Marcos expressed the Zapatista ideology through stories that serve as ways to relate to and better understand the Zapatista movement and ideology. Two stories that best captured this were The Story of Colors and The Story of Dreams.
The Story of Colors
Marcos describes how the colors of the world came to be through the story of the gods. In this story there are two colors black and white and gray (that is not a color but acted as a mediator between black and white so they would not fight). One day the gods decided to make more colors to make the life more enjoyable. The gods created seven other colors that got together amongst themselves to make more colors. The gods threw the colors around carelessly creating different colored people that think differently. According to Marcos the macaw is used to remind people “how happy the world will be when all the colors and ways of thinking have a place” (Ponce de Leon, 375).
The significance of this story in relation to the Zapatista movement is that within Zapatista ideology is the understanding that there is enough space in the world for the indigenous people of Mexico to get what they want and need without taking away from others. Because of this the Zapatistas fought for the rights of indigenous people.
The Story of Dreams
Similar to the Story of Colors this story also acts as a metaphor and provides an understanding about Zapatista ideology. Here dreams were created by the gods and the earth is a mirror of the dream gods live. It is also “the injustice governments create that disorders the world and sets a few above the many below” (Ponce de Leon, 381) something the Zapatistas sought to work against. Along with the dreams the gods gave the men of corn, in this case indigenous people of Mexico, dignity. Through dignity men are equal and if not will fight to become equal. In an effort to keep men and women free, working together and equal the gods made four points.
This story reflects Zapatista ideology that no one should be above anyone else and cooperative work ethic.
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