This Bridge Called Zapatismo: Building Alternative Political Cultures in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Beyond

by Kara Zugman Dellacioppa

Overview

This book traces the growth of a new kind of transnational social movement inspired by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Mexico that has spread to urban Mexico and abroad. Based on ethnographic data in Mexico City and Los Angeles, this work traces the development of an urban, transnational, and transcultural network of community-based organizations that attempt to implement a Zapatista political vision. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the complex and problematic linkages between these diverse communities and political discourses originating from indigenous communities in Mexico. This study centers on the influence of indigenous cultural politics on urban political culture in Mexico City and Los Angeles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739128497
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	08/13/2009
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kara Zugman Dellacioppa is associate professor in the sociology department at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter Two: The Topography of Urban Zapatismo
Chapter 3 Chapter Three: The FZLN and Urban Zapatismo
Chapter 4 Chapter Four: The Appropriation of Indigenous Thought in Zapatismo
Chapter 5 Chapter Five: "This Bridge Called Zapatismo": Transcultural and Transnational Activist Networks in Los Angeles and Beyond
Chapter 6 Chapter Six: Transnational Zapatismo from Los Angeles, Florida, New York City, and the U.S. Social Forum
Chapter 7 Chapter Seven: Zapatismo in a Transnational Context: New Political Identities

Editorial Reviews

This book makes an important contribution to a growing newer literature on transnational social movements that counteracts the colonialist assumption of a unidirectional flow of ideas and strategies from North to South. Dellacioppa shifts the focus away from the bureaucratic world of NG's to grassroots organizations and the ways in which they appropriate and adapt Zapatista principles in their local contexts…. This Bridge Called Zapatismo highlights the subjective perceptions and experiences of grassroots organizations, and in its own way raises important questions about perspective and about the power dynamics in the construction of knowledge.

Latin American Perspectives

Activists and social movement scholars will find useful insights in this analysis of how Zapatista horizontal political practices spread from the global South to the North through “transcultural activist networks,” influencing other movements from Mexico City to Florida to New York City to Los Angeles. This Bridge Called Zapatismo illuminates the changing political culture of contentious politics in the era of globalization.

Richard Stahler-Sholk

Activists and social movement scholars will find useful insights in this analysis of how Zapatista horizontal political practices spread from the global South to the North through "transcultural activist networks," influencing other movements from Mexico City to Florida to New York City to Los Angeles. This Bridge Called Zapatismo illuminates the changing political culture of contentious politics in the era of globalization.--Richard Stahler-Sholk, Eastern Michigan University

This book makes an important contribution to a growing newer literature on transnational social movements that counteracts the colonialist assumption of a unidirectional flow of ideas and strategies from North to South. Dellacioppa shifts the focus away from the bureaucratic world of NGOs to grassroots organizations and the ways in which they appropriate and adapt Zapatista principles in their local contexts.... This Bridge Called Zapatismo highlights the subjective perceptions and experiences of grassroots organizations, and in its own way raises important questions about perspective and about the power dynamics in the construction of knowledge.--Latin American Perspectives

From the Publisher