Course Description

CIT 220 GOD, CONQUEST & REBELLION   3.0 Credit(s)
This interdisciplinary course explores the unique combination of historical, cultural, intellectual, and religious elements that combined in the development of the Zapatista movement. The Zapatistas announced themselves to the world in 1994 when their guerrilla army of masked Indigenous Mayans took over several towns in southern Mexico, saying, "We are the product of 500 years of struggle." We will examine this 500 year struggle for Mayan rights, from the Conquest of the Americas to the Mexican Revolution, through the 20th century and culminating in the Zapatista Uprising and their ongoing struggle for autonomy from the Mexican government. Along the way we will study the Zapatistas' varied blend of influences: Emiliano Zapata, hero of the Revolution; clandestine cells of Marxist intellectuals and revolutionaries; traditional Mayan spirituality; and Catholic liberation theology, brought to the Mayans by a radical bishop. Finally, we will study the Zapatistas themselves, looking at the history of their founding and training of a guerrilla army, their writing, their unique political philosophy, their ecological vision, their striving for political and economic autonomy, and their understanding of liberation. This course will challenge students to wrestle with these questions: is the Zapatista movement a success or a failure? Is it a helpful model or a doomed Quixotic dream? Does the Zapatista struggle have anything to teach us in our own efforts to affirm human dignity and to struggle for a more just society?
Offered: As Needed Contact Department