Chiapas Media Project presentation

Sep 03, 2003

The School of Social Sciences, Media and Communications in the Faculty of Arts hosted a special talk by the International Co-ordinator of the Chiapas Media Project, Alexandra Halkin, on 1 September.

The Chiapas Media Project is a bi-national partnership that provides video equipment, computers and training enabling marginalised indigenous and campesino communities in Southern Mexico to create their own media.

For many people who live in the developed world use of video cameras, VCRs, TVs, and computers is a daily occurrence. But this is only a dream for many indigenous people.

For centuries indigenous people and their cultures have been represented by people from the outside. Over the past few years there has been an effort to get new communication technology intothe hands of indigenous people so that they can represent themselves, with their own words and images. This is what the Chiapas Media Project (CMP) is attempting to do in Southern Mexico.

In February 1998, the CMP began as a result of conversations with autonomous Zapatista communities who were requesting access to video and computer technology. The Zapatistas or Zapatista Army of National Liberation, are an indigenous movement made of up Tzotzil, Chol,Tojolabal, Mum and Tzeltal Mayan Indians.

They became known to the world via the internet on January 1, 1994, when they staged an armed uprising and took over six towns in Chiapas demanding that indigenous rights be recognised in the Mexican constitution. Another demand was the formation of indigenous controlled TV and radio throughout Mexico.

Alexandra Halkin presented excerpts from a selection of videos discussing the role of indigenous and campesino produced alternative media in the context of the current political situations in Chiapas andGuerrero.