(@La Jornada)
On Saturday 2 May in the Oventik caracol in the Chiapas highlands, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) rendered homage to the philosopher Luis Villoro Toranzo, who died on 5 March 2014, and to José Luis Solís López, the teacher “Galeano,” who was murdered on 2 May 2014 by members of the CIOAC-Historical.
Present at the event were relatives and close friends of Don Luis, including the intellectual Adolfo Gilly, his comrade Fernanda Navarro, his son Juan Villoro, and members of the Zapatista General Command, including Comandante Guillermo, who presided over the ceremony, as well Comandante David, who read a message from Pablo González Casanova, and the Subcomandantes Insurgentes Moisés and Galeano.
Those who spoke stressed the academic accomplishments of Luis Villoro and his relationship with the Zapatista movement, and they shared memories of him, including living anecdotes. It should be stressed that Sup Galeano in his comments revealed that Don Luis, having uttered the words “I wish to become a Zapatista,” requested to join the movement. He was assigned armed work. The ashes of the fallen thinker were distributed under a tree in Caracol II in Oventik, thus expressing the philosopher’s profound connection to the movement.
In a parallel sense, relatives and friends of the Zapatista teacher Galeano also attended, including his comrade Luz, his daughter Lizbeth, his son Mariano, and comrades Selena and Manolo, from Nueva Victoria, where Galeano had lived. Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano read some notes rom the personal diary kept by José Luis Solís López in which he relates how he and his family joined the Zapatista movement, participated in the guerrilla struggle, and speaks of his personal relationships with commanders such as Subcomandante Insurgente Pedro, who died during the takeover of Las Margaritas on 1 January 1994. Sup Galeano, who changed his name from Subcomandante Marcos to give life once again to the murdered comrade Galeano, revealed that the nom de guerre was in fact not inspired by the radical journalist Eduardo Galeano, as some media had claimed, but rather had to do with the historical struggle of the guerrilla fighter Hermenegildo Galeana, who was associated with José María Morelos during the Independence War of Mexico.
The homage, which emphasized the continuing struggle of keeping alive the efforts of murdered comrades, closed with the words of Sup Moisés, calling on those in attendance to organize themselves to construct alternatives to the capitalist system.
For more information (in Spanish):
Palabras de la Comandancia General del EZLN en el homenaje a los compañeros Luis Villoro Toranzo y al Maestro Zapatista Galeano (Enlace Zapatista, 2 de mayo de 2015)
Homenaje a Luis Villoro Toranzo y al maestro zapatista Galeano (Radio Zapatista, 3 de mayo de 2015)
El filósofo y el maestro zapatistas (SubVersiones, 4 de mayo de 2015)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: EZLN pays tribute to murdered Support-base and announces organizational changes (10 June 2014)
Chiapas: EZLN communiqué “Pain and rage” (May 18, 2014)
Chiapas: Attacks on EZLN support bases leave one dead and 15 injured among Zapatistas (16 May 2014)
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