Interview with Zack, from Chiapas, Mexico July 7, 1998. This young rock singer of 28 years of age, from Los Angeles, California,has accompanied the Zapatista communities throughout the last years.These are his words: "OUR MUSIC HAS BECOME A BRIDGE" It is important for me, as a popular artist, to make clear to thegovernments of the United States and Mexico that despite thestrategy of fear and intimidation to foreigners, despite theirweapons, despite their immigration laws and military reserves,THEY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO ISOLATE THE ZAPATISTACOMMUNITIES FROM THE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES. The rock band Rage Against the Machine has become an alternativemedium of communication for young people.We have created a great level of cooperation between groups andpeople to spread the ideas of the Zapatista movement in its relationshipto the poor, the young, the excluded and the dispossessed in the United States.Through concerts, videos, interviews, broadcasting of information atconcerts, and our song's lyrics we have placed within reach of young people,our audience, the experiences of the Zapatistas; we act as facilitators of theways in which they can participate and put them in contact with theorganization and the Zapatista support committees in the United States . And the interest and involvement of the young people of the United Statesin the struggle of the Chiapan indigenous people is greater each day becauseof these things; thus, we feel a part of this process and for this reason ourmusic has become a bridge. I don't have a special FM3 visa, I don't recognize the PRI as a legitimatepolitical power in Mexico because it bases its practices on extortion andit maintains its power through terror and not by the consensus of the people.Through my experience with the Zapatistas, I have found a series ofprinciples, a form of resistance, a way of being and organizing in whichI recognize myself. That is why I don't acknowledge Zedillo but doacknowledge the EZLN, it is they who have invited me. My interest in this struggle has to do with my personal experiences, withmy roots, my family. My father is a Chicano muralist, he belonged to thegroup Los Four, the only Mexican group that had an exhibition at the LosAngeles Art Museum. His attempts at trying to build bridges between theartists in Los Angeles, the workers, and Chicanos against Vietnam, led me,politically, towards the National Liberation movements. Also, my Sinaloangrandfather's experiences as a revolutionary fighter; he fought in Canalia[sp?] in 1910. My grandfather went to the United States as an economicmigrant, he worked as an agricultural laborer in Silicon Valley, California.His working days lasted from 15-16 hrs. daily, sweating and subjected topoverty... I see his experience reflected in the testimonies of theZapatistas,the indigenous peasant rebels who struggle every day to make a living. This is the fourth time I come to Chiapas. I have had a different experienceeach time. I was in San Andres during the second round of peace negotiations,it was in May 1995, just after the military offensive in February.This was when the San Andres's sessions were starting and with it, a hopefulpeace process. This process was a bit cynical because in the history of thenegotiations there has always been, in one way or another, a failure...And this ended up being the same thing because the government has notcomplied with the signed accords. At that time, the Zapatista delegates were protected by more than5000 indigenous people from all over Mexico who had come to the Tzotziltown bearing posters from the EZLN and sheets and colors; they formeda peace cordon around the site of the dialogue in order to defend theZapatistas and give them political support. I got alot from that experience,it was impressive for me to be able to live that emotion and then being ableto communicate to the people in the United States the resistance of thepeople and the testimonies of the peasants. In February 1996, I visited civil camps for peace, in La Garrucha.There, I experienced the terror and the intimidation to the integrity ofthe people by the soldiers; the isolation in which the communities hadto subsist; the military camps located between the houses and the fields,I understood then that one of the great missions of a low intensitywar is to wear out the people through hunger and to create lack of goods.That starvation practice against the people has the same effect as throwingbombs on the population, but is more comfortable for the rulers because itmaintains Mexico as a stable place and as a suitable place for financialinvestments and it doesn't place the Free Trade Agreement at risk. We were witness of that, we saw how the soldiers burned and razedthe fields, threw the children out of schools, and turned the latter intobarracks... and each time we became more familiar with the Zapatistas'form of organization, communal work and cooperation. And I realized thatthe intentions behind the militarization were to break down the community,to keep the people from organizing in an autonomous manner in order toovercome poverty and isolation. Later, at the beginning of 1996, I organized a group of young people:students, artists, activists from East Los Angeles, to go to Chiapas.It was just before the first San Andres Accords were to be signed.We saw how militarization had increased, we checked how themilitarization of more than 70,000 soldiers obligated the 70,000families to face death through hunger; we also saw the threat and dailyintimidation suffered by the communities. We became conscious of theimportance of civil society creating a defense line because one ofthe obstacles that we could create against the low intensity war was tobe in the communities, to be with the children while the men went to workin the fields; just to be there. All this baggage and expierience I had in Chiapas inspired me to write inthe United States the songs "The Windo Blow" and "Without a Face" from oursecond album "Evil Empire" Later I was at La Realidad for the Continental Encounter for Humanityand Against Neoliberalism. We realized the importance of dialogue betweencivil society and the Zapatistas, and we identified with them as a generation.We are a people without a party, we are for a different world where money isnot the only exchange value, we are against racist politics in the UnitedStates.Given the crisis and the Free Trade Agreement, the people of the United Statesalso feel like people "without a face," that is, with no alternatives, withoutpossibilities. Dialogue and the importance of the place given to us by the Zapatistas madeus feel as a part of the Zapatista struggle, because we are students, workers,artists, and many of us are Mexican. This last time I have come to Chiapas, I have been in San Antonio elBrillante and in Union Progreso, in the autonomous municipality ofSan Juan de la Libertad. There, we have heard different testimonies thattalk about the escalation of violence promoted by Ernesto Zedillo.I think that Zedillo no longer has control of the administration of thatcountry. His irrational violence is intended to give examples to the communitiesabout what can happen to them if they don't agree with the economic orsocial policies he practices. Tillbaka