Please join us to view La Montaña, the new documentary on the Zapatista voyage to Europe, by Diego Enrique Osorno.

• Friday, January 26, 7-9pm, at the Eastside Arts Cultural Center (located at 2277 International Blvd. Oakland, CA 94606) and
• Sunday, January 28, 6-9 pm at the Tamarack (1501 Harrison Street,Oakland CA 94612). The gatherings will include guest speaker: Rocío Moreno, Indigenous people’s organizer and uppdates & dialogue/discussions and reflections on the film and the Zapatista movement.

Released in 2023, La Montaña provides an intimate view of the journey for life that the Zapatista 4-2-1 squadron initiated in 2021 on the dilapidated sailing ship, christened La Montaña (the mountain) by the EZLN. The film follows the Zapatistas as they cross the Atlantic from Mexico to Europe to meet with their grassroots counterparts.

From the filmmaker: “A film log of the maritime journey of a delegation of indigenous rebels from Chiapas to Europe in the midst of the pandemic. During the Atlantic crossing, the story and generational change of the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) is narrated, based on the idea that in order to change the world we must first change the way we look at it.” —Diego Enrique Osorno

BACKGROUND

La Montaña documentary film shows the story of the Zapatista Journey for Life, on a sailboat from Mexico to Europe, to commemorate in a new way the 500th anniversary of the European invasion of Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), when Spaniards laid siege to the Indigenous capital on August 13, 1521.

La Montaña begins in Zapatista territory and follows the 4-2-1 Squadron, the EZLN delegation, as they board a dilapidated and rusty sailboat, christened La montaña by the Zapatistas. The Zapatistas launch La montaña from a Gulf coast port in Mexico to start their sea voyage across the Atlantic. Weeks later, La montaña reaches a sea port in Vigo, Spain, greeted by community organizations and activists. When the 4-2-1 disembarks, led by Marijose, they declare and rename Europe “Slumil K’ajxemk’op,“ which means “Rebellious Land,” or “Land that does not resign, that does not faint.”

The 4-2-1 squadron, composed of four women, two men, and one transwoman, entered Madrid, Spain’s capital city, exactly 500 years later on August 13, 2021, not to lay siege but to walk together with those who struggle to learn from each other’s movements against the hydra-headed capitalist system. The EZLN delegates to Slumil K’ajxemk’op connect in new and different ways to band together in a worldwide journey for life, a new movement for peace, land, justice, self-determination and liberations.

Please join us January 26 and 28 to view La Montaña and join together in the ongoing Journey for Life, walking together to build and strengthen our communities with more dreams and organizing for justice and liberation.

The EZLN’s 4-2-1 squadron came to Spain first and were later joined later by air-borne Zapatista delegations, who traversed the rest of Europe, from west to east, to engage in both listening and dialogue sessions with their grassroots counterparts.

The travesía for la vida | the journey for life: The EZLN’s 4-2-1 Squadron on La montaña as they start their voyage across the Atlantic to Europe. Photo: Daliri Oropeza