Radical Philosophy Review

Volume 10, Issue 1, 2007

Listening to Zapatismo
A Reflection on Spiritual DeRacination

This reflection considers my dawning realization that Zapatista insurgency reflects not only opposition to racist devaluation of the cultures of indigenous peoples but more fundamentally a struggle to overcome spiritual deracination. I contest two basic assumptions of much contemporary social theory: that race and deracination are entirely socio-cultural phenomena and that the central role played by dialogical accord in Zapatista communities can be understood without a spiritual conception of human existence. I propose that only a spiritual understanding of these three pivotal issues—race, deracination, and dialogue (or accord)—aptly captures the core intuitions that inform Zapatista insurgency.