Cultural Photography by Bruce G. Stewart

(Images and stories will be changed from time to time.)

Rain Forest Federale

Indigenous rights are routinely violated in Mexico, as they have been historically in the United States of America.  One of the worst areas is in the southern State of Chiapas.  I took this photograph on December 31, 1993, at a checkpoint in the Lacandon Rainforest.  The next morning marked the beginning of the Zapatista Revolution when revolutionaries took a number of villages and towns.  The region has not been the same since.  I could write much about my own experiences in Chiapas, but I would rather share the following at this time.

Richard Stahler-Sholk (1998) described the December 22, 1997, massacre of 45 villagers (plus 25 wounded) in the Chiapan highland community of Acteal.  A paramilitary group (Red Mask), unhindered by public security forces, used automatic rifles and machetes (to hack up the wounded) in an ambush on pro-Zapatista civilians in the church where they were gathered.

Please consider this vivid testimony of a survivor as cited by Stahler-Sholk (1998)

I have an older sister who was pregnant, who was shot in Acteal.  When she died in the shooting I personally saw how they opened her belly to take out the baby.  They also killed my sister-in-law, also shot her, they carried her toward the stream....The ones who were killing are the PRIista[ruling party] groups who carried arms, and all of them--the paramilitaries--escaped.

I hope you will consider our role as a neighboring country and trade partner with Mexico in allowing these atrocities to continue.

Stahler-Sholk, Richard.  1998.   Massacre in Chiapas.  Latin American Perspectives, Issue 101, Vol. 25 No. 4, July 1998. pp. 63-75.

survival

This photograph was taken in central Mexico where survival is tough.  Anything that can be sold, including wildlife, will be sold to anyone willing to buy.