Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit *+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+* LOVE AND RAGE VOL. 5, NO. 1 MARCH/APRIL 1994 Electronic Edition * Produced March 10, 1994 SPECIAL ISSUE ON FEMINISM AND REVOLUTION *+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+* INDIGENOUS MOVMENTS AND MAGONISMO By Juan Carlos Beas and Manuel Ballesteros [The article that follows is excerpted from a paper presented at the seminar "Ricardo Flores Mago'n," organized by Casa de Cultura Oaxaquen~a and CIDSTAO (Centro de Investigaciones y Documentacio'n Sobre Temas y Asuntos Oaxaquen~os) on June 25-27, 1986. It was subsequently published in February 1987 by Ediciones Antorcha as part of its Pamphlet Series. We have decided to reprint part of this pamphlet because it tackles a subject rarely addressed: the relationship between the Mexican anarchist movement and Indigenous communities. This theme is now very real and timely, in view of the rebirth of Zapatismo and the subsequent debate about revolutionary tactics and strategies.] The Indigenous nations that have existed in Mexican territory since ancient times have been direct actors in the great social convulsions that have shaken the country. >From the moment in which the first Iberian conquistador brought the cross, blood and gunpowder to these lands, the majority of the Indian people have fought a necessary, tenacious and violent resistance whose aim was and is the preservation and recovery of land, forest, customs and their own lives. This struggle has been on-going, and has not only confronted the Spanish, French and North American invaders, but also the conservative and liberal governments of independent Me'xico and the group that inherited power as a result of the defeat of the so-called "Mexican Revolution." Porfirio Di'az [dictator of Me'xico from 1876- 1910], the bloodthirsty Oaxacan "pacifist," like the serene Santa Ana [dictator from 1824-1855], handed over our resources and lands to the foreign invader, and during his rule developed a process of capitalist modernization based on dispossession and violence against the already diminished Indigenous nations. As a response to these actions the Native people organized revolts both during the dictatorship of Porfirio Di'az and during the period of armed struggle. These revolts were aimed at regaining their plundered lands and stopping the process of domination. They fought for their way of life. Communalism, like Indian customs, puts forward a concept of social property, directly democratic forms of representation, and a utilization of labor and resources where the notion of the commodity is excluded. In that way, the Indians' way of life presented an obstacle to the project of a national state and capitalist modernization, the project that drove Porfirio Di'az and his successors. Magonismo, through many of its actions, proclamations, articles, programs, rebellions and assemblies, showed itself to be a movement connected to the Indigenous nations' traditional resistance struggle. In a predominantly rural country, like Me'xico was at the beginning of the 20th century, an important part of the Magonista's actions were directed at the Indigenous sector. So, the connection between Indigenous resistance and Magonismo is part of a socialist tradition, and appears to have been determined by the communalism of the Indian people. Magonismo is fundamentally supported by three currents: Mexican liberalism, European anarchism and Indigenous communalism. Magonismo is an expression of what we call socialism. It has as its principal demands a call for re-communalization, restitution of communal lands to the people and respect for the difference between the Indian people and an increasingly mestizo and western society. In this essay we seek to show the profound connection that existed between ethnic resistance and the Magonistas at the beginning of the century. It is the history of a struggle which has not ended, as the "vanquished" continue fighting in the mountains, jungles, highlands and barrios. The Magonista ideas have not died, but, on the contrary, have germinated, and are part of the memory of the living history of a people that refuse to die, regardless of the wishes and forces of the technocratic rulers. Magonismo: The Radical Current of the Mexican Revolution Magonismo was a political movement independent of the state, which took its name from the revolutionary Oaxacan Flores Mago'n brothers. This movement arose spontaneously in 1892, and later closely aligned itself with other revolutionary movements. This association diluted their ideological purity, though they left a recognizable imprint on the other movements. Many Magonistas died in jail or in violent confrontations with federal troops, while others came to govern their states or became deputies; many others died poor. The Magonista movement, like other popular currents, was defeated. Once it took governmental power, the revolution died. The group that capitalized on this great social movement saw itself as obliged to adopt some programmatic axioms from Magonismo in order to give revolutionary character to the still-born political Constitution of 1917. Without a doubt, Magonismo constituted the principal opposition to Porfirian tyranny, but ultimately did not succeed in making its more advanced social project triumphant. The Constitution Has Died The grand edifice of fraternity, democracy and national greatness rises above tyranny's insults, rises above the clergy's manipulations, rises above capitalism and militarism --February, 1907. Liberal Manifesto. The revolutionaries of the Mexican Liberal Party recognized that they had been greatly influenced by the anti-imperialist, anti-clerical and reformist spirit of the liberals of the Reform. This can best be seen in their constant criticism of the role played by the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the illogical character of the religious discourse. >From 1892 until 1903, Magonismo openly defended the implementation of the February 5, 1857 Constitution; the Liberals continually denounced the systematic violations of the Constitution by judges, bureaucrats and pen-pushers. Although the majority of the Liberal clubs only expressed anti-clerical sentiments, Ricardo Flores Mago'n, at risk to his life, also denounced Porfirista tyranny during the First Liberal Congress. The valiant position of this 26-year-old Oaxacan left an anti-Porfirista stamp on the liberal debate. During their first years, the Liberals spent a lot of energy publishing newspapers. These papers played an important role as instruments of agitation, condemnation and propagation of ideas. These Liberal papers were the scourge of government officials, whom they harshly criticized and satirized. The anti-imperialist tradition that sprang from the Liberal movement during the period of the Wars of Intervention fed the imaginations of the Liberals of the early 1900s. Through various means, these modern Liberals criticized the links between the dictator and foreign exploiters. Anarchy Travels to Me'xico The ideas regarding social change advocated by European socialists found fertile ground in Me'xico during the 1800s and they directly influenced some of the popular social movements of that time. European socialism left its egalitarian imprint on the School of Socialism, in the devastated region of Chalco, and on the artisans' mutualist unions. While anarchists and Marxists were fighting for control of the First International in Europe, Zalcosta, Santa Fe, Jose' Mari'a Gonza'lez and Juan de la Mata Rivera were spreading the egalitarian ideal of European socialism throughout Me'xico by means of Liberal newspapers, public forums and traveling throughout the countryside. Of the different tendencies of European socialist thought, anarchism exercised the most influence on the members of the organizing committee of the Mexican Liberal Party. Anti-statism, atheism, egalitarianism and a rejection of the electoral system attracted an important part of the Mexican Liberal Party. Repression, persecution, jailing and exile had laid the groundwork for these ideas; this sector of the Mexican Liberal Party saw radical revolution as the only solution to the despotism of the Porfirista dictatorship. [...] The organizing committee of the Mexican Liberal Party, as a whole, didn't take an openly anarchist stance until after 1906. However, starting in 1904, the party aided in the creation of armed groups in more than 12 states of the Mexican Republic. The dominant anarchist tendency in the organizing committee was clearly expressed in a letter sent by Ricardo Flores Mago'n to his brother Enrique and to Pra'xedis G. Guerrero on July 13, 1908. On the one hand, the anti-statist tendency was a determining factor in allying with anarchists from other countries, and, in particular, with the IWW in the United States. However, it was also a factor in the defection of a number of Liberals to the Maderista camp. [Francisco Indalecio Madero is credited with leading the overthrow of Di'az; he then became President, but failed to implement significant reforms.] Juan Sarabia, final editor of the 1906 Program of the Mexican Liberal Party, downplayed the anarchist and communalist tendencies expressed in the program and gave the document a reformist tone. However, that same year, the Mexican Liberal Party made an open invitation to the people to take up arms against the dictatorship. In the Manifestos of 1911, the anarchist core of the Mexican Liberal Party directed their attacks against the unholy trinity: capital, authority and the clergy. They openly advocated the formation of armed militias. The last Magonista manifesto was published in March, 1918. It called for anarchists around the world to revolt, since the world found itself on the brink of the abyss as a result of the First World War. As with many of the writings of the Mexican Liberal Party, this manifesto ended with the cry, "Land and Freedom!"--a cry that had first been raised years before by Pra'dexis G. Guerrero, who had taken it from the Russian populists. This manifesto would ultimately result in the jailing and death of Ricardo Flores Mago'n. The Communalist Tradition and Magonismo The centuries-long struggle of the Indigenous groups in Me'xico, their tenacious resistance and their communitarian tradition were, without a doubt, strongly present in the thought and actions of the Magonistas. At the beginning of this century, the Indigenous population was the most exploited sector of Mexican workers. They were peons on large haciendas and many of them worked in mines or constructing the railways. According to Mago'n, revolution should guarantee people the right to survive, and he believed that only a social revolution would be able to give all people control of the land. He believed that common good and freedom could only be achieved by eliminating every kind of master. "The most urgent social necessity in Me'xico is to give the people dignity..." In his 1911 writings, Ricardo pointed out that when the Indigenous people of Me'xico take control of the hacienda lands with rifles in hand and work those lands in common, they create an important social and economic transformation. In contrast to the doctrinaire socialists, Ricardo made the point that the "bandits," who caused so much grief for the bourgeoisie, didn't necessarily have to have read Kropotkin or Marx to help bring about social revolution. In Regeneracio'n, Ricardo wrote: "We have sent word to our brothers of the various Indian tribes calling for them to take possession of the land. Our forces will fully support their just actions..." The Mexican people are ripe for communism because they live it and have lived it; the communalist tradition, the mechanisms of community representation, the working of common land and the fierce tradition of resistance made their mark on the Magonistas' actions and debates. The cry of "Land and Freedom!" that shook different regions of Me'xico scared the caciques, landlords and political leaders who had, under the protection of Don Porfirio, fenced-in entire villages, looted their resources, and fattened their own bank accounts with the blood, sweat and tears of Indigenous workers. The connections between Magonismo and Indigenous struggles created, in large part, the conditions necessary for the re-taking of land by Indigenous peasants through armed conflict. Magonistas and Indigenous People: Together in Armed Revolt The delegates of the organizing committee of the Mexican Liberal Party traveled throughout the country making pacts and distributing information. Meanwhile, a group that remained in the United States established contact with the Liberals by mail. These Liberals maintained the spirit of resistance in many parts of the country. The organizing committee established strong links with the Indigenous movements many months before the uprisings of 1906. In Anenecuilco, Morelos, a community meeting agreed that the time had arrived for rebellion, and thus started the Zapatista movement. The Magonistas, in solidarity with the struggle, connected themselves with the Zapatistas, and many Magonistas joined the southern forces. They fought with the peasants who came down from the mountains in search of justice. The Indigenous people of Me'xico contributed decisively to the radicalization of the revolution. The Magonistas constantly strengthened their alliance with the Indigenous movements--movements that viewed revolt as the only means of defending their rights. In this way, they prepared the country to take advantage of the coming storm: social revolution. Magonista influence in the Northern Isthmus In the northeastern portion of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec lie the cantons of Acayucan, Minatitla'n and Tuxtlas in the state of Veracruz. This region had long been inhabited by communities of the Zoque, Populuca, Nahua and Chontal peoples, and is characterized by fertile lands and forests rich in tropical woods. It was here that the Magonista movement and the traditional Indigenous struggle mixed and created one of the most radical and profound anti-Porfirista revolts. It was Porfirismo that realized the old dream of linking the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Me'xico by railway. The railway construction project was given to the English firm Pearson and Son Ltd., with whom Porfirio Di'az had an excellent personal relationship. The development of the ports of Salina Cruz and Me'xico (Coatzacoalcos) as well as the construction of the railroad in Tehuantepec, violently aggravated the plundering of the region's land and woods. The forest lands next to rivers, roads, and the sea were stripped of their tropical woods. Within a few years there was wide-scale hunting in the areas where they had stripped the caoba and cedro woods. The forests provided the ties for the railroads. None of this benefited the original inhabitants of the region. In this way the Indigenous people suffered not only the plundering of their resources, but were forced into slave labor. They also suffered from the imposition of repressive, authoritarian measures. Those who protested were exiled to the jungles of Quintana Roo near the Valle Nacional, or were assassinated by the rurales (police force similar to the Spanish Civil Guard). When the delegate of the Mexican Liberal Party arrived in Veracruz in 1904, the Indigenous communities were undertaking legal action aimed at recovering land and resources that had been plundered. The memory of the protest movement at the beginning of this century is still alive in the oral tradition of the Zoque-Populuca peoples. During 1905 and 1906, the Magonistas devoted themselves to propaganda and making connections with the Indigenous communities. Faced with the growing expansion of the properties of Pearson and the Veracruz Land and Cattle Co.-- which together had taken possession of more than 175,000 hectares of communal land--the Indigenous people, tired of legal maneuvers, enthusiastically took up the Liberal cause. On Sept. 28, they occupied Soteapan, Mecayapan and Pajapan. Two days later 1,000 Indians entered into violent combat in Acayucan; they were defeated and retreated back to the mountains. On Oct. 4 there was still fighting going on in the vicinity of Soteapan. There, the federales were defeated, despite reinforcements from Juchita'n. Throughout the region there were revolts that lasted several days before they were put down. The uprising of September-October 1906 didn't last. More than 400 insurgents were exiled to San Juan de Ulu'a and their villages were razed. Other insurgents went into hiding or were isolated in small groups. The communities continued their legal maneuvers, and in Ixhuatla'n the struggle against the cacique Nicasio L. Rosaldo continued under the direction of Daniel P. Gavilla. With the defeat of the revolution came the defeat of the struggles of the Indigenous people south of Veracruz. The inhabitants of the area would have to wait until the '40s and the '50s to retrieve some of their communal land, and the majority of those who had participated in the struggles in the South died poor. Among those was Candido Donato Padua, one of the founders of the Federacio'n Anarquista de Me'xico [Mexican Anarchist Federation] in the '40s, who was still expounding radical struggle when he died. Recently, in 1985, 20,000 Nahuas from Pajapan managed to halt the plundering of their lands by PEMEX [the state-run oil monopoly in Me'xico] despite jailings and confrontations. The Magonista actions haven't been forgotten by the Indians south of Veracruz; their struggle has not ended. Indigenous Oaxaca Rebels In the State of Oaxaca the impact of modernization worsened with the construction of the Nacional de Tehuantepec and Mexicano del Sur railroads. Numerous Indigenous communities faced dispossession by foreign surveying companies during the reign of Porfirio Di'az; at that time, the mines were regaining economic strength. Oaxaca was in fourth place in foreign investment nationally. Starting in 1910, the Indigenous people in various regions of the state rose up to retake land and throw out the political bosses. For their part, the Zapatistas operated at length in Oaxaca, above all in the Mixtec region; some Magonistas became followers of Zapata, taking up the cry "Long live land and liberty!" The Yaquis Take up the Red Flag In July, 1901, after the execution of chief Tetabiate, the Yaquis, caught in a war of extermination, listened to the word of the Temastian Tascaichola, and it was his sad and outraged voice that motivated them to continue fighting the holy war for the land. It fell to Opodepe and Sibalaume to lead the Yaquis' guerrilla struggle. In 1908 the Mexican Liberal Party delegate in the states of Baja California and Sonora was the Indian Fernando Palomares, who created an easy alliance with chief Sibalaume. That same year the Mexican Liberal Party also made alliances with the insurgent Tarahumaras led by Santa Pe'rez. On August 31, 1911, five hundred Yaquis took the federal barracks by storm in Pitahaya, Sonora. Inscribed in the red flag which they planted there were the two words "Land" and "Liberty." Ricardo Flores Mago'n reported on the sucessful use of copies of Regeneracio'n by the Yaquis, who used them as simple fuses with dynamite or nitroglycerin at the end. The devastation that they caused among the federales was grave. The Yaqui war officially ended in 1929. More than fifty continuous years of war almost succeeded in actualizing the Porfirista soldiers' old dream--to exterminate the "beast." The Magonistas Terrify the Ruling Class At the beginning of the 20th century in the North of Yucata'n, the Henequen people lived under slavery. In the South of the peninsula the unsubmissive Maya kept old Xbatab, the heart of the kingdom of the Speaking Cross, as their capital. The Liberal groups distributed the 1906 Program in the north of Yucata'n and prepared themselves for armed revolt. They did a grand agitation campaign, which included exploding bombs in Tepich, Acanceh and other Mayan towns. In 1910 the Valladolid people rose in arms. This movement was defeated and dozens of Magonistas were jailed; of these, three were executed. For the Party of the Southeast, the primary goal was the redistribution of communal lands, or ejidos, to the Indigenous people. The appropriation of land for Indigenous communities was the principal contribution of the old Liberals to the revolution. The Peasants Say "Enough!" and Show it with Their Deeds "!Nemi Zapata! !Nemi Zapata! Nian ca namotata; ayemo miqui. !Nemi Zapata!" (Zapata still lives! Long live Zapata! Here is your father, he hasn't died. Long live Zapata!) As of June, 1910, there were revolutionary uprisings in a growing movement that, in 1911, culminated in the fall of Porfirio Di'az. The state of war that reigned on Mexican land impeded communication among the Magonistas. Many stayed isolated and integrated into the peasant armies. After taking Guadelupe, Chihuahua, which created the Libertarian army led by Prisciliano Silva in 1911, the Magonista's main enemy was Maderismo. This fact deeply divided the Mexican Liberal Party. The Magonistas suceeded in controlling an extensive area of Northern Baja California for five months, and they maintained armed groups in the northern states for more than two years. In 1913, the Magonista Antonio de P. Araujo began negotiations with Zapata, who proposed that Regeneracio'n be published in Morelos, the liberated zone. The Magonistas Barrio, Rangel, Di'az Soto y Gama, among many others, actively participated in the Zapatista armies, which were mainly composed of Indigenous Nahuas, Mixtecs, Amuzgos, Otomi's, etc. The presence of the Magonistas left its stamp on Zapatismo. Ricardo Flores Mago'n, through articles published in Regeneracio'n in 1914 and 1915, defended Zapatismo, which he saw as the materialization of the revolutionary ideal, unlike Villismo. The complications in communication between the Magonista core that resided in the north and the revolutionaries in Me'xico were sharpened by the constant persecution and jailing of many of the leaders of the movement. The organizing committee of the Mexican Liberal Party disseminated condemnations of the Madero, Huerta and Carranza governments through their publications. On account of this, these governments asked the US government to persecute the party. In the context of the First World War and the general increase in social change struggles by peoples throughout the world, the core of the Mexican Liberal Party in the United States sent out a call for world revolution and openly expressed support for the rebels that rose in arms against their government in Texas, Oklahoma and other states in the US. For Ricardo Flores Mago'n, the triumph of the Mexican revolution was necessarily tied to worldwide revolt, including North American revolution. He realized that the big capitalists of the United States and their army would never permit their neighbor to the south to consolidate a revolutionary process. Ricardo Flores Mago'n was assassinated in a North American jail. The surviving Magonistas persisted in their struggle until death, in accordance with the proclamation of 1914: "Now we must work with the same spirit as before until death or victory. Long live land and liberty!" Some Final Considerations: History, written by the victors, is presented to us deformed, so much so that an Indigenous presence does not exist in historical accounts of this century. Since Tlacaelel, we know that the destruction and manipulation of popular memory is indispensable to maintaining power. The ruling class utilizes different means to achieve this objective. The powerful know well that a people without memory is weak and manipulable, which is why they have made Magonismo into street names and pretexts for their demagogic discourses. We know well that Magonismo has not died, that Magonista thought has continued permeating sectors of the Mexican people in struggle. When the young gangs from the barrios and the marginalized neighborhoods of Me'xico City declared "the government does not want us because we are Magonistas"; when the drivers of Chiapas and Oaxaca fought up front against the charro unionism that tried to get rid of their Flores Mago'n National Union; when in a city besieged by thousands of soldiers, above the principal door of the university read the message: "The tyrants appear big because we are kneeling; let us rise," when all this happened, we knew that Magonismo had not died and will not die, because important sectors of the Mexican population have decided to continue fighting. In an unjust Me'xico, where more than a million deaths served the rise of the so-called "revolutionary family," and since the seat of power, in alliance with foreign sectors, gives free reign to an intense process of capitalist development that is nothing but the destruction of the Mexican country, we know that Magonismo will be present in order to end these crazy times. * ________________________________________________ Love and Rage is a Revolutionary Anarchist Newspaper published bimonthly by the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation. Email subscriptions cost $10 per year (6 issues) Paper subscriptions are $13 first class or outside of the US and PR/ $9 Third class (in US and PR) Amor y Rabia is the Spanish-language version and is available for similar rates. Love and Rage POB 853 Stuy. Sta, NY, NY 10009 USA e-mail: lnr@blythe.org voice/fax (212) 460 8390 -- +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us + + e-mail: nyt@blythe.org info: info@blythe.org + Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit *+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+* LOVE AND RAGE VOL. 5, NO. 1 MARCH/APRIL 1994 Electronic Edition * Produced March 10, 1994 SPECIAL ISSUE ON FEMINISM AND REVOLUTION *+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+**+* MARGARITA ORTEGA: FIGHTER IN THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION By Ricardo Flores Mago'n [Translated from Regeneracio'n, No. 192, June 13, 1914] It should not be strange... that it took so long to verify the death of the great anarchist who in life was known as Margarita Ortega. This extraordinary woman was a member of the Partido Liberal Mexicano (Mexican Liberal Party) whose communist-anarchist ideals were propagated by means of word and action. In 1911, Margarita was the knot of the union between the fighting factions of the Partido Liberal Mexicano in Baja California. An excellent horsewoman and an expert in the use of firearms, Margarita crossed enemy lines and carried weapons, military equipment, dynamite, whatever was needed to the compan~eras/os in the field of battle. More than one time her daring and cold blood saved her from falling into the hands of the forces of tyranny. Margarita Ortega had a big heart: on her horse, or from behind a boulder, she could keep the Government soldiers at bay, and a little later she could be seen caring for the wounded, feeding the convalescing or offering words of comfort to the widows and the orphans. Apostle, fighter, nurse, this exceptional woman was all of these at the same time. She couldn't watch tranquilly as someone suffered in her presence, and many claimed that she would take a piece of bread out of her mouth in order to give it to someone who was hungry. A woman of exquisite sentiments, she dearly loved her family; but her family was made up of people who were not politically conscious, bourgeois and proletarians aspiring to be bourgeois. These people could never understand how a woman endowed with such extraordinary talent, such boundless energy, and possessing such a substantial fortune, could work for a common cause with the poor. For this reason they hated her, they hated her as vulgar hearts hate noble and pure spirits that make obstacles to their greedy ambitions. Margarita had sufficient wealth that she could have led a life of idle comfort; but she couldn't enjoy life while she well knew that thousands of human beings were fighting hard for their very subsistence. With the energy that can only be found in the converted, Margarita said to her unenlightened compan~ero in 1911: "I love you; but I also love all those who suffer, and for them I fight and risk my life. I don't want to see more men and women giving their effort, their health, their intelligence, their future to make the bourgeoisie rich. I don't want there to be men who order around other men any more. I am determined to continue to fight for the cause of the Partido Liberal Mexicano, and if you are a man, come with me to the country; otherwise, you can forget me, because I am not going to be the compan~era of a coward." The people who witnessed this scene affirm that the coward did not wish to go with her. Then, directing herself to her daughter, she spoke in these terms: "And you, my daughter, are you resolved to come with me or to stay with the family?" To this, the other heroine responded: "Me, separate myself from you, Mami? That, never! Let us saddle the horses and throw ourselves into the struggle for the redemption of the working class!" Once the Powers That Be learned of these events, Margarita and Rosaura were expelled from Mexicali by order of Rodolfo Gallegos. To make matters worse for the two martyrs, Gallegos ordered that the two should be marched through the desert, along the immense dunes, beneath the blazing sun, with no water, with no food, and on foot. They were given the warning to never return to the town. Within days the poor victims of the capitalist system were strewn out on the sand. Their thirst devoured them; they fainted from hunger. Not a single traveller lent them a hand. There was no stream to calm their thirst. Rosaura was visibly having a worse time with the situation than Margarita. In the end, in spite of her enormous energy, Rosaura fainted and fell to the earth with closed eyes. Margarita thought that the daughter of her heart had died, and, crazy with pain, tried to kill herself; but as she pointed her gun at her head, she realized that her daughter was looking at her. Full of emotion, she ran to find water for the patient. Luckily, this time, she found some. They came to Yuma, in the United States, and there Margarita was arrested by the immigration inspectors. A woman such as Margarita, honor of humanity, splendid example of the human race, could not reside in this country of vulgarity and stupidity. In order to reside in the United States, one must believe in Authority and Law. Libertarian Margarita, due to the idiotic laws of the United States, could not be admitted, and she had to be deported to Me'xico. Thanks to the services of excellent comrades, Margarita managed to escape from the cells of the immigration inspectors, and, with Rosaura, fled to Phoenix, Arizona, where she took the name of Mari'a Valdez in order to avoid capture. Rosaura took the name of Josefina. Rosaura remained ill as a result of her suffering in the desert, and her only desire was to return to Me'xico, but with arms in hand to die fighting for Land and Liberty. She did not want to die on her bed, rather on the battle field, trading life for life. When the sickness worsened considerably, she said to Margarita: "Mama': I do not want to die here; take me to the street where the Mexican workers meet. I want to die among them, my brothers and sisters, speaking to them of their rights as the producers of social wealth." Shortly after that, the sweet child died, never regretting the commodities and the bourgeois life that she had left behind for a life of agitation, full of dangers, miseries and real revolutionaries. Margarita was left alone. Her daughter and compan~era in struggle would no longer share in the penalties, the bitternesses, the miseries that are the prize of sincere struggle; but she did not, for this reason, stop working with the same dedication as a sower of ideals. With Natividad Corte's as a compan~ero, she began the work of organizing the revolutionary movement in the northern state of Sonora, using as a base of operations the small town of Sonoyta, in the same state. This happened in October of last year [1913]. Both compan~eros worked arduously, making agreements with other compan~eros working in the Mexican territory. It was at this time that Rodolfo Gallegos, now charged with patrolling the border, happened upon them by chance. Natividad Corte's was shot and Margarita was taken prisoner to Baja California, where Gallegos ordered that she be left out for the gringos to find, leaving to them the task of killing her. Margarita was arrested by the gringos on the 20th of November of last year [1913], near Mexicali, and she was placed in a cell with a guard to watch her. The felons who pass as authorities came up with the ingenious idea of martyring her. She had no fear in confessing that she was a member of the Partido Liberal Mexicano, and that, by the same token, she struggled against the three-headed Hydra of Authority, Capital, Clergy; but she did not reveal the name of a single compan~era/o who had agreed with her to launch the cry of "Land and Liberty" from the North of the state of Sonora. She was tortured, just as in the black ages of the Inquisition. Her cowardly inquisitors wanted her to reveal the compan~eras/os that had committed to the rebellion; but all of their efforts were wasted on this admirable woman. "Cowards!," she shouted, "Tear my skin to pieces, break my bones, drink all of my blood, and I will never denounce one of my friends." The tyrants ordered her to stand up day and night, in the middle of the cage, without allowing her to sit or lean against the wall. Exhausted, sometimes she wavered, and she had to lean against the guard: a shove and a kick into the middle of the cage was the support she got. Other times she fell to the ground, fainting and worn out by so much suffering: they beat her until she got back up. Four days and nights she endured this suffering, until the authorities in Mexicali took her out of the cage on Nov. 24 to execute her. The backdrop of the execution was a desert night, so that no one might know of the event. Margarita smiled. The executioners trembled. The stars shone as if they were forced to descend and crown the head of the martyr. A shot left this noble woman without life, free; her existence and example to remind the dispossessed to redouble our efforts against exploitation and tyranny. [Regeneracio'n was the newspaper of the Partido Liberal Mexicano. For more information on the Mexican revolution of 1910, see page 20.] [Translators' note: we have used the Spanish word "compan~era/o" rather than translating it, because it has no real equivalent in English. "Compan~era/o" refers to companions and comrades, partners in life and in struggle. It does not have the communist connotations of "comrade" or of the euphemistic content of "companion." * ________________________________________________ Love and Rage is a Revolutionary Anarchist Newspaper published bimonthly by the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation. Email subscriptions cost $10 per year (6 issues) Paper subscriptions are $13 first class or outside of the US and PR/ $9 Third class (in US and PR) Amor y Rabia is the Spanish-language version and is available for similar rates. Love and Rage POB 853 Stuy. Sta, NY, NY 10009 USA e-mail: lnr@blythe.org voice/fax (212) 460 8390 -- +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us + + e-mail: nyt@blythe.org info: info@blythe.org +