This Bridge Called Zapatismo

Building Alternative Political Cultures in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Beyond

By (author) Kara Zugman Dellacioppa

Publication date:

13 August 2009

Length of book:

232 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739128497

This book traces the growth of a new kind of transnational social movement inspired by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Mexico that has spread to urban Mexico and abroad. Based on ethnographic data in Mexico City and Los Angeles, this work traces the development of an urban, transnational, and transcultural network of community-based organizations that attempt to implement a Zapatista political vision. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the complex and problematic linkages between these diverse communities and political discourses originating from indigenous communities in Mexico. This study centers on the influence of indigenous cultural politics on urban political culture in Mexico City and Los Angeles.

Chapter 1 Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter Two: The Topography of Urban Zapatismo
Chapter 3 Chapter Three: The FZLN and Urban Zapatismo
Chapter 4 Chapter Four: The Appropriation of Indigenous Thought in Zapatismo
Chapter 5 Chapter Five: "This Bridge Called Zapatismo": Transcultural and Transnational Activist Networks in Los Angeles and Beyond
Chapter 6 Chapter Six: Transnational Zapatismo from Los Angeles, Florida, New York City, and the U.S. Social Forum
Chapter 7 Chapter Seven: Zapatismo in a Transnational Context: New Political Identities

Activists and social movement scholars will find useful insights in this analysis of how Zapatista horizontal political practices spread from the global South to the North through “transcultural activist networks,” influencing other movements from Mexico City to Florida to New York City to Los Angeles. This Bridge Called Zapatismo illuminates the changing political culture of contentious politics in the era of globalization.