Comandanta Ramona
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Comandanta Ramona | |
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Born | 1959 near San Andrés de Larrainzer, Chiapas, Mexico |
Died | 6 January 2006 near San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico | (aged 46–47)
Occupation | Revolutionary |
Comandanta Ramona (1959 – 6 January 2006) was an officer of the
Biography
Ramona was born in 1959 in a Tzotzil Maya community in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.[4][5] Ramona used to sell handmade goods to make a poor living before she joined the EZLN.[6]
By the 1990s, Ramona was a women's rights activist, and helped to draw up a 'Revolutionary Law on Women' through consulting with women in indigenous communities. This called for access to power in decision making, free choice of a spouse, an end to domestic abuse and access to health care.[1][2]
Ramona took control of the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, the former capital of Chiapas, on 1 January 1994 during the Zapatista uprising. She was one of the seven women comandantas of the Zapatistas, and around one-third of the Zapatista army were women.[6] After the rebellion ended, she remained in the Lacandon Jungle with Subcomandante Marcos to apply political pressure on the Mexican government.[2]
In February 1994, Ramona was sent to the peace talks with the government in San Cristóbal's cathedral.[2]
In 1996, she traveled to Mexico City to help found the National Indigenous Congress, despite a government ban. Zapatista sympathisers surrounded her to prevent her arrest. She also addressed a crowd of 100,000 in the central plaza, highlighting the lack of a hospital in San Andrés de Larrainzer and that this meant indigenous people had to travel for 12 hours to get treatment.[7][2][6]
Health and death
By 1996, Ramona was seriously ill with kidney failure, and was granted immunity to travel to receive a
Legacy
Ramona was famous for being masked and wearing traditional Indigenous clothing. Vendors in her hometown created doll replicas of Ramona in her honor, wearing traditional costume, a mask and carrying a gun.[6][1]
Ramona appeared in the 1996 film The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas.[8]
Ramona had campaigned for access to medical treatment: a Zapatista health clinic in La Garrucha is now named the Comandanta Ramona after her.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Zwarenstein, Carlyn (11 January 2006). "Legacy of a Zapatista Rebel". The Globe and Mail. p. 19.
- ^ a b c d e f Davison, Phil (9 January 2006). "Comandante Ramona". The Independent. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ^ "Zapatista leader Ramona dies". Al Jazeera. 7 January 2006. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
- ISBN 978-1604862003.
- ISBN 978-9708103282.
- ^ a b c d e Wolfwood, Terry (August 1997). "Who Is Comandanta Ramona?" (PDF). Third World Resurgence. No. 84. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ^ Ross, John (17 March 1999). "The Zapatistas are Back". LA Weekly. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
- ^ Saul Landau (April 1997). The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas. Round Whirled Records. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
- S2CID 145341846. Retrieved 9 June 2023.