Aguacatenango

¨Where I come from, they call Aguacatenango, a tseltal community in Los Altos de Chiapas. In our community there is a lot of division. Missionaries have kept arriving for years. We were catholics, but later some of us became part of the ´other religion´. They left going to our church and they started talking badly about us. So we congregated and decided that they better leave. So they left for Teopisca, were people of their religion gave them houses. But Teopisca is a town, there is no land to grow anything, so everything is bought. So they came back after three years and started a new colony on the other side of the road. The catholics let them build their houses, but did not want to give them land to cultivate. So those of the ´other religion´ started fencing of land for their milpas (maize fields) and cattle. This is not our custom, we used to have all land in common use. So the catholics went over to them and took away the fences. Maybe they spoke badly, I don´t know since I wasn´t there because I work in San Cristobal for la Fundacion. But at some moment, the señores of the other religion lost their temper and started shooting in the air and then at the people. My uncle died after eight days, because of his wounds and also another man died.
Other divisions are with the catechists and the Zapatistas. Some catechists started not only talking about the Word of God, but they became rebellious and started talking politics as well. They build a new church and some of them became friends with the Zapatistas.

In our community we have electric light for a long time now. Sometimes the bills are high especially for some houses that only have a few light bulbs, 30 up till 120 pesos every two months (less then 10 euros) But we never had a choice but to pay them for fear that they would cut off the electricity. We never went to complain, as many of us have difficulty expressing in Spanish and they are afraid that they will not understand the answers of the Electricity Comission. But when the Zapatistas arrived, they told us: ¨Stop paying for the electricity. In Chiapas a lot of damns are build to produce hydro-electricity, but it is sold to Guatemala. Why do we pay for something that is ours?¨
So we stopped paying for eight years. Then the Commission came by with someone from the government. They said: ¨Here we have a list of all your debts, if you guys pay half of it, the government will pay the other half and we will keep providing electricity.¨
In my neighbourhood, we sat together and decided that it was fair. We collected the money and they gave us a provision cable for our neighbourhood apart.
The other people are still not paying as the Zapatistas advised. Some time ago the electricity was cut off in a colony and they urged everyone to go there. Buses with Zapatistas arrived and they restored the electricity. Another time all the community was left without electricity and they came to our houses to grind their nixtamal (the maiz mass of which tortillas are prepared). Some of the people say they want to pay, but they are surrounded by Zapatistas. ¨If the light is cut off, we are going to suffer, so why pay if no-one is paying?¨
I do not agree. It is wrong if we pay too much, but we should then stand up and complain. We have complained with the Commission successfully. They came to check which lights or other machines we use and given us reductions. Or they told us to change the light bulbs so that we can save. But many do not know how to express themselves. Besides many think the electricity comes from the government, but that is not true, it is in the hands of a foreign company.
It is true that the electricity is produced in Chiapas, but not just for that it is ours. It is a service which has a cost and we have to pay for it. Moreover, many people do not realize that nowadays they are using quite a lot of energy, because they have televisions and machines to grind the nixtamal, and refrigerators. I have been thinking and calculating, and if you have no light, you have to buy candles. That costs you 3 pesos per night and then you only have a bad quality light, not the other machines. But the people do not think like this.¨

Don Alfredo, the maintenance man of Fundacion Leon XIII