First World, Ha, Ha, Ha!

The Zapatista Army emerged from the jungle on New Year's Day, 1994, and provoked a national crisis in Mexico. At a demonstration in Mexico City, over 100,000 people marched together and shouted, "First World, HA HA HA "--a defiant declaration of solidarity with the rebels, an insurgent army of indigenous campesinos who have challenged the direction of Mexico's future.

The Chiapas uprising was internationally hailed as a direct attack on the New World Order. It was a milestone in the continuing history of indigenous resistance in the Americas, and an important development in the growing worldwide struggle against global policies of economic colonization.

In this collection, writers from Mexico and the United States provide the background and context for the Zapatista movement, and explore its impact, in Mexico and beyond.

"Elaine Katzenberger has assembled an interesting and stimulating collection of voices from Mexico and the United States, of those in revolt and those reacting to the revolt . . . Listened to as moments of an ever wider and ever more multi-sided conversation, the voices in the book should contribute to that amplification by giving their listeners a sense of the complexity and breath of the discussion."--Harry Cleaver, Professor at University of Texas

Elaine Katzenberger is a publisher and Executive Director for City Lights Booksellers and Publishers. Her edited works include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Some works have won awards including the American Book Award and a PEN West Award for Excellence in Publishing. Katzenberger serves on the Board of Directors of the City Lights Foundation and is on the Advisory Board of Circuit Network.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872862941
• ISBN13: 9780872862944
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: City Lights Books
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Buy it for someone you love

For awhile now, I've been reading everything I can get my hands on regarding the situation in Chiapas, which, though most of us in our relative comfortability might not yet realize, WILL affect us all, just as it currently affects our brothers and sisters in the Mexican Southeast.People I've spoken to are typically interested in the Zapatistas, but not yet interested enough to wade through whole books of statistics and background. Finally, I've got the book for them: a perfect introduction to the struggle -- a 3-D, communal mural painted from many angles. And it's enjoyable as hell to read.

a review from a third world person

This book is a pretty good exemplary to explain someone who wants to have a first contact with the sad but true situation of poverty and injusticy that the world leaders (like money and personal interests in a "capitalist way of life")have created to inocent people who doesn't have the chance to study (or even to eat). This is the NAFTA, MERCOSUL, ONU plain to play with my people with eyes blindfold. But there're still people who believes in change although violency is nescessary. This book contains the root of the problem and how some revolts are still holding the torch of revolution. It opens our eyes to the blind submission that exists in the "Brand new world".

First World, HA! The Zapatista Challenge

This was definitely a wonderful book, with a five star rating. After I was first introduced to this subject, I was overwhelmed by the subject, and this was the first book that I had. I scraped up some 13 dollars or so, and rushed to the book store with nothing but the 13 dollars, and an inch of backround on Mexican history. After I had rushed home, within a day I was finished with the book. I had enough knowledge, that I performed a speach at my school, since then I have been active in protesting US military aid to Mexico. I have been writing letters to congress, calling the local mayors office, organizing protests, and group meetings to discuss.