The Rebel Girls of the Other Campaign

Abstract

The girl with the light-brown dreadlocks and braces thought for only a few moments before settling on a pseudonym. “Ramona,” she says, “for the ‘Zapatista Comandante Ramona.’” “Okay, great,” I replied, “I’ll call you ‘Ramona’ when I write about you.” This young Ramona was 19, and in her last year of high school, when I met her. She and several of her peers had just started a new Zapatista collective, called El Caracol, within their Mexico City school, and Ramona, like her chosen namesake, was clearly at the center of the group. She had been part of the Frente Zapatista for several years before forming her school collective, and she worked hard to bring that experience to her peers without becoming a “leader” or “expert.” With a deep commitment to equality and nonhierarchical organization, Ramona was a frequent facilitator during discussions and planning meetings, as well as a consistent voice for participatory democracy, humility, and careful listening, all of which she saw as central to Zapatismo.