Fugitive pedagogy: Guattari’s ecosophy in the mural discourse of the zapatistas

Abstract

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation has been struggling for greater rights and autonomy for the indigenous Mayan peoples of Chiapas, Mexico for the last three decades. The iconography, semiotic system, and progressive myth-making the Zapatistas produce in the hundreds of murals adorning their communities disseminate a powerful anti-state and anti-capitalist ideology that mutually reinforces the Zapatista culture on which the functioning of their communities, economy, and overall sociopolitical campaign depend. We argue that their positive, forward-oriented and environmentally sensitive art, and the broader political, social and pedagogical discourses it represents, is strongly congruent with Guattari’s intellectual focus and political orientation toward developing a transversal “ecosophy,” an ethico-aesthetic perspective that can enable greater freedom from the heavy chains of both the Mexican government and the global neoliberal capitalist system in which Mexico is embedded.