-indigenization of land tenure in Mexican history. This revolution, quickly contained by the Mexican army in a distant and isolated region in a distant and isolated Mexican state, nevertheless inspired millions of Mexicans and uncounted people around the world seeking an alternative to neo-liberal globalization. This outcome was not simply the result of a quixotic armed assault upon the Mexican state. A northern Mexican store-keeper's son, Rafael Sebastían Guillén Vicente-better known by his nom de guerre, Subcomandante Marcos-somehow managed to create a revolution in words, symbols, and myths that had more power and influence than guns and violence.
Nick Henck's book is the first English biography of Marcos. His lengthy study seeks...