By the time you come back from Oventic, your back will ache to sleep on a real bed, instead of a board. You will be covered in mud and your skin will itch for a hot shower. It’s likely you will be dying to get out of the rain and the cold, especially if you´re a New Mexico desert rat. And you will be a better person for it.
This is why I recommend Oventic as the place to study Spanish this summer.
Oventic is an autonomous Zapatista community (known as caracoles) in Chiapas, Mexico. The Zapatista rebellion began in 1994, when masked rebels took over several cities in Chiapas, and issued a list of demands, including techos (roofs or places to live,) tierra (land of their own) and libertad (you should know what that means; we live in New Mexico, after all.)
In 2003, the Zapatistas created five caracoles in Chiapas, which function completely separately from government interference. Everything in Oventic, which is very impressive by the way, was built by the people living there —– all the infrastructure was created without government aid. The caracoles have their own schools, their own medical clinics, their own governments, and their own police, who will have to clear you before you can enter the area.
In order to enter Oventic, you will have to solicit the Red de Solidaridad con Mexico, or Mexico Solidarity Network, to give you a recommendation to enter the area. This can be done through their its website, which you can find with a simple Google search. You will then print out your recommendation and head to San Cristobal de Las Casas, a tourist city about an hour from Oventic. From there you will take a van for 20 pesos to Oventic.
At the gate you will be greeted by guards wearing pasamontañas, the style of mask preferred by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. This is done to protect their identity from government spies, who do exist in this area.
You will present your recommendation and your passport, which they will take, but don’t worry —– you get the passport back. The guards will ask you a series of questions. Then you will wait outside the gates to see the Junta.
Entering the gates is a strange, exciting feeling —– it’s like crossing a border to a country you’ve never visited. Very cool.
The Junta de Buen Gobierno representatives, also wearing pasamontañas, will ask you the same questions again, presumably to verify you have the same answers, and are not just making up tonterías from thin air.
When they pass you, you begin the school. It is important to note at this point that, as far as I could tell, there was not a single Zapatista in Oventic that spoke English. For most of the people there, Spanish is their second language, after Tzotzil, so it’s kind of a lot to ask that they learn English too, ¿no? All of this is to say that you will have to know a little Spanish to speak to the guards and the Junta.
Spanish classes at Oventic are not like Spanish classes at UNM. You will not spend time memorizing irregular verb conjugations in the Subjuntivo form (although there is a dog that lives there named Subjuntivo, if that’s worth anything.) Instead, your classes will be conducted in Spanish, but cover a broad range of subjects from politics to history to philosophy to Tzotzil culture.
The political teachings, as well, are very different from political science classes at our humble university.
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The Zapatista caracoles function on a very sophisticated and complex political system that is completely, completely different from anything you learned about in Comparative Politics 220. It is completely democratic —– truly democratic, not this “representative democracy” that we worship. The Junta changes regularly, and every community member gets a turn, if they are able to serve.
And, yes, it is very much un sistema socialista. But you will learn all of this if you choose to experience Oventic for yourself.
The price per week to stay there is about $160, including three meals Monday – Friday. On weekends you can eat at the comedor for about $1.50 a meal. Your sleeping arrangements, as I mentioned, involve boards, and you will stay in a dormitory. It may be useful to bring your own sleeping bag, although they provided me one when I was there.
And be open-minded, or you’re not going to get a lot out of the experience. Tzotzil culture is worlds away from our own., Iit is based on ideas of community that the average American cannot begin to wrap his or her head around. And they are very much against our government, as well as the Mexican government. As my teacher told me my first day of class, the most important Spanish phrase to know in Oventic is “¡Pinche capitalismo!”
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For more on the Zapatista movement, and other fascinating things about México, stay tuned to Andrew Beale’s travel blog at dailylobo.com
